Kitchen sink not draining

[Pudsey Bear]

Kitchen sink not draining

New ground for me, I was just tidying the van the other day and decided to run the water out of the taps as it's getting a bit cool around here, I let the bathroom tap drain most of the tank, then the shower, yesterday I remembered I'd not drained the kitchen tap, not much in there, but it wouldn't go down the plug hole, it has always been a good drainer so no idea why this should be, I got my plunger out of the house, but all it has done is make it leak under the sink, not exactly sure how to proceed, any ideas.

Kev.

 

[teejay]

Mornin' sorry to hear you're having problem with your van. Is it freezing where you are, has the pipe frozen up? Does your drain pipe go into a grey waste water tank? If so is it full? Try some warm water down it-no boiling though. There wont be a U bend on your pipes. A plunger wont move ice in the pipe but warm water will. Check that leak first and fix that before you put anything down the pipe. If you don't have a grey waste tank or its not connected put a bucket under the exit pipe so you can catch whatever comes out-it may give you the answer as to what caused the blockage. Shouldn't use a plunger on the pipes as they are nowhere near as robust as house piping-some are just a push tight fit on connections.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Hi TJ, no not that cold yet, not had a chance to actually look into it yet, but I'm a bit anal about what I put down the waste, some debris will always get in there, but I always use very soapy water to wash up, and run a little hot down when I have finished.

I shall hide the plunger though

I was considering a length of cable to perhaps poke it, or not

 

[Trek]

Was the van parked on the flat ?

I would have thought that a plunger would be far to agressive to use on small bore caravan type waste plumbing

you may have blown the pipe off the sink waste fitting , do you have access to underside of sink to check ?

in a domestic situation this waste fitting under the sink would have a bottle trap or a u bend but in caravans it could be just a straight though connection so a trap should be fitted down the line

on my current camper these are black circular fittings about 80mm diameter which have a cap on them that can be unscrewed to allow cleaning

it is possible you have a build up of fat grease and food particles in your kitchen sink trap



To drain my water system i empty water tank via its internal drain plug then i switch off the water pump then open the drain valves in both hot and cold pipes near the pump this drops the water outside then i open all taps and shower leaving the mixers in the middle this allows air in through the taps at lets water run out of drain valves

i then turn on water pump for a few seconds to get some of the water out of 5he pump

 

[yorkslass]

Same thing happened to us once, we used a plunger and ended up emptying the contents of the sink into the drawers below.
As teejay has said it's probably a loose push fit connection.
Before using the warm water, tip some bicarb of soda down, it's great for dissolving anything down there.
I don't suppose it would harm to try and poke loose whatever's there.

 

[teejay]

Hi TJ, no not that cold yet, not had a chance to actually look into it yet, but I'm a bit anal about what I put down the waste, some debris will always get in there, but I always use very soapy water to wash up, and run a little hot down when I have finished.

I shall hide the plunger though

I was considering a length of cable to perhaps poke it, or not

Yes hide the plunger! lol. No grey waste tank fitted then-is it just draining to open air at the moment? The trouble with trying a length of cable is it may get stuck and not go all the way as the cable will be flexible but the pipe itself is usually ribbed pipe not smooth so more chance of getting cable stuck. Plus any bends along the pipe will hold up progress as well. Bends are usually actually joints and are 90 degree T connections so you wouldn't get round one or more of those anyway. You may find that the actual blockage is not your sink also. Your bathroom sink and or shower drains will possibly also be connected to the same pipe so that complicates things a bit there too. EG a lot of hair going down the shower drain can easily block a pipe! and that could have a knock on effect for your sink. I would try myself to block off the exit ends of any grey waste pipes outside with a cork or similar, get some proprietary drain unblocker and use it to fill all your pipes-leave for the recommended time and then flush it all through. as I said try and catch it in a bucket so you can/ may see what the cause was.

 

[raynipper]

Swish curtain wire Kev. Cheap, flexible and you can put a small hook on the end to drag out gunge. I use a 2m length regularly on all our drains.

Ray.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Was the van parked on the flat ?

I would have thought that a plunger would be far to agressive to use on small bore caravan type waste plumbing

you may have blown the pipe off the sink waste fitting , do you have access to underside of sink to check ?

in a domestic situation this waste fitting under the sink would have a bottle trap or a u bend but in caravans it could be just a straight though connection so a trap should be fitted down the line

on my current camper these are black circular fittings about 80mm diameter which have a cap on them that can be unscrewed to allow cleaning

it is possible you have a build up of fat grease and food particles in your kitchen sink trap



To drain my water system i empty water tank via its internal drain plug then i switch off the water pump then open the drain valves in both hot and cold pipes near the pump this drops the water outside then i open all taps and shower leaving the mixers in the middle this allows air in through the taps at lets water run out of drain valves

i then turn on water pump for a few seconds to get some of the water out of 5he pump

Parked on a bit of a slant, but it's always been fine at this angle, I usually do the last wash up at home, the pipe is convoluted (why ffs) possibly grease but as mentioned, I'm usually careful about this, glad I didn't just dump the water from the tank I'd not have known about this until we next went away.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I do have a grey waste tank fitted, van is a Autocruise Wentworth.

