A bathroom is a must for every family. And I know you can’t think of a day without using your restroom. A toilet is mainly used to throw human waste into it. But sometimes, it clogs up. Excessive toilet paper, cat litter, or hair is the leading reason for blocking any washroom. And you know, calling a plumber just for this silly problem is not done. That’s why we use the plunger to clear the way. But you can find two types of plungers on the market: sinks and toilets. But if you don’t know which one is for your bathroom or unclogging your sink, here we try to clear up your confusion.
What is a plunger?
A plunger is mainly used for unclogging any toilet, sink, or drain. You may wonder how it works. Let me explain this: when you use excess toilet tissue or hair, it gets stuck in the commode valve. And after that, you are unable to use the toilet until you unclog it. You can do it by yourself or call a plumber for help. But it’s straightforward to open a blocked toilet. You need a plunger. This device mainly works with air suction—the top of the rubber cup acts as a vacuum seal over the drainage or sink valve. So when you seal the way and pressure it toward the valve, the vacuum place forces it. The water pressure going up and down the rubber cap removes the valve’s dirt. After that, you can quickly unclog your toilet or sink by yourself with the help of a plunger.
Why do you need a plunger?
I know you may wonder why you need a plunger. You can do it with the help of a plumber. But this small appliance helps you from:
- To save plumber’s cost: Yes. Clogging a toilet or sink is a prevalent case. If you call a plumber for this small work, you need to pay them. But if you do it yourself, it saves you some money.
- Save time: Sometimes, you need to wait for the plumber to come to your home and solve it. But if you have a plunger, you can immediately clean the toilet and use it. So it also saves you some time from waiting for a plumber.
Different Types of Plungers:
Plungers are very useful for your kitchen sink to the restroom. The drainage systems of the sink and toilet are different. So if you choose the wrong plunger for unclogging, you may accidentally ruin the drainage system. There are three main types of plunger available in the market. they are:
- Sink plunger/cup plunger,
- Toilet plunger/flange plunger and
- Accordion Plunger.
Of these three, the mainly used are sink and toilet plunger. But many people don’t know the variation of the plunger. And they ended up with the wrong one, which led to damage to their drainage system. So you need to know some essential points and facts about the sink and toilet plunger to differentiate between them.
What is a Sink plunger?
Sink plungers are very common in any market. And I know just like others, you also face clog sink almost every day. So a sink plunger is a lifesaver. It’s also known as a cup plunger. Because it has a straight handle and on top of that a simple rubber cup is attached. This cup is used to unclog your block sink. These are also handy with clogged bathtubs or shower drains.
How to use the sink plunger?
So can you use a sink plunger for the toilet? Plunging a drain or sink is not a very hard job. The process of unclogging the drainage system depends on hydraulic suction and compression forces. First, you need to fix the cup on the top of the drain and notice when you pull the handle, and it also draws water upward. Then loosen up a little and push down the cup to down the water. 
You can feel the clogged water directly on the other side. Do this up-down process a few times and seal the sink drain’s air with a rubber cup. After some time, when you feel pressure on the other side, you also force the cup with the handle. This up-down process quickly unclogs the blocked drain with air suction. When the drain gets free, you also feel free to do this process. And this is the basic process to unclog your block sink by yourself.
What is a toilet plunger?
A toilet plunger is designed differently only for unclogging the toilet. A bell-shaped cup is used on the top of a rigid handle. This also works just like other plungers. Suction was used to clear the clog in the toilet drainage. The cup size is mainly different from another regular plunger because the drain size of the toilet is also different from a standard bathroom or bathtub drain.
How to use the toilet plunger?
To unclog your toilet with a plunger, just pull the bell-shaped rubber cup to get a better seal. Air suction is the central part of every suction process. When you notice, seal the air into the drain, then push the plunger up and down, but keep enough water into the toilet bowl to cover up the plunger. First, plunge it gently to fill the bell with air. Then you can feel an air thirst that forces the air back to the seal and blows it.
When you force out the air, try to maintain the seal. Then again, forcing the water with the handle unclogs most of the drain. Try it again to clear it. If it doesn’t work, you need a plumber to clear the blocking way. Because air pressure didn’t work there, you will end up with a lousy washroom then. But if you don’t have a toilet plunger, you can follow these steps to solve the clogging problem without a plunger.
Toilet plunger Vs Sink plunger: What are the key differences?
We just read all about the sink and toilet plunger and how it works. But I know you are still in the dark to differentiate between these two plungers. So let’s see the difference between these two plungers then:
- Different in operation: You can quickly get the primary difference between these two plungers from the name. Yes, sink plungers are used to clean the clogged sink and unclog your bathtub drainage. On the other hand, toilet plungers are specially designed to clean the blocked toilet.
- Shape: A sink cup shape is a regular type rubber cup. But the toilet plunger cup is the main dissimilar thing from the traditional plunger—a bell-shaped cup with a rubber flap attached to the toilet handle.
- Rubber quality: Toilet plunger has a softer rubber than the standard sink plunger. Soft rubber makes it easy to unclog your toilet quickly, and you need the hard version for the sink because the clogging items are not the same as each other.
- Price comparison: Sink plungers are cheaper than toilet plungers. The rubber quality and shape are different from toilet one.
- Surface: A toilet plunger is perfect for both flat and nonfat surfaces. But you can only use the sink plunger on the flat surface.
Here is the fundamental difference between this sink and the toilet plunger. And I think now you can go to the market and get your same plunger like a pro.
Final Discussion
I think clogging the sink and toilet is a typical case for your daily household work. And I know you don’t want to use a toilet plunger to clean your sink, where you wash your food daily and other cooking utensils. So it would help if you bought both of them for different chores. And I explain the fundamental difference between these two types of plungers. And after that, you can easily find out which plunger for the sink and which one for your toilet.
Hi, this is Robert Crossan, the owner of this website, has 17 years of experience in the installation, maintenance, and repair of toilets and plumbing systems. After completing the Level 2 Basic Plumbing course in 2005, I started working in both domestic and commercial buildings as a professional plumber. So I can figure out the core difference between different toilet models and brands. It also helped me monitor their work performance and setbacks.
