oh man, donãt you hate when this happens?today on repairs101 ã± iãve got a sink that wonãt drain and if youãre watching thisi imagine youãve got one, too. so iãll take you through your options and show you whatyou can do about it. iãm allowing the washing machine to ventinto the sink which allows for a build-up of what is otherwise just ã¬dryer-lintã® thatnever made it to the dryer. iãll get you
100 ft snake plumbing home depot, a shot of some of that stuff. yeah itãs prettyhorrible. ok as always the first line of defence isgoing to be a plunger. iãm just going to get in there and see if we canãt get a realgood seal on it. i say the plunger is the first line of defence because itãs the mostã¬eco-friendlyã® choice you have: that is
just to use hydraulic pressure to drive throughthe blockage. you know this is the second time iãm trying this and itãs really notworking out for me so iãm going to have to move on to something stronger.alright, so this is my snake. thereãs all kinds of different snakes, actually. thisis just an inexpensive manual snake that youãll find at virtually any good hardware store.this oneãs probably fifteen feet long ã± iãm not really certain ã± iãve had it formany, many years. and, the reason iãm wearing gloves, of course, it to keep me from cominginto contact with the horrible places that this little fellow has been. so iãm justgoing to unwind it and drop it on the floor and show you that thatãs what weãre lookingat. itãs nothing but a spring thatãs been
unwound a bit at the end.so iãm just going to let it seep. i know itãs probably going to be clear in a fewhours. clear enough that i donãt have to bucket it all outside or pitch it out thewindow. so iãm just going to wait it out. thatãs often the best thing you can do, especiallywith home plumbing like a toilet. sometimes, if you can, apply the twenty-four hour rulewhich is just come back twenty-four hours later because very often organic matter willbreak down in the water in that period of time and clear itself. this isnãt going tobut it will seep fast enough through the material. you can see, thatãs just a rag i was usingyesterday. iãve got a lid from one of these rubbermaid storage bins and iãm going touse that to catch the water. look at that.
very often you can just undo these by hand.you donãt even need a pipe wrench. ok now there are a lot of options availableto you, as far as what you can use to open up that elbow joint. this pair of channellockshere might be kind of overkill, theyãre quite something. just an ordinary pair that youmight find in virtually anybodyãs kitchen drawer on the other hand is really all youneed. you can use a pipe wrench but pipe wrenchesare heavy and cumbersome and might be inclined to damage the plastic pipes. there is a newstyle of pipe wrench available. that would certainly be very effective and very usefulbut thatãs kind of an expensive wrench for the average person. so i might still recommendyou go with the medium sized channellocks
here.if all youãve got is say a chain wrench or a locking chain wrench, you know this kindof stuff will obviously do the job but youãre going to have to be very careful, as withthe pipe wrench. you know, youãre going to have to be very, very careful ã± youãre dealingwith plastic fittings and they donãt take a lot.now, a specialty wrench here: the manufacturer was kind enough to let us know what it is.itãs called a ã¬slip and lock nut wrenchã® and iãve had a lot of use for this in theboat building industry. i use it on plastic ã¬through-hullã® fittings. itãs just a widejawed adjustable wrench and youãre just going to slip it like that. now this is a very,very light duty little tool. but if youãre
collecting unusual toolsã– and because theyãrenice and light youãre not as likely to slip and say damage a new fibreglass boat whenyouãre putting in thru-hull fittings. ok so this time iãm going to be wearing myrespirator with the organic cartridges on it. although this isnãt a toilet outlet itis connected to all the other toilet outlets in the neighbourhood and the smell comingout of it is just ferocious. youãre going to want to ventilate the room well and ã±like iãm doing ã± wear a respirator. iãve already loosened off the top nut withthese channellocks here. iãve got my catch basin underneath, iãm just undoing it andout it comes. iãll just pour the water into this catch basin here and ã± to my surpriseã± the elbow is completely clear. the problem
is further downstream. lucky for me iãvegot a snake. before you do anything else you need to shove a rag or something to plug thathole because you get the sewage gas smell coming up because now thereãs no water trapto stop it. so youãve got to get something in there fast. ughhh! the smell is just horrific.alright iãve got my mask on, iãve got my gloves on and iãm ready to tackle this thing.the first thing iãm going to do is just back off that nut. ok itãs loose. iãve got mycatch basin here. ok iãm going in with the snake. ok iãm goingto use the crank. itãs a very crude little crank but it works nonetheless: it allowsyou to spin. you just tighten that thumbscrew right there and the s-turn in the metal allowsyou to crank a little bit then you back it
off and feed some more in. there you go. itãsgoing a lot further now. and, good. check it out, that is the absolute end of my snake.it is all the way in, all but this one foot that you see in my hand. so iãm going toput my catch-basin right here again and slowly pull it out and clean it off as itãs comingout. this rubbermaid lid ã± storage bin lid i was telling you about earlier. very handy.ok iãve got my mask back on, my gloves back on. iãve got a couple of wet rags and myplastic bag ready to receive the snake. weãll expect the worst and hope for the best. pullthe plug. iãll start pulling this thing out and feeding it into the bag, cleaning it offas necessary. ok you can see this black organic matter coming up already. thatãs what iãmgoing to try to avoid coming into contact
with and iãll try and catch it all with therag. iãm already seeing some schmere inside the plastic bag so iãm glad iãm using aplastic bag because clearly the rag isnãt getting it all. ok thatãs pretty horrible.iãll put it with the rag and everything in the bag, get this plug back in for the momentand get myself organized to put that water trap back in. ok, here we go. there we goã± you want a nice seat on this seal there. then let this thing pull it down into it.now hopefully thatãs going to hold water. hand tight is generally tight enough and handtight on top as well. this is the critical area here thatãs going to leak if we havea leak. iãll leave my catch-basin underneath and get some water in it.[water running]
ok well i donãt know that itãs running properlybut i do know at least that the trap is full of water and so the smell canãt come up fromthe sewer and i can take this damn thing off. and here iãve gone and knocked my glassesoff. how you doing? itãs not over yet though, i havenãt eventested it, but iãll tell you this straight-up: if it doesnãt work iãm going to pour somedrano down there. and, you know thatãs my last line of defence. you might want to goand try a product like this drano max gel. iãve had a lot of success with this in otherareas of the house. so it says on the back it contains sodium hydrochloride and, youknow, itãs a great product i just wanted to suggest that when youãre trying to decidewhether or not to use a product like that:
consider the fact that the water youãre pouringit into is indirectly the same water youãre
drinking.ok it sounds like itãs going to require some more plunging. yeah. itãs not free runningyet. [water running]eventually i did break down and clean the sink. kind of.
