Washing machine soil pipe clearing help please.

H - try boiling water first - usually good for a first go. If that doesn't work, then i've used something called 'Heavy Duty' (yellow bottle) from B&Q which shifts the real stubborn stuff. 

James

Go to your local plumbing merchants and ask for the proper stuff which should come in litre plastic bottles [ this will be a VERY high sulphuric acid so you will need the appropriate safety goggles and rubber gloves ] pour this down the waste pipe and wait a while, your pipe will become very hot as the acid dissolves  the waste. Alternatively take apart the waste pipework and clean through manually or replace with new.

   Hope this helps but for the life of me i cannot remember the name of the acid but for now you need to know that this product is seriously nasty shit and needs a great deal of respect.

Paul

Run a hose pipe through the blocked one at full flow?

Thanks guys , all good.

Unfortunately the pipe runs be hind all of the kitchen units and is "liquid" welded, so the best option of taking it apart is out.

I've been reminded that the guy is coming to look a the washing machine on Monday, so I'll ask him too, may be he even has some stuff on board.

I use this as a diluted 10% solution  to change the PH of tapwater when I run out of water for my carnivorous plant collection. Whatever you do Don't add water to it, it should only be added to the water. Otherwise    BOOM!

Howard,

Do a hot wash without clothes using 12oz of washing soda crystals dissolved into hot water, this usually does the trick.

Chris N

"And as Blueknows said, it's nasty shit so do follow the instructions."

That should read as Deadlifter says, as i`m a plumber with nearly thirty years experience , good to know your on the ball with product info Mr Mustard

Howard,

if you have a blockage in a long pipe which you can't practically dissemble, you may need some kind of rod to push along it to clear it out. Using chemicals to dissolve it may not work, and they may damage the rubber seals on the washing machine so be careful.

If you have a guy coming to look at the washing machine on Monday, hopefully he'll know all about how to clear it without too much demolition.

My bosch washing machine periodically stops working and shows a 'fault light' because it blocks up in the drain outlet pipe, fortunately it's a very short distance to the under-sink u bend drainage and simply needs taking apart to remove a slimy wet lump of compressed fluff about the size of a small dead rat. It's easy but a horrible job (but someone has to do it) and it solves the problem completely.

Chris's idea with using soda crystals on a hot wash is a good thing to do occasionally, i do that because of the water being very hard, but this alone may not clear a blockage.

Could try the hose-pipe idea, that may work... you may need your welly's and your sou’wester on though!

Debs

You could use brick acid, cheap, safe and will do the job or caustic soda.

I've un blocked many a water intake on the boat using the hose-pipe method, just connect it to a tap & turn on full blast.

steve

Hi BigH -

I tried this device last year, and it worked as advertised:

http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Pr...chment/dp/B000KKOZ6A

Our kitchen drain was plugged well beyond the trap.  Liquid drain cleaner didn't help.  But once we fed the device into the drain, and started the water, it took no more than 30 seconds before the pressure built up and then....whoosh.   The sweet sound of victory (and of plumber's bill avoided....no offense to Deadlifter of course!).

Hook

You quoted applying it direction into the pipe (that is blocked) so  i guess it wouldn't risk damage to the rubber seals in the washing machine.

Although that is a typical lazy man way of doing things!

lucky for us they don't sell dynomite in the plumbing merchants  

It`s not that it`s a lazy way of doing things, after all the product is designed for that specific job. You can buy various items from springs to small bore pipes that connect to the tap and force water out at various angles and these can be quite effective so long as you can get them to go around the various bends in the pipework. Blockages can be caused by a number of reasons like scale build up to incorrect installation of pipework [ little or no fall on the pipe or burrs on the pipe ends where they meet the fitting ]

Howard,

Many years ago around 1990 my washing machine would go through a wash but not empty any water out.

So i would pull the crinkle pipe out of the out flow pipe and lay it on the kitchen floor into a bowl and it would empty out.

After doing this for a couple of weeks a mate came round and said take the out flow tube off the back of the washing machine.

We did it and took it out onto my patio and stretched it out big time and looked through it.

The problem was their, You could see it as clear as day stuck in the middle of the pipe.

Its the crinkle out flow pipes that cause the problems imo because things get stuck in them.

Stu