Sink wont drain and pipes aren't clogged?
Question:Is there something wrong with my garbage disposal? I have taken apart all pipes under sink and they're clear. The left side has a garbage disposal and the right doesn't. The right side won't drain either. When I turn the disposal on and cap the right side, the water goes down fine, but only with the disposal on and the right side capped. Shouldn't the right side drain regardless if my disposal is on or offl? Doesn't water need air behind it to drain? Where is my problem?
Answers:
Your sink is probably plugged up in the pipe under the house at a 90 degree elbow. If you don't want to do the dirty job yourself, check in your area for a plumber who can use a drain snake to push it through. Be very careful not to let any oils or grease go down your drains. When it chills it can become solified which causes many plugged pipes. Use a Degreaser type of liquid dish soap to disolve the grease before letting it go down the drain.
your vent pipes might be clogged. have a handy man clean or unclog those
Yeah, pitel 's (probably/kinda/might be) right. It's an insufficient air thing. My guess is that who ever plumbed your sink didn't have a good path to your DWV (drain/waste/vent) pipe, and hoped that the side of the sink that wasn't being used, would provide the 'make-up' air for the other side.which apparently it does. The only fix is to plumb a vent pipe into your existing drain pipe. It's not a big deal if you can run it straight out the wall behind the sink. If the wall adjoins another room, your going to have to open it up (the wall) and run your vent pipe out through the roof.
Obversely..you could learn to live with this little anomaly, (the sink does drain, after all) and keep your money and totally skip the all day headache of re-plumbing your sink.
Can you guess which of these options that I would pick?
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