Testing Drain Lines

[Kurt23]

On my list of things to do from the inspector was to test my drain lines. I have plugged my shower drain, toilet, kitchen, and bathroom sink with mechanical wingnut test plugs. The outside clean out will be plugged with an inflatable rubber test ball plug. I will then fill the lines with water. The instructions from Cherne say to relieve back pressure before deflating plug. How is that possible?

Photo added by Terry

 

[Reach4]

Possible to follow that instruction? Just don't remove the Cherne test ball first. However in practice, I would recognize that water will come out somewhere. Decide where you want that to be. If that place is outside, then I would just ignore that Cherne instruction. I am not a plumber.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Plumber69]

I almost lost a finger deflating with all the back pressure. Theres several ways this can be done.

 

[hj]

Just stand over the hole to keep the test ball in the sewer and deflate it with the extension hose.

 

[Kurt23]

Okay. Just going to go with deflate the balloon while under pressure. I could attach the chain it comes with to something in case it wants to go down the drain. I wonder how common hand pumps are that have a psi reading and are able to hold and release the pressure at the hand pump? Going to go check Wally World. I might end up getting the product you posted Terry. That is exactly what i needed. Thanks

 

[Cacher_Chick]

A couple of years ago I had a 4" plug blow out of the vent stack like a cannon firing. When it fell back down from the sky, it hit hard enough to cut a gash in a shingle on the roof. I stick with the test ball now.

 

[Reach4]

Is the test ball holding back water or air? I had been presuming water, but I think cacher_chick was using air.

 

[Cacher_Chick]

Is the test ball holding back water or air? I had been presuming water, but I think cacher_chick was using air.

Yes, doing a test with 10 foot head of water can be problematic in the winter. I usually use air.

 

[Kurt23]

Thanks for the additional responses. I am testing with water. I ended up just sticking the smaller rubber test ball in the outside clean out. I found 5 small leaks so tomorrow I will be cutting them out and replacing. I thought that was pretty pathetic but there were a lot of other joints that could of been leaking. When I released the test plug it was like a geyser and I got soaked even with the air hose extension.