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Kitchen Sink always backs up! James 05-04-2008
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Posted by Tony Hwang on May 4, 2008, 7:08 pm
James@James.ca wrote:

> The Wife threatens to call a plumber.
> I just had a look under the sink and I have a garbarator on the right
> sink with the dishwasher comming into it at the top of the garbarator.
> The garbarator has to be used excessively to clear the cloggs and slow
> drainage. When the dishwasher is used it envaribly backs up into the
> left sink and sometimes into the right. What if I took out the
> garbarator altogether? Is there a better plumbing system or size? It
> must be clogging at the cleanout, the size is a stantard sink copper
> one and 1/2 if my ruler is correct.
Hi,
How about removing P trap plug first and see?

Posted by cshenk on May 5, 2008, 7:17 am

> The Wife threatens to call a plumber.

Unlikely you need one if you have simple to work with PVC pipe there.

> I just had a look under the sink and I have a garbarator on the right
> sink with the dishwasher comming into it at the top of the garbarator.

Yup, common enough. Have same here.

> The garbarator has to be used excessively to clear the cloggs and slow
> drainage. When the dishwasher is used it envaribly backs up into the
> left sink and sometimes into the right. What if I took out the

In the configuration you mention, you shouldnt run water into the sink with
the disposal at the same time as the dishwasher is draining. The pipe can't
handle both.

> garbarator altogether? Is there a better plumbing system or size? It
> must be clogging at the cleanout, the size is a stantard sink copper
> one and 1/2 if my ruler is correct.

Too bad it's copper but all is not lost. You've probably got a buildup at
the other end of the disposal sink on the left and before the main drain on
the one to the right. Replacing your disposal will not fix that. If you
get backups even when not running the water at the disposal sink, you have a
partly blocked pipe. Lets see if the configuration is what I think it is.
There's a 1/2 inch or so flexible drain from the dishwasher plugged in at
the top of the disposal. At the lower end of the disposal, there is an
outlet pipe that should be about 1 or 1.5 inches diameter. This outlet pipe
also connect at the other end to the other sink then has a drain that leads
'away'.

If this lower outlet pipe is only 1/2 inch, you may not have a clog but
instead have a substandard size. You'd have problems with slow draining
sinks on both sides and have always had that problem though you may be used
to the slower draining so not noticed it or 'thought it normal'. It will
not help to increase the size of this lower pipe that runs between both
sinks, if the bottom most portion that leads 'away' (to septic or city
sewer) is also 1/2 inch unless you replace both. I'm guessin gthough that
you reported only the size of the smaller drain just from the dishwasher to
the top of the disposal and the other pipes below are bigger. If I am
right, you have a partial clog along the pipe between the sinks since
normally only the sink with the disposal is affected. If both sinks are
normally equally affected, the clog is in the 'drain pipe that leads away to
the septic/sewer'.

Sorry if i'm a bit verbose, but this one can be very expensive if you
replace a disposal when there's nothing wrong with it.

Suggestion? If you are handy with a bit of plumbing, replace the copper
with PVC. It's much easier to work with. For reasons irrelevant to this
post, we had that done. Last week or so, we had the same buildup causing us
to at first think the disposal was at fault then I recalled a post some
other person had made and thunked myself on the head. Don fixed it in 15
mins flat because the PVC type we have, can just be hand unscrewed at the
right junctures. Yup, that 1.5 or so inch PVC was partly occluded with
buildup. We just used a bottle cleaner brush and put it back up and all is
well.




Posted by on May 8, 2008, 1:25 am
Thank you Gentlemen all very good info. I didn't have to call the
plumber yet. It looks good when I flush the "Disposal unit" with hot
water before the dishwasher starts, no back up at all. I am thinking
of removing the "disposal unit" out of the system and it will please
the Wife.

Thanks again.

Posted by cshenk on May 8, 2008, 6:46 pm

> Thank you Gentlemen all very good info. I didn't have to call the
> plumber yet. It looks good when I flush the "Disposal unit" with hot
> water before the dishwasher starts, no back up at all. I am thinking
> of removing the "disposal unit" out of the system and it will please
> the Wife.

Grin, glad to help James. The hot water trick means there is some level of
build up, probably in that pipe I mentioned between the 2 sinks.



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