Kitchen sink not draining

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Desmond

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I think I caused this by flushing coffee grounds down the sink (now I know). I had tried to plunger it and I ended up breaking the seals on the plumbing under the sink. I've since sealed it and have ran drain cleaner through and just today snaked it but no change. Curious thing is that today I easily got 20ft of snake in there yet it backs up quickly, almost too quickly and I had a thought. When I resealed the pipes under the sink I noticed a section that was just fitted in loosely and not sealed and I assumed it was just a bad amateur plumbing job. Now I wonder if that was a natural vent and when I sealed everything, now air can't escape. There is an unused vent piece under the sink left from the previous owner. Picture attached.
 

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Reach4

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In the morning, use a 5 gallon bucket of water, and pour water into the sink until backup starts. How much water did that take? You can check how full the bucket is after the pour.

Based on that, we can estimate how far down the clog is.

Is there a window above the sink? If so, that can affect how the drain was probably plumbed in the wall.
 

Desmond

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In the morning, use a 5 gallon bucket of water, and pour water into the sink until backup starts. How much water did that take? You can check how full the bucket is after the pour.

Based on that, we can estimate how far down the clog is.

Is there a window above the sink? If so, that can affect how the drain was probably plumbed in the wall.


It drains so slow I gave it an extra day and it took 2 quarts. 2 quarts and there's water visible up in the drain on both sinks. That feels like nothing and it confuses me even more considering I'm pretty sure I got the snake all the wall down the wall into the basement. Also, yes the sink it up against a window.
 

Reach4

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With a window above, the horizontal trap arm may go horizontal to a santee just beyond under the window.

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pipe-water-content-volume-weight-d_1734.html

If you have 1.5 inch pipe for the whole path, 2 quarts would be about 5.4 ft. The pipe might get bigger. But that would seem compatible with the path thru the trap, through the elbow, and over by the sanitary tee.

Do you have a trap adapter at the wall that you can use to pass your snake through?

Consider a bigger diameter snake.

I got a RIDGID PowerSpin Plus.
ridgid-snake-145.jpg

I powered it with a drill.

I bought it for a bathroom drain, and it worked great for me. I actually went through the 1-1/4 trap, and before I knew it, it had played out about 12 ft of snake, and the blockage several feet below the santee had been cleared. I was prepared to enter at the trap adapter on the santee, but thought I would try the lazy stay-dry top entry. I know it has limitations. I understand it was not a big diameter.

I only snaked through the trap in case it worked. Through a trap adapter would give better access, but you would probably spill trapped water.
 
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Desmond

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With a window above, the horizontal trap arm may go horizontal to a santee just beyond under the window.

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pipe-water-content-volume-weight-d_1734.html

If you have 1.5 inch pipe for the whole path, 2 quarts would be about 5.4 ft. The pipe might get bigger. But that would seem compatible with the path thru the trap, through the elbow, and over by the sanitary tee.


And hence the confusion, how am I getting almost all of the snake in there if the blockage is 5ft in
 

Reach4

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And hence the confusion, how am I getting almost all of the snake in there if the blockage is 5ft in
Poking through the goop, and having the hole close behind the snake.

Do you have a trap adapter at the wall?
 

JohnnyCom

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Your snake could be going up the vent pipe instead of going down the drain at the san tee where the trap ends. If you can’t figure out a way to guide it down the drain, you can try to run your snake down the vent pipe from the roof.
 

Spyder

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My sink was backed up like yours but I have a vent under my sink. I snaked it 20' and nothing. Traced the line to the basement and snaked it another 20' from the clean out. Hit something where the pipe makes a few turns to dump in to the larger pipe. Felt like I just popped a hole in it with the snake. Then I ran my garden hose in the clean out from my laundry hookup and had my wife turn it on and off via a phone call. Took out about 10 buckets of food/sludge/everything but crap backflowing to the clean out. I kept moving the garden hose to different locations. Then the water started flowing down the drain and not backwards to the clean out. It was a nasty job and I gagged a few times and definitely took a shower afterwards but it worked well.
 

Spdc

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If a sink needs drain cleaning, a majority of the time it is a hair clog. You should just simply remove the stopper and remove the hair clog. I typically use a needle nose pliers to reach down and remove the hair.
 
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