Major air gap issue

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Amkey

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Hi,
I did a search but did not find anything so I hope I am posting something that has been answered already.

Water is shooting out of my air gap consistently. I know this isn't normal and I made sure that the air gap wasn't clogged and also the disposal. I finally called a plumber and all he told me was that I had a really cheap disposal and I need a new one in order for the air gap not to flow with water. After research, I think he is somewhat right because the disposal is cheap as hell and I am sure there is crap all gunked up inside. I plan on installing the new disposal tonight, but I wanted to make sure that it couldn't be another issue. For instance, if my dishwasher was broken or clogged somehow inside the actual dishwasher, would that cause the air gap to flow? The dishwasher has a lot of hard water build up and I want to make sure that would not cause the air gap issue. Also could a clogged drain line (to the wall) cause the air gap to flow or is it definitely the line from the disposal?

Anyone else have experience with cheap disposals and air gap flow?

Any help is appreciated =)
 
what you need is a cock hole cover and get rid of that damn airgap.


disconnect the airgap. and hook the hose from the dishwsher straight to the garbage disposal..see drawing

it must have that loop it shows, tie the hose off to the clips holding in your sink

thAZPCKNQS.jpg
 
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Thanks for the reply; however this doesn't help my current situation. I have a clog somewhere and it's not the air gap. I just want to make sure that the issue is for sure between the line and the disposal, and not in the actual dishwasher. I think an actual clog in the dishwasher would make the dishwasher leak or overflow, and not shoot water from the air gap.
 
disconnect hose from airgap to disposal. blow in it, verify flow.

if you eliminate the hose from airgap to disposal, and the air gap fitting..the problem goes away

hook the hose from dishwasher directly to disposal. turn on dishwasher, verify flow

the hole in your sink, 1 of 2 things, buy a cock hole cover or a soap dispencer

astini-brushed-stainless-steel-270ml-integrated-kitchen-sink-soap-dispenser-2201-p16441-64002_im.jpg

thDVYB054P.jpg
 
to address your plumbers assessment. a disposal has a hole in the side of it, the waste from the washer goes in and down a drain

what type of disposal has no bearing on how the washer drains. if it is backing up. their is a clog in the hose or the airgap fitting.

or the drain hooked to the disposal is clogged

i would never, tell a customer to lay out money on a disposal unless i was at the location, verifying it does not work.

did he volunteer to bring you a new disposal? or come and find the problem and fix it

find a different plumber
 
So he mentioned the new disposal because the current one is very low horsepower and doesn't chop and grind all that well. I can attest to this because I have always been able to put tomato peels and potato peels in my disposals, but this one doesn't do a good job, and it has backed up more than once. I quit putting major stuff down the disposal but he said that even easy stuff is getting clogged up because it isn't doing a good job.

He did want to sell me a disposal, but I can install one in about an hour so I don't plan to use him anyway.
 
the waste coming from your dishwasher does not need to be ground up thru the garbage disposal.

all the garbage disposal is to the dishwasher is a drain connection. you can COMPLETELY remove the disposal and hook the drain to a wye branch

tail piece.http://screencast.com/t/LWR1XTJn0Qy You may have a small disposal, but what I am trying to say, It has NOTHING to do with your dishwasher draining problem.


if your air gap fitting is leaking it is because its broke.http://screencast.com/t/8uiMsOl8
NOT CLOOGED, BROKE, wore out, busted, internally damaged, :D

The Design House Dishwasher Air Gap, constructed from durable brass and ABS materials, is designed to ensure that water flows only in the right direction during the dishwasher cycle. The air gap also helps to prevent standing water in the dishwasher tub in the event of a drain hose clog. Should a dishwasher drain hose become clogged with food matter, a dishwasher will still have the ability to pump out the waste water from within the wash tub. Will help prevent any contaminated water from entering dishwasher and contaminating dishes or possibly leaking from the wash cycle into a home.


save your money, if your disposal works ok, use it till it dies

rework the hose as i have suggested get back to us and tell us how it works
 
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Frodo,
Your advice was so helpful to me last night when I tackled this issue. So when I got under the sink, I realized the issue. The air gap isn't broken nor is the disposal the problem. I checked for clogs in every orifice and ran the dishwasher with drain hose open into a bucket and no clog there. Upon not finding any clog, I saw the damn problem. The location of the air gap hole in relation to the disposal creates a kink in the rubber hose leading to the disposal from the air gap. No matter which way I moved it, there was no fixing the almost complete closed kink. I would have to completely turn to disposal clockwise to have a better proximity to the air gap, but then I would have to rearrange some piping in order to all fit together. Of course I didn't have the time or the materials to do this, so this is where I thanked you out loud. I never knew you could just bypass the air gap, so I did just that. However, I had to improvise on that as well. I had to cut a piece of the other rubber hose and fit it over the rubber hose on the end of the drain for it to fit on the disposal and then I just clamped the hell out of it. My other concern, is that I am not sure my loop is sufficient. I do not have 36" clearance from the bottom of my sink to my counter top so there is no way I can loop it a min of 36".

