Trying to clean stopped kitchen drain with 50 ft replacement cable

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PS85

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, Connecticut
Kitchen sink in my sister's house is all stopped up. It's located in Illinois and has a slab foundation, something I haven't seen before. A year ago I cleaned out the stopped up kitchen sink in my house, with a basement. I used a quarter inch 25ft rain auger I bought from Harbor Freight It didn't work when I sent it down from the kitchen sink, but it did work when I went down to the basement, unscrewed the PVC coupling and cleaned out all the soap on the sides. The 25 feet was not long enough to do the job starting from the kitchen sink, but worked fine when I opened the coupling halfway through.

My sister's sink has been stopped up for months, the sink is full of drano, and little pieces of soap are in the sink. I tried the quarter inch 25 ft snake from Walmart to no avail. Again, I suspectthe snake is too short.

The only 50 ft rentals are 1/2 inch snake, which is too big for the 2" diameter (OD) PVC pipe in her and my systems.

Home Depot sells a 5/16" by 50 foot replacement cable which is not much larger than the quarter inch, but it's 50 feet.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCr...otted-End-Replacement-Cable-BC96106/202759341

It's meant to go on a BC-260 machine. As that costs about $250 it's out of range moneywise.

From what I've read, slab homes have the plumbing in the slab, and to reach it jackhammers and pulling up floorboards are necessary.

Is there any way I can use that reasonably priced 50 ft snake without buying the whole $200+ unit it goes to? I'd rent the BC-260 if I could but rentals are not available.
 
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I have snaked back to back lav drains from the vent on the roof....but that way you will lose about 10 ft going from the roof you need to get that drain cleaner out of the sink it gonna cause more problems than a clog use a wet vac
 
Kitchen sink in my sister's house is all stopped up. It's located in Illinois and has a slab foundation, something I haven't seen before. A year ago I cleaned out the stopped up kitchen sink in my house, with a basement. I used a quarter inch 25ft rain auger I bought from Harbor Freight It didn't work when I sent it down from the kitchen sink, but it did work when I went down to the basement, unscrewed the PVC coupling and cleaned out all the soap on the sides. The 25 feet was not long enough to do the job starting from the kitchen sink, but worked fine when I opened the coupling halfway through.

My sister's sink has been stopped up for months, the sink is full of drano, and little pieces of soap are in the sink. I tried the quarter inch 25 ft snake from Walmart to no avail. Again, I suspectthe snake is too short.

The only 50 ft rentals are 1/2 inch snake, which is too big for the 2" diameter (OD) PVC pipe in her and my systems.

Home Depot sells a 5/16" by 50 foot replacement cable which is not much larger than the quarter inch, but it's 50 feet.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCr...otted-End-Replacement-Cable-BC96106/202759341

It's meant to go on a BC-260 machine. As that costs about $250 it's out of range moneywise.

From what I've read, slab homes have the plumbing in the slab, and to reach it jackhammers and pulling up floorboards are necessary.

Is there any way I can use that reasonably priced 50 ft snake without buying the whole $200+ unit it goes to? I'd rent the BC-260 if I could but rentals are not available.
you can also buy a 50 by 1/4"cable from general or rigid but the drum on your snake must be able to accept that length
 
are you sure the snake is not going up the vent????put a small bend at the end of the cable and just bump the trigger until it drops down the ty another way is to run the snake in reverse until you drop down the ty
 
Geofd: Thank you very much for your answer.

A. I'm a novice at plumbing, though I did successfully snake out the drain in my own home from the basement. Not sure what the "ty" is in "until it drops down the ty another way is to run the snake in reverse until you drop down the ty". Could you explain for a plumbing newcomer?

B. Your quote: "you can also buy a 50 by 1/4"cable from general or rigid but the drum on your snake must be able to accept that length". That's a problem-the snake cable is $44 but the tool with the drum with it costs over $250, and nobody in the area is renting them, only the 1/2 inch type which is too big. I was wondering if I could just buy the $44 replacement cable, attach the back end to a drill then snake the cable out one window and back into the kitchen from another window to keep the cable straight and to prevent it from kinking as I turn it. As the cable goes into the pipe I can just re-adjust the cable's route to adjust. Or maybe make a drum from a paper concrete 10 inch form with boards glued onto the ends or something. Ever hear of anyone successfully using a cable without buying a very expensive drum to get the job done for a one time job?

C. I will definitely remove the drano with a wet-dry vac the first thing.
 
the ty is the fitting in the wall that looks basically like at tee allows water to drain below and becomes a vent to allow air in so the fixture can drain above
when you buy a drain cleaning machine some time just the cable can be changed out to allow for a longer cable of the same diameter or a shorter cable of a larger diameter
if your machine/drum will accept a longer cable any manufacturer will work
 
Much thanks for all your good advice, Geofd. As it turned out, surprisingly I didn't need a 50 ft cable after all.

The kitchen sink is a double sink. Months ago, an attempt was made to use some kind of suction cup device called DrainBuster, which was still in the sink. I tried using it at first, but with the second sink open to the air, nothing happened. So I tried that 25 ft cable a couple of days ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Buster-Plunger-Cleaner-Toilet-Unclog/dp/B00HQOZFUI

This time, following a hunch, I took the strainer to the right hand sink, inserted it into a yellow diswashing glove, put it in the sink and held in place by wedging a rod between the now waterproof sink strainer and a cabinet that goes over the sink. The DrainBuster seemed to show some progress when used on the left sink with the right sink thus plugged. The water level went down.


Then I poured some almost-boiling water, (it is PVC pipe down there), and the sink drained freely. I followed this up by 15 minutes of just running the hot water. Problem solved. Tomorrow I get that bacterial stuff that you pour down the sink at night to consume the soap deposit around the drain pipe.

Once again, thanks for the advice, even though I was lucky enough not to have to use it this time.
 
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Much thanks for all your good advice, Geofd. As it turned out, surprisingly I didn't need a 50 ft cable after all.

The kitchen sink is a double sink. Months ago, an attempt was made to use some kind of suction cup device called DrainBuster, which was still in the sink. I tried using it at first, but with the second sink open to the air, nothing happened. So I tried that 25 ft cable a couple of days ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Buster-Plunger-Cleaner-Toilet-Unclog/dp/B00HQOZFUI

This time, following a hunch, I took the strainer to the right hand sink, inserted it into a yellow diswashing glove, put it in the sink and held in place by wedging a rod between the now waterproof sink strainer and a cabinet that goes over the sink. The DrainBuster seemed to show some progress when used on the left sink with the right sink thus plugged. The water level went down.


Then I poured some almost-boiling water, (it is PVC pipe down there), and the sink drained freely. I followed this up by 15 minutes of just running the hot water. Problem solved. Tomorrow I get that bacterial stuff that you pour down the sink at night to consume the soap deposit around the drain pipe.

Once again, thanks for the advice, even though I was lucky enough not to have to use it this time.
well that's a good out come glad it worked out
 

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