Okay, we've read this chapter before, right? Gunk in the P-trap, no biggie. Get a bucket, drop the trap, growl about all the water and gunk that went places other than in the bucket. That's all routine.

So I did all that, dumped the water and gunk, put the trap back in place, and went about my business. But no! The evil gods of plumbing decided today that the gunk would be further down the line in Casa de vthoky. Great. This is like a bad commercial brewing -- I've invited friends over for dinner, and the sink is clogged. Geeze.

I found a bit of leftover liquid drain cleaner and poured it down the drain. The water in the sink fell away, and all seemed well. Until I washed my hands... and all that water stayed in the sink.

So I got another jug of "extreme super heavy mongo duty gollywomper" drain cleaner and set about another pour-and-flush. I poured, it drained, I flushed. I washed up again, and the basin filled again.

It looks like the next move is a trip to the hardware store for a snake. Joy, joy.

I really dislike doing plumbing work.

That sucks.

This might make you feel better. It was winter in Alaska, and I was having 20ish people over for an indoor fish fry. I had thawed out a bunch of halibut to batter and fry in peanut oil. The GD disposal broke after I had started pouring the juice out of the vacuum sealed halibut packs. When I wasn't looking guests would throw more junk into the broken disposal. I fished the junk out as best I could after guest left and put a plug into it while I waited for the Waste Kang to arrive. It was pretty gross taking off the old one, and left a sufficient impression on me to have a Waste Kang sitting on a shelf in the garage right now for when the one the builder installed inevitably craps out.

I posted this before, but it was at least five years ago, probably more, so here it is again.

Thanksgiving day. Just the two of us. My wife was preparing a traditional dinner, I think it was a capon rather than turkey, but the bird was in the oven and she had some time to kill, so she decided to clean out and re-organize the pantry shelves in the kitchen.

There was a very out-dated plastic container of Metamucil. It had a re-cycle symbol on the bottom. Instead of just dumping the contents in the trash before putting the container in the recycle bin, my wife dumped it down the sink and then ran water, to flush it.

Of course, as soon as the water hit it, the Metamucil swelled up to approximately fifty thousand times its original volume and created a solid jam in the drain pipe.

Unbelievably, a local Lowe's was open on Thanksgiving day, so a quick trip there for a new P-trap and a snake, and I spend the rest of the day on my back, under the sink, with one foot sticking out.

First and only time I have ever done that sort of plumbing work.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
the Metamucil swelled up to approximately fifty thousand times its original volume and created a solid jam in the drain pipe.

Yikes!

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
pouring the juice out of the vacuum sealed halibut packs.

Double yikes! Stanky-fish-goo!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
First and only time I have ever done that sort of plumbing work.

Reminds me of another plumbing story of my own. When [the ex and] I moved into this house, it was over Labor Day weekend. That Sunday, I figured it would be a nice thing to install one of those under-sink filter gadgets. The job wasn't too horrible, but it made use of those stupid brass compression fittings. I hate those things. Anyway, I wrestled around under the sink like a brain-damaged contortionist and got the job done. The next day I was in the garage, unpacking and moving things around. And then I heard the shouting and stomping. I ran up the stairs with a "what the heck is going on here" attitude, and found out as soon as I got through the door. That stupid fitting had held up overnight, but gave way Monday afternoon and water was every-stinkin-where. Close the valve, get the towels, get on with cleaning up.

She stood above me and admonished: "The next time you want something like this done, you hire somebody! Because you ain't no f'n plumber!!"

I held my tongue, finished cleaning up, removed the fancy schmancy filter, and headed back to the garage.

"You ain't no f'n plumber" came to mind frequently after that. Like when the fridge at her mama's place needed a line run to the ice maker. Or when her mama's bathroom faucet needed to be replaced. Or....
(Yeah. I ended up doing those jobs.)

- - - - - - -

Bright side! Perhaps patience (or procrastination) was the key. Last night I filled the sink bowls and figured, "well, I'll buy a drain snake tomorrow." This morning, the sink was empty and that drain flowed freely, just as pretty as you please. (Whew!)

I had the same problem 2 years ago and couldn’t figure out wtf was going on. So on my back I go under the sink and proceed to tear everything out to find that there was some sort of reducer in the pipe that allowed the carrot peelings that we had made to completely clog the pipe. Got it cleaned out and the next day went down to Lowe’s to replace that pesky pipe with a normal one. Problem solved.

I have a double sink and what I do once a month is fill one half about 3/4 full of hot water. Then I pull the drain stopper and let the hot water flow through the pipes. Have not had any issues for over three years now. Knocking wood for luck.

Snakes work if you know how. The ones Roto Rooter uses does the trick. A common problem if you have plumbing.

Well, joy, joy, fellas! Guess what!

Yeah. It's stopped up again. I came home from work, dumped my pockets, and washed up to get ready for dinner. And the sink bowls magically filled from the bottom.

Here we go again. Grr.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

It's stopped up again.

I remember reading some advice, I think it was on SIGforum: "The next time you want something like this done, you hire somebody! Because you ain't no f'n plumber."

