Slow utility/laundry sink

chigundo · Jul 25, 2010

My laundry sink drain is very slow. When a large wash is done, it fills up to only an inch away from the top. I'm cheating a flood every time a wash is done.

I unscrewed the trap plug and all seemed fine. I've tried drain-0 at one point but that was useless. I tried plunging and all I can hear is water coming up and down in the vent pipe.

Here's a picture of the p-trap setup under the sink.

Here's a picture of the stack this goes in to. The bottom right is where the p-trap from the laundry sink ends up. The arrow shows the pipe I can hear water swooshing up and down when I try vigorously plunging.

And here's what I'm trying to avoid.

No other drain in the house causes any issues so that leaves me to think it's not the main vent on the roof causing this problem.. but who knows. Any advice would be really appreciated.

Ian Gills · Jul 25, 2010

I had the same thing. You need to call a plumber and have that drain snaked.

Sponsor · 2022-01-29T12:20:58-0800

chigundo · Jul 25, 2010

probably years of lint build up somewhere in that drain?

Jadnashua · Jul 25, 2010

Galvanized pipe could be all corroded inside and the opening could be quite small. A snake might ream it out, but replacement may be called for.

When it corrodes, it gets rough, and any lint would be caught, build up, and slow the drain way down.

chigundo · Jul 25, 2010

would snaking a corroded pipe be a bad idea then?

Jadnashua · Jul 25, 2010

It might clean it out, if it is really bad, it might break through. So, it would either fix it, or you'd have to replace it...hard to tell which without being there.

chigundo · Jul 25, 2010

Would the snake get entered into that cleanout access point in the second picture?

Redwood · Jul 25, 2010

Possibly but then again maybe not...

It depends on where the clog is...

You can snake all day long at a convenient location, but if you can't reach the clog from there you are doing nothing except waste time....

Terry · Jul 25, 2010

The wye coming out of the concrete is 2"
If you were to remove the 1.5" pipe and increase to 2" until you install a 2" x 1.5" x 1.5" Santee, it would help, after the lower section had been throughly snaked and cleaned out.
Or you can just give it a good snaking and see what happens.

weaver · Jul 25, 2010

Redwood said:
It depends on where the clog is...

You can snake all day long at a convenient location, but if you can't reach the clog from there you are doing nothing except waste time....

redwood, May I have permission to quote you? I'm a retired priest, but I do preach every so often.

Bob

Redwood · Jul 25, 2010

weaver said:
redwood, May I have permission to quote you? I'm a retired priest, but I do preach every so often.

Bob

Absolutely! Hopefully it reaches the person that needs to hear it...

chigundo · Jul 26, 2010

Would it also be ideal to set up the washer so it drains directly into the pipe instead of the utility sink? Or for older homes does this not matter? I guess I'd like to have the laundry sink's basin filling up as a warning that it's clogged again.

hj · Jul 26, 2010

1. Then it would probably overflow the drain pipe, and
2. The sink would still fill up.

Do what any logical person would do the FIRST time it filled up, and call a plumber. You can speculate all you want to, and spend days doing it, about whether it would work, or what problems you could have, but in the end the only thing that counts is that the water drains.

chigundo · Jul 26, 2010

I'm calling a plumber to fix/snake the drain but I'm also asking if it's best at that time to have the washer set up so it drains into the pipe.

Ian Gills · Jul 26, 2010

Careful with what that plumber tells you. The plumber that snaked my drains said I could have a 2 inch standpipe, leading to a 2 inch trap that fed into my 1.5 inch drain. I know that can't be right. 1.5 inch pipe must mean using a utility sink to discharge a washer.

Shacko · Jul 26, 2010

Ian Gills said:
Careful with what that plumber tells you. The plumber that snaked my drains said I could have a 2 inch standpipe, leading to a 2 inch trap that fed into my 1.5 inch drain. I know that can't be right. 1.5 inch pipe must mean using a utility sink to discharge a washer.

His pipe comming out of the floor is 2in.

Slow utility/laundry sink

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