I'm drenched

I'm finishing my basement, and I had to rerun some of the sanitary lines from the first floor. The plumbing inspector wants the lines plugged, filled with water, and tested for leaks. Cool.

I'm a homeowner, not a plumber, so forgive my ignorance...

My drain from upstairs drops from the ceiling through the slab with a cleanout on a wye at about 4" above the slab. I bought a long ball for plugging the line, and dropped it into the wye far enough to plug the main drain and the wye itself.

I pumped it up to rec'd PSI and filled the line. NO LEAKS!

OK. Now I have to get the ball out. I deflated the ball as fast as possible, but water shot out of the wye like a fountain--all over me, the work I'm doing, everywhere.

How do I avoid this? The inspector's coming back next week (this was my own test), and I'd prefer to avoid another 10 gallon mishap.

Thanks.

You can try and let the air out slowly until water starts to flow but it may not work...plumbers test with air most of the time, not water.

With air there would be a valve to let the air out. Releasing the ball with a line full of air could be very dangerous causing physical injury or death.

test

plumbers test with air most of the time, not water.

Since when. I have only tested with air one time and that was a few months ago because the site did not have water. The other 55+ years it has been with water, and every plumber I know also uses water. The best way, but probably too late for you is to use a tapped "test tee" and use a screw in test ball. Than you let the air out, the water goes down the drain and then you replace the test ball with a cleanout plug. You can use a slip on cap with a hole in it for the hose to minimize the overflow.