Yes, Mr. V-Tail, I believe you're correct. It does sound familiar.

Rent a snake and do it from the roof vent. Seems like maybe there’s grease causing a backup just past the trap.

My kids 1940s home did that in the bathroom. Hair clog where the drain goes into the wall. Climb on the roof, run the snake, problem be gone.

Drain pipes with lots of organic material, like kitchens, can be maintained with an enzyme type treatment. You put a little down the drain every month or so and it will keep the drain line open.

Who among us doesn't like an opportunity to buy new tools, right?
Yesterday I added to the Ryobi One+ collection, with a P4001 drain auger. I figured, "hey, it's the homeowner version of what I've seen my plumber friend use before -- it's gotta do the job! And it's about half the price of having him come over." (Actually, he's a friend's son, and he doesn't work for free.)

Anyway, this thing is a slick gadget. It's definitely a two-hander, one to control speed and direction, the other to control feed. I darn near emptied the thing (25 feet) down this drain, and brought back nothing. Zip, zilch, nada. So I put another gallon or so of boiling water down the pipe for good measure. Things seemed well, so I attributed the success to PFM (pure flippin' magic).

This morning I put all the stuff back under the sink and set about running the dishwasher. And then I watched the sink bowls fill from the underside as the dishwasher drained. Grrrr!

I hung around the kitchen as the dishwasher cycle ran, watching each time it would purge. Each time, there would be about a half-inch of water in the sink bowls, and that would drain slowly. Then at the final dishwasher drain, the water came up (but not into the bowls) -- and this time retreated quickly! It's gremlins in the pipe, man, I tell ya.

My "adopted sister" said years ago, "the universe knows when you have a dollar. And it will make every effort to take it from you." Why is that relevant right now? Because last week's near-constant rain revealed a roof leak. "Thanks, Universe! Ya fargin' bastige!"

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
an enzyme type treatment.

Thank you for suggesting that. I've seen enzyme sticks in the grocery and hardware stores. I'll take a closer look.

I have typically used Roebic products for drain maintenance. I have some old houses with cast iron and clay main pipes, with galvanized laterals. Doing maintenance annually has saved me from having to replace anything in a long time.

I use Roebic FRK to kill roots. It’s the same product our city uses on its pipes. In fact, it was the city engineer who turned me onto it. The city treats all lines every three years. I do my problematic property annually, in either Oct or Apr, when tree root growth is the most active. There are probably other foaming root killers. The foaming part is the most important. Foaming herbicides fill the pipe and get to roots entering from the top.

To keep the lines clean, I treat with Roebic K-97. It digests organics, especially if you have any bellies in the line and the line must push water up the other side of the belly. Solids will accumulate in the belly and become a sludge plug. By digesting the solids, they turn to a liquid and flow out of the belly. You also might try some K-67 and K-97 for your kitchen lines. I haven’t tried these, but they look better tailored to your kitchen line than the K-97 I have been using on sewer mains.

For these products to work, you need some flow. They are not designed to dissolve a clog, although I think Roebic has products that do. You need the product to get to the whole line and then remain there overnight. You repeat this every night for a week. Depending on your usage, you may need to do this every six months or once a year. It sounds like you already have some flow, since it is draining, so you should be GTG with this treatment.

I typically avoid the harsh chemicals. I have had to replace cast iron pipes due to them having been eaten through by the use of drain cleaners. This is always where a sink lateral meets a 4” cast iron sewer vent, and that sink is the uppermost fixture, so there’s no water flow above it to clean out the harsh treatment. It sucks to rip up a wet-wall to replace a main stack. Very intrusive.

If anybody’s sewer main is Orangeburg pipe, you’re screwed. Better save up for a new sewer line or move… -soon.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

an enzyme type treatment.

Thank you for suggesting that. I've seen enzyme sticks in the grocery and hardware stores. I'll take a closer look.

For over twenty years, I owned and operated a small business, supplying carpet cleaning equipment to hardware stores for rent to do-it-yourself customers, along with the associated cleaning products.



One of our cleaning products was branded "EnzyMatic" -- it's the one with the purple label in the photo. We sold it as a pre-treatment to be applied on organic problems prior to normal cleaning of the carpet. Great for cat or dog pee or poop, food spills, blood, anything organic.

It's easy to use for your purpose -- just dump some into the sink drain. Good chance that it will do the job for you, if not, it certainly won't harm anything.

The concentrate is an enzyme treatment that is basically the same as, or similar to, any of the enzyme type liquid products that you can find in your local hardware store. It's used for cleaning organic stuff on carpet or upholstered furniture, used to treat septic tanks and also holding tanks for toilet waste in RV's and boats, so you can find it in hardware stores, plumbing supply shops, RV and boating supply stores, etc.

I believe that you're in Virginia -- if you were near the Orlando area, I would karma some to you, but it should be easy enough to find locally.

Thank you, V-Tail and sigcrazy7, for the recommendations. I'll be on the lookout for those products locally.

Sorry to keep extending my responses, but another product that would be good for your problem would be Grease-X. I like the way it’s a dry formula that you activate with warm water. I’ve had Grease-X fix a slow bathroom sink overnight.