geoffhazel
Well-Known Member
New vanity installed in powder room. New sink is a glass bowl with no overflow. The new vanity has two pull out "trays" that interfere with the P-trap, so I put in some little elbows to get to the existing drain, leaving the P-trap above the pull out trays.
Now, at first I used one of those accordion style pipes and bent it into an S and that worked but exhibited the odd behavior:
A little water in the sink just sits there. Once it gets full enough, it all drains in a big rush. Then it starts filling up again.
If you run just a bit of water, like you're rinsing off your hands, the water sits in there forever, not draining at all.
So I took out the accordion pipe and put in two L's like you see in the picture. It's better than it was, but still has the "small amount of water not going down" problem.
I took a video of it filling and draining. If you run the water, it fills up a ways, then drains all at once, fills up, drains, etc. See it here: http://youtu.be/3wFtld1PNt8?list=UUymEW4hkZ0un-Nsrla-Ynqg
I figure it has something to do with the venting. The homeowner says it never had this problem before.
If I took out the trays and lowered the P-trap so that it was a straight shot into the wall drain, do you think that would fix it?
Oh, and early on I thought "I wonder if someone jammed something into the pipe to keep the sewer gas from escaping?" because the sink had been missing for a month or so. I fished around in the pipe and found nothing. Furthermore, the owner said she had been "smelling something" so that confirmed that there was nothing blocking the pipe. Also, if you block the drain and fill the sink, it all rushes out with vigor; if there was a block in the pipe, I'd expect it to stop while it was rushing -- but it won't do that. Once it starts rushing, it finishes emptying. The problem is getting it started with a limited amount of water
Now, at first I used one of those accordion style pipes and bent it into an S and that worked but exhibited the odd behavior:
A little water in the sink just sits there. Once it gets full enough, it all drains in a big rush. Then it starts filling up again.
If you run just a bit of water, like you're rinsing off your hands, the water sits in there forever, not draining at all.
So I took out the accordion pipe and put in two L's like you see in the picture. It's better than it was, but still has the "small amount of water not going down" problem.
I took a video of it filling and draining. If you run the water, it fills up a ways, then drains all at once, fills up, drains, etc. See it here: http://youtu.be/3wFtld1PNt8?list=UUymEW4hkZ0un-Nsrla-Ynqg
I figure it has something to do with the venting. The homeowner says it never had this problem before.
If I took out the trays and lowered the P-trap so that it was a straight shot into the wall drain, do you think that would fix it?
Oh, and early on I thought "I wonder if someone jammed something into the pipe to keep the sewer gas from escaping?" because the sink had been missing for a month or so. I fished around in the pipe and found nothing. Furthermore, the owner said she had been "smelling something" so that confirmed that there was nothing blocking the pipe. Also, if you block the drain and fill the sink, it all rushes out with vigor; if there was a block in the pipe, I'd expect it to stop while it was rushing -- but it won't do that. Once it starts rushing, it finishes emptying. The problem is getting it started with a limited amount of water
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