I’ve heard that argued both ways. Some people claim it cleans the lines. But my instincts are to agree with you. If the coffee ground gets greasy that would seem to give it a chance to stick in the pipe or simply stick to existing grease. OTOH, grease in the pipes can be melted by pouring boiling water down.
Since coffee is great for compost, the bulk of my coffee goes to the plants or to the compost. But I’m still keen to clean with it. Not much is needed for cleaning. 2 pinches is enough for one arm pit, or two hands. Some coffee grounds stick to my filter after shaking the bulk of it into a plant so I end up rinsing those down the drain as well.
I had an extremely slow kitchen drain recently where a liter of water took a couple hours to drain. Every week I poured boiling water into the drain pipe that came out of the wall (bypassing the trap), waited ~30-60 min for the temp to drop a bit before giving a dose of enzyme-based cleaner so the enzymes had a warm start and could chow down on whatever was in there. After a month or so there was no noticeable progress. Snaked it. The snake made it all the way to the main pipe but strangely did not clear it. So I poured in ½ liter of sulfuric acid and let that sit for hours. Still not clear. Then I plunged the line with the acid in it using the kind of plunger that attached directly to the pipe. That cleared it. I have no idea what the clog was.
Now I run the dishwasher on the highest temp as a preventative measure. The lowest temp (50°C) is good enough for the dishes but I figure the highest temp (70°C) will help maintain my crappy kitchen drain pipes. It’s unclear to me if I’m wasting energy or being sensible. IIUC, the 70°C temp setting is for pans (which the dishwasher maker expects to be greasy). The clog that I cleared was from the previous tenant (a young student, probably careless and not knowledgeable about drains). The only grease or oil I put down the drain is residual after a bulk of it goes to the compost.
Coffee shrinks the brain (www.zmescience.com)
Gotta love my click-bait title. And if you are reading this, ha! it worked. FWIW, his is the real title:...
using coffee to clean grease off your hands -- and for showering
cross-posted from: infosec.pub/post/3784040...