Drain auger goes through, water stands.

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Support your community
Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Jeff Handy said:
A blow bag can also break apart a weak solvent joint, or blow out a thin wall in a corroded cast iron, copper, or galvanized drain.

You think you knocked the clog loose, but actually the pipe is ruptured, and now is leaking behind the scenes.
Click to expand...
You sound like that’s happened to ya 🤣

Most all our pipe is under concrete slabs or hung up over a dirt crawlspace.. If it’s two story then it usually has its own vertical stack. Rarely see any problems in the Vertical.

I see problems with upstairs tub drains with long galvy arms stopped up. I hate it too.

I’ve ripped a lot of that stuff out over the years. Old lead pipe, Durham system, galvy water pipe, you name it. This is an old city.
 
Last edited:
another minor hiccup. the plug with the square on it for the access port/clean out in the basement was damaged when removing it. It was stuck and i really had to crank on it. Look like i cracked it around the square bit, so it is no longer air/water tight.


i went to Lowes and got a 3" plug and 4" plug thinking i could simply screw one in place and be done with it.

3" is too small, and 4" is too big.

Quite old iron(?) pipe system, so is this some weird old timey size? Any thoughts what i should be looking for? Ive seen people jam a test plug in there, but i would really rather not do that for a permeant fix. For the moment i can seal it up so its not leaking, but i would need to replace with a proper metal plug soon.


maybe this guy? JONES STEPHENS 3-1/2 in. Lead Plug-P56350 - The Home Depot
 
Last edited:
That’s called an end of line clean out. Get a 3 1/2” clean out plug
 
PVC is fine as long as the cast iron threads are in good shape. Be careful not to cross thread the PVC plug, it can happen quickly and ruin the threads on your new plug
 
I have only assisted some pros who were using the blow bag, never did the whole deed by myself.
I believe in the art of intuitive snaking.

But a friend of mine had a pro use the bag on his galvanized kitchen sink line, which joins up with the sump pump discharge.

One of the galv elbows blew apart at the rusty threads, and made a mess in the recently finished basement.

I think years of drain cleaner had weakened it.
 
Rickyman said:
PVC is fine as long as the cast iron threads are in good shape. Be careful not to cross thread the PVC plug, it can happen quickly and ruin the threads on your new plug
Click to expand...
You have 3.5” pvc plugs ? I’ve never seen those, where you buying those ?
 
I went with a 3.5" brass plug ordered from an online supplier. On the first trip to lowes i bought a 3" and 4" plug assuming if one didnt fit the other would, not so much ha.
 
Rickyman said:
They stock them at Ferguson here, they’re pretty common in my neighborhood
Click to expand...
I’ve never seen a pvc 3.5” plug. Always brass here, good to know they’re made so I don’t mistake a 3.5 for a 4” c.o. one day. But I don’t think they’re sold locally here, just brass.
 
Last edited:
Sometimes adding a bit of dish soap, like Dawn, to the water which is being poured down a drain will help. I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems likely that it helps emulsify some clogs. Especially, when an auger has a narrow tip, like the 100 (or is it 75?) foot hand powered one I have, and it has passed through a clog (based on plausible distances) without breaking it up. That was also what happened to the OP. When the cable is pulled back the detergent seems to help it break up the clog. Just don't use so much detergent that there is foam coming back out at you! Probably not a good idea to do this if a chemical cleaner has already been poured in.
 
Sometimes with heavy grease or paper buildup, snaking doesn't work. You can run it through the clog and pull back and the solids just close back around the snake hole. When this happens I normally just use a blunt object (like one of my cameras) and just push it out that way.
 
I wrap a rag around my cutter bit and swab the line. Use plenty of water.

I use an electric machine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top