Best drain fly treatment: Green Gobbler vs Bio Drain

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Bio Drain and Green Gobbler are two enzyme treatments to stop drain flies. They both work the same way, although they have some differences that make one more usable than the other in some circumstances.

In this article, I will review the two best drain fly treatments and explain why/when to use one or the other.

Table of Contents

• Green Gobbler
• Bio Drain
• My drain fly strategy
• How quickly should drain fly treatments work?

Green Gobbler

Green Gobbler is the easier to get out of the two best drain fly treatments. It can sometimes (not always) be found at local home improvement stores like Home Depot, and if it’s not, you can generally buy it through their online stores, although I found it better to just get it on Amazon.

Green Gobbler feels a little less thick than Bio Drain, although that may just be my impression. It seems to go down the drain a bit better than Bio Drain, which never fully makes it down the drain. This can be a positive and a negative, since the consistency makes Green Gobbler easier to use, but it may not be as good at smothering the fly larvae.

I generally try Green Gobbler first, before going to Bio Drain, since I have found that Green Gobbler is easier to handle. It is often (but not always) cheaper as well.

Bio Drain

Bio Drain is very effective at what it’s supposed to do. The thick orange compound really gets into the drain and remains there, smothering the drain fly larvae. In my experience, it seems to work slightly quicker and better than Green Gobbler. It really is the best drain fly treatment available.

Unfortunately, it has some drawbacks. First, it can be more expensive to buy than Green Gobbler, and it’s not always easily available. More important, however, is the fact that it can stain tubs or sinks.

Bio Drain can cause unremovable stains on some types of acrylic or porcelain tubs or sinks. This happened to me on two different occasions. On one occasion I was able to remove the orange stain with a lot of scrubbing and some good bleach cleaner. The other time, I wasn’t so lucky. I used it on a brand new acrylic tub and it left a stain that couldn’t be removed with anything.

Eventually, I had to get some really find sand paper and sand the area down until the spot disappeared. I tried to polish out the rough area the sand paper created, but it never polished to the same shine as the rest of the tub. It’s important to be aware of this before you use Bio Drain, as it could be very expensive to fix.

My drain fly strategy

Because of the major drawback to Bio Drain, I always start any drain fly treatment with Green Gobbler first. I give Green Gobbler at least a week to take effect.

Over that week, I pour it into every drain in the house at night. After pouring the Green Gobbler down the drain, I close the drain for the night to ensure that the flies don’t escape.

If the treatment is not effective after 1 week, I make a decision: should I try Bio Drain or is there a major plumbing problem that needs to be solved. Usually the answer to this is to try Bio Drain. But if Green Gobbler doesn’t work over a week, then you should do some serious investigation to ensure that there isn’t a major plumbing problem that is keeping the drain flies around.

When I do use Bio Drain (or either of the best drain fly treatments), I expect it to work within a week, and most of the time it does. I make sure to pour it directly into the actual drain, even if that means removing the stopper or cover. If I can’t pour it directly into the drain, I try to put some plastic down in the tub so the majority of the Bio Drain doesn’t touch actual tub — just the drain.

How quickly should drain fly treatments work?

Regardless of what you may read, both Bio Drain and Green Gobbler take no more than a week to work. If you still have any drain flies after that, there is a plumbing problem that’s creating some breeding area for the flies. That plumbing problem needs to be found and fixed before any treatments will work.

When I first started doing drain fly treatments, I would buy a half dozen large bottles of Green Gobbler and Bio Drain in hopes that I could avoid a large plumbing repair. But that unfortunately isn’t the case.

The best drain fly treatments, Green Gobbler and Bio Drain work quickly. If you have a problem that can be resolved by an enzyme treatment, you should see results in a week.