Need plumbing help, sink drain

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

Garthinsandiego

Grease. Builds up slowly until total blockage. Most likely in a horizontal run. Worse if you have a dishwasher. Water you are moving with a plunger is temporarily being forced up the vent stack. As soon as you stop plunging it drains back into the sink. If you don't have a convenient clean out I would add one. It's going to happen again.

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

David Yoho

I would hope the 2" line is plastic and there's no galvanized pipe there. If galvanized, they are famous for corroding inside and catching debris along the walls and restricting flow to a stop.

In the past I had luck with one of those blasters you connect to a water hose. When inserted into the drain pipe ( just past the trap ) when the water is turned on it swells, which creates a seal, and the pressure can blast out the blockage. I don't know what the thing is called but they do come in sizes for different pipes.

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

Jay Lombardo

If it's Galvanized pipe it most likely rust and corrosion filling up the inside of the pipe. nothing to be done except cut it out and replace with PVC. If its PVC just cut it on the straight portion and glue in a Y fitting for a cleanout and start swabbing all the gunk out of there. miserable job either way, sorry.

What David said with hose to hot water tank

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

Wiley Horne

Bill,

Call the plumber and have him snake it from under the sink. Costs $99 out here and it’s the best money you’ll spend this week. If he advises adding a cleanout, say yes.

2 cents.

Wiley

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

Johanna Johanson

Once you get it cleared, everyone who uses the kitchen needs to understand that grease and food waste should not be flushed down the drain, especially if you have a septic system.

dishwasher

paul in AZ

As this line drains the DW as well one thing that could be the primary problem is any powdered detergent(s) used in the DW.

Several years ago they quietly removed the phosphates from powder dishwasher detergents. Solubility is greatly reduced and undissolved soap powder will settle in a drain line and/or in the DW's drain itself. This also attracts grease. No amount of grease remover will help clear this.

I found out the hard way and it was one of the 'rooter' plumbers that pointed out the powdered soap diagnosis.

Do not use powder dishwasher soaps.

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

David Weaver

same problem here time to time. When it gets slow, it's a matter of time until I have to snake the drain. This is a lot like changing brakes on a car - the first time you do it, you're fumbling around figuring out what the little packet of stuff is for with the brake pads, but by the third time you do it, you know exactly what you're doing and it's not as unpleasant as you'd expected.

I bought a snake about 30 feet long (that's all the longer my 2" line is to the sewer mains here) and like folks here have said, if you can get a wye added with a cleanout somewhere down the line to get closer to the problem that's better.

My mrs loves the garbage disposal. Once every two years or so I get to run the snake through the drain. I'm thinking that garbage disposals and the idea of pushing organic material down the drain instead of just throwing it in the trash probably gets a lot of plumbers on site.

I have a canary, so to speak, though - my system is gamed. My basement bathroom was put in after the house was built and tied into the line that the kitchen sink drains to. I get scuzz in the basement bathroom and address when that happens so that there's never a real problem upstairs.

It's a filthy little job, and it's one my dad gladly pays someone else to do (and he's much cheaper than me in general), but I've got it down to about 15 minutes total including cleaning up.

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

John K Jordan

Same here, called a plumber once who snaked the line. He said to periodically pour some bleach down the drain to keep it clean.

So true ...

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain *LINK*

Leo Cuellar

Before you take it all apart, this might bust it loose. It pours like water, but works way better than the big national brands. It helped me when even snaking couldn't get a kitchen sink to drain properly.


Rooto

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

Barry Irby

Bill, You did not mention what type of pipe you have or how old it is. The old cast iron stuff tends to eventually rust on the inside and collect rust and grease and trash. Galvanized does also. ABS (black) plastic may sag more than the PVC (white) plastic. White PVC breaks down in sunlight.

Also you did not mention if anything had changed. New dishwasher?

Spring is here, are you processing big batches of garden stuff?

I'm guessing it just accumulated slowly over time and caught u with you.

I have a rental with cast iron and the kitchen drain stops up occasionally, about once every two years. I call a rooter service and they do it from the roof, down through the vent. They disconnect the sink and plug the entrance tightly, rooter the pipe and then blow the trash down the drain with a drain blaster bladder (commonly known as a donkey dick) on a hose and hot water.

If it's cast iron or galvanized, it might be time to replace it with PVC and add a clean-out. At least where the blockage is.

Let us know what you find.

more data

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

PVC pipe

I have a poky snake not a roto rootering one. Poky snake stops a short way down the second run of pipe along the outside wall, about a foot past the last 90 degree bend where the two outside wall join.

Wife is fanatical about septic tank care. No garbage disposal other than cows she feeds scraps to. No grease other than what washes off plates. Dishwasher and powdered detergent for past 25 years.

Re: Need plumbing help, sink drain

Larry Barrett

You also mention sand and black flakes in the pipe. If you have a well and a pressure tank, do you also have some type of filter in the line, maybe a neutralizer? If not (or sometimes even if you do) it is possible that what you are seeing is coming from the well. Most likely not related to the plumbing problem.

Re: more data

David Weaver

I'd bet it's food and something not that difficult to get through if you get one of the rotary music wire drain cleaners with a burr on the end to flop around and punch through it (or if it's something that can be caught in the burr - grab it and bring it back to you).

When we first moved here, there was a slow drain. I tried commercial drain cleaners, lye, etc, ( found lye from a soap supplier), it partially solved the problem and put it off. Eventually, it didn't work as well (guess the glob of stuff was encased in things that lye no longer converted/saponified? who knows).

The rotary type drain cleaner that I mentioned above on the same sink issue as you have found that the blockage wasn't really as big or as much as I'd expected, but lye, hot water, etc, never did much to it.

Re: more data

Barry Irby

Is it possible the pipe has cracked or broken? Have you driven over it? House settled? Tree root putting pressure on it or found a crack and invaded?

Drain Auger

kneale brownson

This is what opened our kitchen drain. Amazon/ local hardware. Get the 25-foot cable one.

Cleaning products and slope angle

Dick Coers

Remodeling master bath, and removed the vanity. Chrome pipe out of the wall broke off, just crumbled. Removed some drywall and discovered the copper drain line inside the wall had a slug of near rock like substance, filling the bottom 1/3 of the pipe. Broke a little of that up and discovered the copper crumbled in my hands as well. I can only assume something like Drano had been used sometime over the life of our 1955 home and with a shallow slope, it settled into that mess. It's all pvc to the drain stack now! No crystal cleaner ever again in this house!

Re: Drain Auger - Yes

Henry (Raleigh NC)

This is what I have used, with success both at home and other buildings. Well worth the cost (for me at least).

Henry

Re: Cleaning products and slope angle

Pat Riley

This stuff works great.

https://www.amazon.com/Thrift-Alkaline-1-Pound-Granular-Cleaner/dp/B005E0K7FY