Intermittent slow drain 1.5 years

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Puzzled22

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Hello, I not sure how to exactly describe the problem. My kitchen sink is very slow draining now for about 1.5 years. When I turn on the water it immediately fills up. The pipes and trap are clear according to plumber and from what I saw. He said it may be further down and he could not do anything with snaking with the snake that he had.

At times when I let the water run it fills up and when I stop running water it drains very very slow. Other times when I let the water run it will accumulate but then I see like a little "whirpool" in the drain and after a while the water will start to drain and go straight down as I am running the water. When I shut off the water and then turn on again, immediately it will start accumulating again when just seconds earlier it was going straight down. After the water goes down at any time I use the sink there are sounds like banging. It's not gurgling.

I have tried everything. Last resort was plumber this past weekend and he could not fix it, there was no change at all after snaking and nothing was on the snake either. The plumber did not give any suggestions on what this could be, but is this an air issue? A clog maybe further down? The plumber could not locate the pipes from the sink in the basement, they were not in ceiling he figures they are behind the wall. So he could not look at those.

Could something be getting temporarily unstuck from the force of water and letting water run, then once I stop running water it goes back to stuck and blocks? I cannot make any sense of this at all. Any advise and suggestions will be appreciated.

Thank you
 

Reach4

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While a clogged vent could cause a problem, slow draining is not one of them.

How many cups, pints, gallons, or liters?
 

Jeff H Young

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I think your plumber didnt do a proper job call him back if you have to but being not able to fix with no explanation is not good enough unless it was no charge. Call another guy out
 

All Fug Duck

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With the snake he had? yes, call someone else and make sure they are equipped for the cleaning. kitchen lines take a beating with grease and food getting mixed then coat the inside of the piping.
 

DW85745

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I'd call someone who can do a visual (video inspection) on the inside of the line.
Had a situation 15 years back where backups were occurring intermittently..
Turned out whoever did the original plumbing job used ABS from the street to the house.
However, to make the street connection (House ABS, to Main) they used Clay.
Over the years the Clay degraded of caved in for whatever reason. and would periodically clog causing a backup.
So took a LONG visual snake (over 200 ft) to ID the problem. Cost the homeowner BIG $$$ as Main was down 30 ft.
FWIW the cost of the video inspection units have come down quite a bit.
If you're handy, it might be cheaper to buy the unit, find out where and what the problem is, and then call the plumber.
 
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Jeff H Young

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I'd call someone who can do a visual (video inspection) on the inside of the line.
Had a situation 15 years back where backups were occurring intermittently..
Turned out whoever did the original plumbing job used ABS from the street to the house.
However, to make the street connection (House ABS, to Main) they used Clay.
Over the years the Clay degraded of caved in for whatever reason. and would periodically clog causing a backup.
So took a LONG visual snake (over 200 ft) to ID the problem. Cost the homeowner BIG $$$ as Main was down 30 ft.
FWIW the cost of the video inspection units have come down quite a bit.
If you're handy, it might be cheaper to buy the unit, find out where and what the problem is, and then call the plumber.
I don't suspect main its a kitchen blockage
 

Puzzled22

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I think your plumber didnt do a proper job call him back if you have to but being not able to fix with no explanation is not good enough unless it was no charge. Call another guy out

He told me with the tools that he has that is s all he can do and that I should go with a company that has a lot more tools, like Roto Rooter which I did not want to go with in the first place. He said they would have all the tools needed. He refused to take any money from me but I did pay him half which was 100 dollars because he did come out and he did try to fix it for about 45 minutes.
 

Puzzled22

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I have been now trying Green Gobbler enzymes. Where I put around 3 ounces down the drain leave it about 2 hours then run water, I have done this for 5 days, its acting better because now the water still accumulates when I first turn on the sink, but it starts to drain a little faster and after I shut off sink and turn on again, sometimes it will go straight down now, where before it never did that.

The enzymes are more for maintainance but people have used daily and had problems resolved. In the past I have used the Green Gobbler Main Line cleaner and that improved a little but went back to old ways in a few days, The chemical cleaners like Drano did not work at all and made it worse and the same thing for home remedies like baking soda and vinegar and hot/boiling water, that actually slowed it more!

Also, this is the only sink in the entire house that acts up. Thankfully! No issues at all with other sinks or tub or toilets. Just the kitchen sink.

Thank you all for your suggestions! Please if you can come up with any other ideas or suggestions. I am just hoping its not something major, but it being only the one sink makes me think not, but I really don't know how these things work.
 

Jeff H Young

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Puzzled 22 ok I get it guess I don't fault him much , so I don't know what he used as a snake how long or what size. might need a bigger cable with assortment of tips or jetting.
Any professional drain cleaner should be up to this task. Sure some people attempt to clear on their own . I'm not one for magical bio snake oils but many believe in products. the Draino or acid I don't care for.
 

Terry

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I like the Bio-Clean products, I sell a lot for restaurant grease pits too. I use it at home, and even though my kitchen drain is on the far side of my home, I've never had to snake a drain.
 

Reach4

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Sorry I don't know what you mean by those sizes. How much water accumulates?
After at least all night without using the drain, how much water can you add to the sink before you can see it backing up? You could do this by using a bigger container than you expect, and note how much of it is empty after you pour. For example, if you used a 5 gallon bucket that starts 80% full, and ends up 50% full, the amount of water would be 0.3 * 5 gallons= 1.5 gallons to fill the pipe up to the clog.
 

Puzzled22

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After at least all night without using the drain, how much water can you add to the sink before you can see it backing up? You could do this by using a bigger container than you expect, and note how much of it is empty after you pour. For example, if you used a 5 gallon bucket that starts 80% full, and ends up 50% full, the amount of water would be 0.3 * 5 gallons= 1.5 gallons to fill the pipe up to the clog.
Hi, It backs up immediately! As soon as I turn on the faucet. If I let the water continuously run after 3-4 minutes it begins to go straight down. As it is running continuously it is draining but very very slow, so it will never fill to even half the sink. After that 3 minutes it starts to move down faster and it all goes down and the running water wont accumulate anymore. Then immediately I turn off the faucet and turn it back on it's back to accumulating. Right after it was all just going down. It doesn't matter if this is after hours of not using the sink or all during the day it acts the same. Thank you!
 

Reach4

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Do you have a disposal? If the water is standing, but it goes down as soon as you press down one of the rubber flaps of the splash guard, then there is a simple fix. Trim the flaps to make the opening a bit bigger.
 

Puzzled22

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Hi, It backs up immediately! As soon as I turn on the faucet. If I let the water continuously run after 3-4 minutes it begins to go straight down. As it is running continuously it is draining but very very slow, so it will never fill to even half the sink. After that 3 minutes it starts to move down faster and it all goes down and the running water wont accumulate anymore. Then immediately I turn off the faucet and turn it back on it's back to accumulating. Right after it was all just going down. It doesn't matter if this is after hours of not using the sink or all during the day it acts the same. Thank you!
repeat
 

Puzzled22

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Do you have a disposal? If the water is standing, but it goes down as soon as you press down one of the rubber flaps of the splash guard, then there is a simple fix. Trim the flaps to make the opening a bit bigger.
Hi, no I do not have a disposal. At this point I am going to try and find another plumber. I think I found one that does more serious/heavy duty type plumbing. Thank you for your help everyone and I will post the outcome after I get a plumber.
 
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