The utility sink that my washing machine drains into has been draining slowly for a while now. I think any strings or lint that comes off my clothing during the wash comes right out the drainage hose and collects in the utility sink. The crossbars on the drain catch some of it, but some of it must have gotten stuck in the pipe under the sink.
I tried some drain opener stuff. It seemed to be doing something at first, but there was a big hunk of lint hanging just under the crossbars on the drain that I tried to get out, and it ended up dropping down the pipe. Now the sink doesn’t drain at all. I have emptied a whole bottle of drain opener onto this clog. It seems to be trying to work on the clog, because there are tiny bubbles coming up, but the sink still isn’t draining. I guess clothing fibers are tougher than hair and soap scum clogs.
Fire burns clothing fibers, right? I’ve considered using gasoline and a match to unclog this drain. But I think that in the end, I might have to do something unpleasant and time consuming to fix this.
I took a picture of the inside of the sink, but the drain cleaner stuff looks a lot like a dry-heave vomit to me, so I didn’t want people to see it unprepared. If you are curious, you can see it HERE.
You might just to have to replace that drain trap, then you’ll dry-heave for sure. I’ve had to manually unclog drains at school when kids wouuld drop paintbrushes down them. *jibblie*
I wish I had a superhero overseeing my laundry process. It would really cut down on the evil genius stains.
I’m glad to see the tin “Man of Steel” picture I gave you last Christmas has a special place in your home!
I’m just sorry his superpowers didn’t keep your drain from clogging.
I had to use a plunger to unclog a sink one time. perhaps?
That sink looks disgusting…both pictures… But, this does showcase your cool basement walls…not exactly poured concrete, but better than brick or block, huh?
We had drainage woes in our utility sink once. When we went to Home Depot to get supplies to do battle with it, we met a nice plumber while standing in line. He told us about a product that plumbers use called Thrift T100. He said there was a place in town where we could buy it, but we never could find the shop; we ended up ordering it online from Carolina Janitorial Maintenance Supply. We’ve been using it ever since whenever a drain gets slow. It’s the best! You might want to give it a try.
…and once you get this problem taken care of, try to slip the “Mrs. Fix It” wire mesh sleeves they sell in pairs at your food liners over the end of the effluent hose that dumps into the utility tub. Then, every so often, you can toss the by-then-really-matted-and-scary-looking mesh piece and replace it with a new one, thereby saving the aggravation of unclogging more drains down the road. That’s what we do and so far, no plumbers! Been here 24 years this August…
[or you could see if Quisp works as a drain cleaner? (Sorry – Thurman’s idea, not mine!)]
We’ve been ok with our utility sink (which has the same wierd system as yours & Carol’s) so far, but I think I may just implement Carol’s idea as a prophylactic–thanks Carol!
We have had troubles with our basement shower, however. First of all, the tiles aren’t leveled completely toward the drain, so there’s always a little standing water which annoys me. But I guess the problems come from a combination of hairy people showering down there and the fact that the drain basically goes straight out to the street. I think Leo finally got a snake. And then he did some mesh thing a little like Carol suggested, but over the drain. I’ll see if I can get him to describe his remedies down there, so that you can avoid the overuse of chemicals.
Leo wants to know why you didn’t approve his comment? 🙂
I didn’t see a comment by Leo.
Sorry about that. I’m using an ancient version of my particular webpage software, and it sometimes does an inelegant job of filtering for spam comments. I think Leo’s comment was filtered. 🙁