Drano Vs. Plumb-Away

So our bathroom sink has slowly stopped draining. It was so slow this morning...it was like trying to drain the sink through a coffee stirrer! We received a Home Depot gift card yesterday at the housewarming so we decided to pick some Drano there to take care of the leak (Don't tell Lowes). We found the Drano no problem but it was surrounded by about 10 other drain de-clogging products... hrm.

I had never thought about buying anything other then Drano so I was a little caught off guard to see so many products! We started looking around and reading labels to try something a little less chemically and safier on the eniroment. We found two "green" products. The first introducted little bacteria to eat the build up and prevent clogs but could not clear them...no good. The second was a niffty product called "PLUMB-AWAY." The box says it is good for 8 clogs and safe to use. It has neat buzz words like "water powered!" "enviroment friendly" "no acid, lye or CFCs" and of course, "Lemon scent!"

Because we are trying to safe the world, we bought the "PLUMB-AWAY" for $8...it didn't work. In fact, it clogged the sink the rest of the way...bummer. It worked for a little bit but then once half the water had drained...nothing. So I did it again. And again. And again. I used all 8 "one second" shots of bottled, lemon scented air and still nothing.

So...off to the store we went. I bought the big bottle of Drano for about $8.50 and poured about 1/3 of the bottle down the drain...waited 30min and bam! no more clog.

Yay for a clean, clear drain...bad for the world :(

I know I could have tried to snake the clog but I was afraid it would just puch the clog further into the system. Does anyone know a better way to clear a clogged sink that is better for the enviroment? I don't want to have to use chemicals next time.

Please let me know if you do!

P.s
I do think the Plumb-Away would have worked on a smaller clog...maybe if I had used it when I first noticed things were slowing down.