AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
The kitchen sink drain in our 4 year old house has been slowing down recently and yesterday it stopped draining. It happened when a large bowl of water was emptied after being used to wash other pans and utensils. I had previously taken the trap and other pipes off and found no blockage, just some normal goop buildup. There's a fairly long horizontal run before it goes into the wall that had me concerned. I have a small 20' drain snake that I got all the way in and spun it and nothing felt obstructed. Brought the garden hose in and squirted full power into the pipe and it took it for 30-40 seconds no problem. Put all back together and dumped a bowl of water and it immediately plugged and had standing water in the sink bowl. Huh? Got a clean plunger we happen to have and had wife hold a stopper tight on one bowl and I plunged the other and couldn't force water down. What the...?? Took it all back apart looked all over, snaked, hosed, all good. Just about ready to decide to call a plumber today and remembered seeing something between the bottom of the sinks and the drain where it goes into the wall. It's a sewer drain vent fitting that eliminates the need for a vent pipe. It was screwed into 1&1/2 pipe but wasn't glued in so what the heck, dumped a bowl of water in the sink, unscrewed the vent thing and the water drained like a college boy chugging beer. This thing is some kind of one way valve, like a sewer PCV valve apparently and it must have a spring and plunger inside. Screwed it back in and the drain stops up. I can see why they'd use it as the sink is in a corner of the countertop on an outside corner of the house with 2 windows. Got one coming then this one will be dismembered for autopsy. Kinda reminded me of someone's problem with a disposer draining (GON?). Pretty happy I remembered seeing that thing before I called a plumber in. No idea how long these things have been around but remember it if you have sink problems sometime.