Mstr Plumber Help! Kitchen Sink
Master Plumber could you advise on the following: I have a kitchen sink that drains incredibly slowly and when it does finally drain it makes the following sound “gulb, gulb, gulb, etc. and then quiet”. I have had two plumbers look at the situation and they both have taken a snake and cleaned out the…
Master Plumber could you advise on the following: I have a kitchen sink that drains incredibly slowly and when it does finally drain it makes the following sound “gulb, gulb, gulb, etc. and then quiet”. I have had two plumbers look at the situation and they both have taken a snake and cleaned out the pipes but that really did not help all that much. One of the plumbers said that since the sink is not vented air is not allowing the sink to drain properly. The other plumber said it was grease in the pipes and I should put bleach in the pipes at night and that should help – which it did not. Any help would be appreciated as when I wash dishes it is like giving them a bath as the water is draining that slowly.
Thank you!
“Let’s add Euro-bashing to the mix. Been there lately?”
Yes, and if you have to ask this, then you don’t know who you’re talking to. Too off-topic for now.
And we do far fewer risky things in cities of attached homes because the cheap, crappy work people may do, left to their own devices, has the potential to directly affect their presumably innocent neighbors.
That’s why cities have codes that rural areas don’t.
Same concept as: You want to be a smoker, fine, but you’re not smoking anywhere in a public building.
You can have the last word, cmu. Enjoy your week.
Yes, maybe they DO need to be replaced *sometimes* and yes that’s why they need to be accessible…also, it’s probably another one of the belts-and-suspenders code things, let’s cover our asses in the remote case of failure. If you’ve replaced vents, it just goes to show there’s inferior products/installs in any place. Proves nothing.
HOW would it make a difference if the vent is installed in a brownstone as opposed to a single-family? It’s in one location. Does it have a sensor and start to fail sooner or decide not to vent?
If you really think codes are SOLELY for the benefit of our populace, I won’t argue with you.
Let’s add Euro-bashing to the mix. Been there lately? Or are you thinking of post-WW-II conditions where buildings and plumbing were in, let’s say, a state of chaos? There’s much we can learn from Europe, including not spending money like it grows on trees.
“Rare”, my foot. I’ve changed ProVents in Staten Island beach bungalows on a regular basis.
No major American city I know of allows the use of these inferior venting devices. Detached single family homes are another story, but in areas where people live on top of and next to each other these things are only as reliable as the people using them to get a job done cheaply.
The Codes in the few jurisdictions that do allow AAVs insist that they must be made accessible for replacement, yet it’s the manufacturers that claim their products are reliable for 20-80 years?
We’ve enacted the National Code in July of 2008 with hundreds of updates and provisions for new technology and things like condensing boilers.
Our Codes are smartly applied for the protection and well-being of the general public of a large and crowded city.
“Protecting” whose jobs? Labor unions no longer have a say in this stuff. And less than 10% of the country’s plumbers are in a union, anyway.
As for Europe, what smart practices we can glean from there applies to combustion technology and efficiency almost exclusively. Many of their plumbing and sanitation systems are still archaic.
If I can quote a line from The Pope of Greenwich Village: Let’s stay with what we know.
While mvp may be super-knowledgeable about some things, his dis-information can be quite galling.
AAV’s may not be to code, but anyone who knows anything about building codes knows much it can have as much to with refusal to accept new technology and protecting jobs, etc. They are not “temporary devices!” Further, AAV’s must be ‘accessible’, making the rare replacement a simple matter.
“ASSE (American Society of Sanitary Engineers) standards require that AAVs be tested to reliably open and close a minimum of 500,000 times, (estimated to be at least 30 years of use) with no emanation of sewer gas. Some manufacturers claim their units are tested for up to 1.5 million cycles, or at least 80 years of use. Air Admittance Valves have been effectively used in Europe for more than two decades. U.S. manufacturers offer warranties that range from 20 years to lifetime”
I’d go with REAL engineering know-how, research, and experience any time over a hide-bound refusal to accept new technology.
Air admittance valves such as a Pro-Vent, are not compliant in NYC in part because they are a temporary device that will require replacement. They use a moving rubber seal to keep sewer gases in place, but that seal disintegrates. It is a decent temporary fix, but should not be accepted as a permanent solution.
Put another way, the gulping sound you hear is sort of like when you are pouring soda out of a bottle too quickly–it needs to draw in air to replace the space the soda was taking up. Your sink is doing the same thing, because your (lack of or clogged) vent isn’t letting air in.
Good luck,
C
This is a little random, but is your sink on the first floor next to a fireplace in a rowhouse? Ours is and the original vent runs up along the fireplace and is covered by removable molding. Ours was severed, but we’re going to reconnect it. I think it’s going to actually be relatively easy.
And more practical than running a new vent, even a pro-vent in a wall, since the wall is brick and the sink is a farmhouse and the plumbing is exposed.
Anyway, my apologies if this has nothing to do with your situation, but I thought I’d mention it.
As I prefer not to start breaking through walls to vent the sink what are your thoughts on using an Air Admittance Valve to solve my problem? I have read good things about AAV’s made by Oatey and Studor.
Thanks.
Sorry, my cat was walking on the keyboard.