Plumbing - Kitchen Sink?
Friday, January 1st, 2010 at
9:18 am
My kitchen sink quit running, and even backed up into the dishwasher making it overflow. We took off the U pipe and other pipes under the sink … all the way to the wall. It was full of thick sticky gunk. Cleaned that out … but how do I get the stuff still left in the rest of the pipes? Drain is still running really slow and backing up.
Tagged with: Kitchen • Plumbing • Sink
Filed under: Articles-Home Repair
theres lots of so called drain cleaners on the market, my advice , there all rubbish, go to your local diy store and buy a sani snake, you insert it into the pipe and turn it, it works it way down clearing blockages, best if you have a battery driver to stick it on. also check the main drains outside, cos if there blocked it would also run slow
Try to push a piece of semi stiff wire down the pipe. The blockage might not be far away from the point where you took off the bend (trap) the wire might work if not then the suggestion about the “sanisnake” is a good one. Another way is to try to “plunge”it with a piece of rag tied (FIRMLY) to a piece of stiff wire, push the rag into the pipe as far as you can without the danger of loosing the rag! Then pull it back and forward quickly. The rag doesn’t need to be tight in the pipe just filling the pipe. This causes suction and it will either push the blockage down or break it up. In future always make sure the bowl drains quickly if it doesn’t then put some soda Cristal’s down over-night and flush them away in the morning. This cleans the drain and makes it smell fresh too.
All the best.
use the cleanout opposite or below the drain inlet on the wall. if you don’t have one look on the roof there is a vent pipe.take the garden hose and shove it down the opening as far as you can. now crank it up full blast and pull slowly a couple feet then push it back in.slowly work your way out to the inlet. it will loosen the sludge and flush it through slowly so it does not just move it to plug down the line. now never use hot water with garbage disposal, when it hits cold pipes it sticks and forms the clog you have now.
Try boiling 10 quarts of water and pouring it s l o w l y into the sink over the course of a minute or so or do about 3 quarts and wait 5 minutes then 3 more quarts etc. you may have to do it a couple of times and a little dishsoap in the water helps.