I'll not get chance until tomorrow now to have a look (got PET CT scan this afto) hopefully I'll be able to see something, with a bit of luck it won't be one continuous length of pipe and I can dismantle it in bits for examination.

 

[trevskoda]

I do have a grey waste tank fitted, van is a Autocruise Wentworth.

I'll not get chance until tomorrow now to have a look (got PET CT scan this afto) hopefully I'll be able to see something, with a bit of luck it won't be one continuous length of pipe and I can dismantle it in bits for examination.

How many blinkin sites are you on,regards roadrunner.

 

[Milly]

Hans´s remedy.

Funnel pushed onto hose pipe, place funnel over plug hole (hold it down really well) , connect other end of hose pipe to mains water and give it a good squirt on full power. Easiest with 2 people of course.

 

[teejay]

Wow! Sounds like a recipe for a flooded van to me. Far safer to block off all pipes, fill all pipes with a proper proprietary drain unblocker and let it thoroughly clean the pipes then flush out. You will have totally clean, as new pipework with no mess no flood. Poking things down it will only at best partially clear it and risk doing damage and a large repair bill.

 

[Vanterrier]

Hans´s remedy.

Funnel pushed onto hose pipe, place funnel over plug hole (hold it down really well) , connect other end of hose pipe to mains water and give it a good squirt on full power. Easiest with 2 people of course.

And watch with horror as the pressure pops the push on joints and sprays water all over the shop :Flushed_Face_Emoji:

Check your joints first since you have a leak already, then use hot but not boiling water down the plughole direct. That should shift a fatberg if you have one. Use some dilute bleach to clear the rest. Then run loads of clean water through then blow the rest through when draining to get rid of as much water as possible.

you probably had some carp in there which dried and solidified when the pipe was not in use.

good luck

k

 

[Vanterrier]

Wow! Sounds like a recipe for a flooded van to me. Far safer to block off all pipes, fill all pipes with a proper proprietary drain unblocker and let it thoroughly clean the pipes then flush out. You will have totally clean, as new pipework with no mess no flood. Poking things down it will only at best partially clear it and risk doing damage and a large repair bill.

Yer a faster typer than me, but on the same page

K :Wink_Emoji:

 

[Pudsey Bear]

All Moho Sites, and you?

 

[Clunegapyears]

We’ve used litres of coke (cola sort!) to clear fat / toothpaste build up. When that didn’t work on the bathroom sink, we took a PLUNGER to it. Worked a treat and no flooding ...so far!!!

 

[Milly]

30 years of using this method every spring to wash out earwigs etc from the pipes, all well maintained caravans and now the MH, never had any trouble with dampness or burst pipes, but he does know what he is doing and will carry on doing things his way. :Beer_Emoji:

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Kev, I though you have done self build and messed quite a lot with different vans. :Thinking_Face_Emoji

Yes I have but I'm not magician :Very_sad_emoji_icon:Surprised_Face_Emoj and each van presents it's own problems, mainly due to how lazy the builders were, my self build van is still rolling along, only problem since I sold it has been the heater packed up and a new LB

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Glad I didn't follow Hans advice Gerty, no clips at all on the waste pipe, and it literally just pulled apart.

Right didn't go to the hospital, cock up their end, so I just had a butchers at it, I just put 5 litres of water down the bathroom sink, waste cock open, just a dribble, hmm, should have peed out, put some wire down kitchen waste, it got about a meter in then hit a bend, but the wire was clean when it came out, pipe then vanished behind the cooker, looked under van, and there is a dribble coming out of the grey tank overflow pipe, zilch from the emptying pipe (which I managed to break) so I put a hose up it and gave it a blast, and some white gunge came out, so it looks to me like the tank is full of crap at the bottom, too wet and cold to play with it now, getting dark anyway soon, so next heatwave I'll have to get under and pull the pipe off, tank has no access point :Very_sad_emoji_icon:Very_sad_emoji_icon so not sure how to clean it out, Coke doesn't sound like it'll work for this, so back to suggestions for the bear.

 

[Vanterrier]

Coke or any cheap fizzy pop will do it but you would need a lot for your tank :Flushed_Face_Emoji: diluted bleach will do it. Fill it up and leave it a day or two then flush thoroughly

k