Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Tell us about your drain problems!

Feel free to leave comments or questions about drains.

2 comments:

acorben said...

Our back porch has a washing machine used by myself and four one-bedroom apartments. The washing machine drainpipe empies into a deep tub. When washing clothes normally, the small cup in the drain of the tub will catch lint and such, but usually does not overflow the tub. Sometimes one of the apartment dwellers washes something with lots of lint, and the small cup in the drain fills with lint such that the water from the washing machine overflows the tub and pours out all over the porch. I return and discover that not only is there a half an inch of standing water on the floor, but the tub is still full, and the only solution is to reach into 18 inches of standing water in the tub, pull the small cup out of the tub-drain, empty the cup of lint and put the cup back to catch more lint trying to escape the tub.

I'm trying to find something which sits in the drain, and provides lots of space to collect lint, and yet has an opening at the top so that if the water level becomes too high, water will flow down through an open top to avoid the tub overflowing, but the height of the drain allows settled lint and such to still be filtered.

Instead of a one-inch-deep cup with a 1.5 inch diameter and a u-shaped cross section that sits down in the 1.6 inch tub-drain, I am envisioning something the size of a tube at the center of a roll of toilet paper. This item would sit down into the tub-drain just as the cup does, but would be tall enough to stand up (say) six inches above the drain. The surface would be covered with the same holes that the small drain-cup has. Materials suspended in the turbulent waste water would settle to the bottom and be filtered by the holes close to bottom of the drain-insert. However, if there were enough lint in the wastewater to begin to clog the lower holes, the water level would rise in the tub, and holes higher on the drain insert would begin straining. As those began to clog, the water would be strained by holes near the top of the drain-insert. When these became obstructed, water would begin to pour directly into the top of the drain insert which would be completely open, and so essentially un-cloggable.

From the top, this would be a metal cylinder with holes. About an inch from the end of the cylinder, and over the entire circumference of the cylinder, a ridge would extend perpendicular to the cylinder. This ridge would itself be approximately half an inch tall. This lip or edge would help the cylinder to stand upright in the tub-drain.

This seems so obvious that someone must have designed one I do not have the language to name it, and so haven't been able to find one. Any suggestions?

Neptunesmuse said...

Hi,
I own a 1957 cement block house and the original out going line from the sinks were cast iron. A couple of pipes ended up with rusted out hole and PVC was sliced in by a professional plumber. I don't use the kitchen sink much (not much cooking or dish washing) and recently the kitchen sink is running very slow and backing up into the bathroom sink (they are all tied together by an outgoing line). I can use a plunger and with lots of effort I can get the drain to run clear. I don't have a dishwasher or garage disposal an don't use grease to cook with. I don't use the sink for another week and it clogs back up. I can smell sewer gas from the bathroom sink but not the kitchen sink. The toilet and shower both drain very well. I had the drain line from the house to the city sewer replaced about 10 years ago with PVC - it was orangeburg pipe.
Any suggestions? I am afraid to use a powerful chemical drain cleaner due the age of the pipes.
Help!!!