I am nervous about the air gap because I don't have a lot of room to properly loop the drain hose, so I was wondering if the hose from the disposal to the air gap has to be heavy duty rubber hose? Can I find a more flexible hose like the corrugated plastic tubing and use that in place of the rubber hose so there is not such a significant kink?

Here are some pictures of the finished job.

DW 1.jpg

DW 2.jpg

DW 3.jpg

DW 4.jpg
 
you can get a 5/8'' inside diametor hose at and car parts store..

also, when you clamp hose to hose shove a small piece of 1/2'' copper inside the hose, it gives you something to tighten up on

if not, the hose will just leak, or slide off



as long as the hose is looped above the disposal your ok..does not have to be 36''


you did good, drink a cold beer, put your feet up
 
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Thank you! What makes this even more amazing is that I did it with screaming 11 month old twins YIKES! Hence my no time to do **** issue.

So this will get me by for a while, and I have the hose hanging from a make shift loop and thumbtack.

So there no reason to have a super thick rigid rubber hose from the disposal to the air gap? Could I use like a flexible silicone or plastic tube? When I searched images, all of them had this same black rubber hose so I thought maybe it has something to do with code, heat, clamping ability or water collection. For example could I use something like this and cut it to length and then clamp it?

Capture.JPG
 
the reason for the thick black rubber hoses is the water in a dishwasher, on sanitary rinse is 180 degrees

you need a hose that will not melt, its only about 25 cents or less a foot. ask for 5/8 ID rubber hose at any auto parts store

does your sink have clamps to hold it down to the counter top?

I think your garden hose will melt.

thread a small wire thru the clip and tie the hose up...if your thumb tact is sturdy, it will work for now
 
you see that DW 1.jpg


that could be a problem. you need http://screencast.com/t/1zv45kdj

its called a 1 1/2'' flat tail peice.

remove the 2 screws holding the black 90 onto the disposal, remove it,,salvage, the rubber washer and the metal piece that bolts to disposal

put the metal and rubber on the new tail peice... take the nut off that was conecting the blak 90 to the white pipe

put nut on new pipe install new pipe. turn the disposal to line every thing up


http://screencast.com/t/jUPi5ISS
 
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As for your first post, I thought temp was an issue too, but then the water from the dishwasher discharges through the plastic corrugated to the air gap at the highest temp right (being the initial process) then you have the air gap, and then that water which has most likely cooled a bit from the traveling goes in to the disposal. So if the plastic drain tube doesn't melt from the initial process and supposedly the hottest, why would the tube melt from the air gap to the disposal if I use the same type of tube? Just my thoughts last night when I was working on it. I will hit the auto parts store up though if I decide to put the air gap back in play.

As for your second post, this is exactly what I ran in to last night and is the major problem that I didn't have the time or materials to fix. If you look at the picture head on, my air gap is in the very right hand corner of the sink and cabinet (arrow point up) and all of my piping is to the far left (arrow point left) and the disposal of course is connected where you and I both circled it. In order for the air gap hose to be straight and not kinked whatsoever, I would have to rotate the garbage disposal clockwise by quite a bit to align everything. If I did that, then I would need even more of an elbow piece. I mean seems like I would need a damn semi circle to come back around to the white pipe. Does that make sense?

Capture.JPG
 
I just looked at your second picture of the finished product, I missed it earlier. So with respect to your picture, turning my disposal the exact way you have it, would totally line my air gap line up perfect; however all my sink drainage guts are on the left side.
 
LOL....ok,,,,i meant to turn the disposal so that the drain lines up. pointed at. the p trap.

not away from it..then you would need a hand full or elbows a.gif

no no,, that would not do.

if your hose was used initially it should be ok to use,,, i missed it was used already [sorry]
 

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That bagger 5 disposal is okay. Same thing I use. they make better ones with stainless steel grind chambers. The badger 5 is just steel and rot out leaving bigger gaps for larger chunks of food to pass through.
 

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