diyrebel @ diyrebel @lemmy.dbzer0.com

Posts

5

Comments

88

Joined

2 yr. ago

Maybe if I track down the MSDS it might say, but I can say for sure. The bottle is labelled as a pro drain cleaner for that purpose. So it’s not likely laboratory or military grade or anything intense.

That’s worrying just because I have a suspicion that there are accordion pipes. So I just did a test. Plugged the drain & filled the sink to the top with water. Pulled the plug and ran to the basement. There is a strong gushing from the main pipe. So I’d say at least most of the water is going to the right place. So certainly it’s not a case where the sewage found a complete alternate path. The clog is in fact gone. Though there’s always a chance of leaks, which in this case would be into or below a concrete slab.

If I’m in this forum asking why my whole kitchen floor smells like sewage in a few weeks from now, plz remind me about this.

no.. hadn’t heard of it.

The episode spans several months, so my memory is fuzzy. But I recall on one occasion I got full penetration with the snake. I went to the main cleanout in the basement and saw that the snake made there. But that was before the occasion where i had /only apparently/ got full penetration, then pulled out the snake and it was permanently curled up. I think the snake was ~10—15 meters long originally. I didn’t log every attempt. Many times i only got partial penetration with the snake & made a mental note of how far but didn’t log it. There is one point that is very hard to get past.. I think like 3 meters or so in.

you didn’t mention what type of piping

I didn’t build it. I can see that the entry fitting & 2nd fitting is gray PVC, but that’s all I can see without a snake cam for wet environments. The behavior with the snake clearing the line temporarily, then the line being “clogged” after pulling the snake out somewhat suggests that maybe I have a shitty goffred (accordian) pipe. Maybe it’s getting kinked or folded somewhere.

I am wholly willing to bet that the sulfuric acid didn’t fix your problem but rather put a hole in the pipe itself above the blockage. I guarantee that you are now draining the contents of that drain directly into either a wall or some unseen cavity and are not actually draining out of your home/apartment/wherever.

That was my worry indeed. But I figured my next step is to replace the pipe anyway, so it was time to test the nuclear¹ option. The main sewer line in the basement is accessible just before going out to the street. I could clearly hear the water running through the main exit pipe when the kitchen sink is draining. But I can’t quite judge if the sound is gushing to the extent that it should be. So jury is out on this.

There is a cleanout at this central point where all big pipes merge. I could get more certainty if there was a way to divert all water from the main cleanout to a bucket. Then I could put 5 liters down the drain and see if 5 liters comes out. But I'm not sure now to rig up that diversion (or if it’s worthwhile).

(edit) footnote 1. I originally thought attaching the leaf blower to the drain pipes was the nuclear option.. that it might blow pipes off their joints. It’s kinda like #BruceWillis in #pulpFiction in the pawn shop, where he picks up a weapon then realizes the nuke is yet to come.. progressively upgrades weaponry as more options come to light.

It’s a kitchen drain but not like in the US. Garbage disposals are banned here. So there would be no way for wipes, qtips, or anything bigger than a pea to enter the drain. It’s a terraced house in a dense city, so no trees, which likely rules out roots.

The city water is /very/ hard, and past residents likely put plenty of oil down the drain. Every time the drain regurgitates something, it’s a stinky white substance that appears to have coffee grounds embedded in it. I know not to put oil or coffee down the drain but past residents are another story. So I think a mass of fat, coffee, and minerals from the hard water could be culprits.

WRT using a pressure washer, I think that would be an option if there were a cleanout with a straight shot. That youtuber would probably be paralyzed when coming into a ridiculous series of tight 90s and no cleanout or vent, and possibly goffred pipes. Or does he have some kind of special extra flexible high pressure hose?

I so much wish I had a cleanout. If I reached the step of demolishing the kitchen, I certainly would have installed a cleanout at that point, as well as a vent, and I would refuse to use tight 90° fittings (unless they have a long “swept” shape).

(edit) I have a main line cleanout, but there would be several splits & turns to make if i tried to use it to reach the kitchen. Might be possible if there exists a quite fancy snake that would have a cam on the end and a controllable bending mechanism. Not sure if such a tool even exists.

Exactly.. that was constantly on my mind. Last time I hired a plumber to fix a leak while I was away, the plumber was incompetent. Did not find the leak (which was in /exposed/ pipework), charged 200 cash and ran with the money. The plumber actually charged 4 times as much as I paid a doctor to make a house call.

Some plumbers can legally buy sulfuric acid for this purpose. So in fact by law I was essentially being forced to hire a plumber, in effect.

My way of thinking is that I’m going to learn something & my tooling costs will be less than a plumber. I’ll “own” the problem for the next time. This one about drove me to the edge, considering I was about to experiment with borderline parasites.

A pro would have had an expensive snake cam.. so there’s that. I would not want to put my own snake cam down the pipe because it’s not made for such filthy environments.. would likely ruin the cam.

I blame whatever plumber installed the drain. They used many hard-right 90° fittings that hinder snakes. Then they installed no clean-out. And no vent. I also suspect the pipes under the floor may be goffred (accordian-like). So the lesson here is that snakes are not always the answer if the pipes are lousy.