Standing water 2' into the kitchen cleanout

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AaronM

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My kitchen sink keeps on backing up, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what's going on. I've snaked it several times. I managed to get my snake pretty far into the line by connecting it to a drill, and barely anything was stuck to it.

The cleanout for my plumbing is below the kitchen sink. I just bought a wifi endoscope that connects to my iPad, and it looks like I have standing water 2' into the cleanout. Is this normal, or the sign of a bad problem? Using city sewage. Years ago we had professional come out to snake the kitchen sink because my wife had been pouring one ounce worth of coffee grounds down the sink every morning, and now she doesn't put anything down the drain except water and soap. The plumber mentioned that it seemed like the pipe leaving the kitchen had a "bend" in it that was acting like a small p-trap, which was a bad sign.

Thoughts?
 
Not sure if this is relevant, but when I open the cleanout it stinks really, really bad.
 
Even if you don’t put anything down, you get a lot of fats, oils, grease.(FOG). A snake will go right through FOG and not clear it. We now use a jetter to clear the kitchen lines of FOG and it works really well. The next time you snake it, when you pull it back see if it is slick, that’s a big sign that you have a FOG plug.
 
Not familiar with jetting, but can you achieve the same result with a pressure washer?
 
how far is "pretty far" ? I run an average of 45' of 5/8" cable to clear kitchen drains. Some times 60+ ft.
you need a longer cable and a 1/4" drill snake is only going to punch a small hole trough it if.
 
Just do the math. How far is it from the kitchen sink to the closest water closet? That’s a good estimation of the length you need.
 
RenewDave said:
Just do the math. How far is it from the kitchen sink to the closest water closet? That’s a good estimation of the length you need.
Click to expand...

My bathroom sinks are 20-25' away from my kitchen sink, and my auger reaches 25'. The consistency of the junk on my snake changes when it gets 22-25' into the drain, and it feels somewhat sticky/slimy as if there's fat or something. I ran a bunch of dawn dish soap and hot water down the drain afterwards.

Guess I'll do some research on attachments for a pressure washer.
 
Get a longer drain cleaning machine because that hydro jetter might not clear it up if it’s a hard clog. I like to snake first before jetting lines helps the jetter go in smoother and farther.
 
AaronM said:
My kitchen sink keeps on backing up, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what's going on. I've snaked it several times. I managed to get my snake pretty far into the line by connecting it to a drill, and barely anything was stuck to it.

The cleanout for my plumbing is below the kitchen sink. I just bought a wifi endoscope that connects to my iPad, and it looks like I have standing water 2' into the cleanout. Is this normal, or the sign of a bad problem? Using city sewage. Years ago we had professional come out to snake the kitchen sink because my wife had been pouring one ounce worth of coffee grounds down the sink every morning, and now she doesn't put anything down the drain except water and soap. The plumber mentioned that it seemed like the pipe leaving the kitchen had a "bend" in it that was acting like a small p-trap, which was a bad sign.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Your kitchen line has its own stack, usually 2”. The blockage in my experience is at the sweep. I am assuming you have a cast iron stack. Cast iron gets porous on the inside and it catches all of the grease from your line. You can rent a machine and either run the cable from the stack clean out. If you are able to, you could also run a cable the line from the smaller vent pipe on the roof. That is a more direct route and no mess to clean up.
 
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