Have you ever needed to open a clogged drain and were unsuccessful in your efforts or spent many hours waiting for drain cleaner and hot water to work on the problem area? I would like to share my recent experience with you.
Here's a little background first. The water from my kitchen sink drains across the house and down part of the length of the house before entering the outgoing pipe to my septic system. The total drain length is about 45 feet with a drop across the house of 8” to 10” - not a fast flow. My home is of 1975 vintage and this particular drain has been a little problematic a few times in 33 years, but I have always been able to deal with slow draining by using various liquid plumber solutions. This improved the performance to about two minutes to drain two full sinks of water. This was adequate if not great.
This time, the drain appeared to be plugged. After using the popular Pro drain cleaners, waiting for twice the recommended time and using a boiling water flush along with agitating the standing water with the palms of my hands (plunging effect), I had made almost no difference in the drain performance with four hours of effort. It was now very late at night and I was fed up with the whole affair. I took a break and sat in the garage in the cool for a few moments to gather my thoughts. I considered buying a pressurized solution (can't remember the brand) that I had seen on television several times.
Then it hit me that a much better solution would be to bring the plugging material back the same way it went in. I have a small wet/dry shop vacuum. I opened my plumbing drawer and grabbed the first piece of old plastic plumbing removed from a previous upgrade and fit it on the end of the vacuum hose producing a good seal. The other end of this was a good size to fit fairly snugly in the sink hole. Great!
The next morning, I plugged the open side of the double sink and vacuumed the other, making sure the seal was a good as possible. Voila! After two attempts at this and a total of about 20 minutes, I now have a drain that works as well as it did when we built the house, draining two full sinks of water in 50 secs. Why I didn't think of this years ago, I can't explain. Thank goodness for shop vacs and late night inspiration.
