Clothes washer discharge

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1

Originally Posted By: janderson
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Looking for opinions as to the cause of this situation. Two plumbers and one drain cleaning service are scratching heads. My thought was that it is has to be some type of vent problem.


Quad home, units are stacked with two on each side. They share common waste plumbing systems on each side. One of the top units has been experiencing a back up of water when the clothes washing machine discharges water on the spin cycle, when pumping out the soapy water. This is a wall type discharge 2" pipe diameter. According to the homeowner, this has been occurring since they moved in 14 years ago, they purchased the unit when it was brand new and are the only owners. They have adapted by waiting for the spin cycle and stopping it half way though, then wait for about one minute for the water to drain and then start it up again.

The main line has been cleaned recently, that contractor said at 45 feet only a small amount of string was removed and the rest was clean. However, in speaking with them they did mention that they were unable to go up though the vent and out the roof cap as their seemed to be some type of obstruction. When I questioned them about that in greater detail they said that was not unusual for that to happen because of the design of waste venting in quad units.

--
Within the seeds of ignorance lie the fruits of denial

Jeremiah

2

Originally Posted By: ekartal
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


janderson wrote:
However, in speaking with them they did mention that they were unable to go up though the vent and out the roof cap as their seemed to be some type of obstruction.


As long as there's an obstruction of any kind, it's not properly vented.

Erol Kartal
3

Originally Posted By: kbowles
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Jerimiah,


I have seen suds back up into vents and cause p-traps to be sucked clean because the air has to come from somewhere and the path of least resistance is always chosen. They may need to switch to a low sudsing detergent and cold water. I have seen this help.

--
Life's a journey, not a destination.
Aerosmith

4

Originally Posted By: janderson
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Thanks for the replies icon_smile.gif


I'm with you Erol. This must be a vent problem. From what I have discovered, the builder discounted the problem as operator error and refused to do anything.

I had thought about the sudsing of the detergent, however, according to the current resident, low sudsing detergent has been tried, along with replacing the clothes washer.

--
Within the seeds of ignorance lie the fruits of denial

Jeremiah

5

Originally Posted By: jpeck
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Jeremiah,


A couple of questions first.

Those are one story condos on top of one story condos, backed up to two more just like them, right?

They could not "go up" to the roof through the washer clean out? I would expect not.

They should certainly be able to "go down" from the roof stack terminal, unless someone has some fittings in up side down, sideways, and bass ackwards, like in the other post (but even that upside down fitting would not restrict "going down" from the roof, it would just let it go straight down.

When you say "One of the top units has been experiencing a back up of water when the clothes washing machine discharges water on the spin cycle, when pumping out the soapy water." you mean the back up is ONLY at the clothes washer, right?

Okay, here is my guess (forget the first three for a minute) if the standpipe for the clothes washer discharge is TOO SHORT (not 48" tall) you will almost ALWAYS get soapy water backing up when the clothes washer drains, and sometimes you will get just plain old non-soapy water to back up too.

This is because the clothes washer pump pumps out so much water so fast, that anything 'not right' will cause it to back up. I once saw a stand pipe which was only about 12" tall (then it was the trap and into the stack), and EVERY TIME the clothes washer drained, it backed up, because that 12" stand pipe could not handle the flow of water, without any soap, but with a little soap, the suds would just bubble up and spill out of the top of the stand pipe, like someone put way too much soap in the clothes washer and bubbles come out from under the lid (same thing with a dish washer, try accidentally squirting in some hand wash dish detergent instead of dish washer dish detergent - whooee, talk about soap bubbles ![icon_biggrin.gif](upload://iKNGSw3qcRIEmXySa8gItY6Gczg.gif) - been there, done that ONCE, look twice, pour once).

Now, include the first three again. I'd START with the stand pipe and check its height, but it does not sound like that is the 'only' problem.

--
Jerry Peck
South Florida

6

Originally Posted By: janderson
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Quote:
Those are one story condos on top of one story condos, backed up to two more just like them, right?

Yep.
Quote:
When you say "One of the top units has been experiencing a back up of water when the clothes washing machine discharges water on the spin cycle, when pumping out the soapy water." you mean the back up is ONLY at the clothes washer, right?

Correct.
Quote:
Now, include the first three again. I'd START with the stand pipe and check its height, but it does not sound like that is the 'only' problem.


The walls in the laundry room are finished so checking the height would require removing the gypsum wall board, although after reading your post I think that will solve this issue once and for all.

--
Within the seeds of ignorance lie the fruits of denial

Jeremiah
7

Originally Posted By: jpeck
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


janderson wrote:
The walls in the laundry room are finished so checking the height would require removing the gypsum wall board, although after reading your post I think that will solve this issue once and for all.


Opening the walls would let you see it, but you could also insert a plumbers snake into the washer drain, you will feel it hit bottom at the trap. Mark the snake with tape and pull it back up. If you've got much less than 4 feet, especially if it only goes in a foot or two before hitting the bottom of the trap, that is probably your problem.

--
Jerry Peck
South Florida
8

Originally Posted By: janderson
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.


Thanks, sometimes we overlook the simplest solution. icon_smile.gif

–
Within the seeds of ignorance lie the fruits of denial


Jeremiah