My Garbage Disposal Quit Turning On

As a plumbing service, we get calls on this problem with kitchen garbage disposers all the time and usually it is working again before I hang up the telephone. Quite often, it only requires the resetting of the reset button, which is just a circuit breaker built into kitchen garbage disposers. Sometimes the circuit breaker shuts off because of a jam. You can remedy this by using an unjam wrench to unjam it, then resetting the circuit breaker.

Tips To Keep A Kitchen Drain Unclogged

A drain cleaning service is not always the best solution to unclog your kitchen drain. You could save your money by trying to do it yourself before you call your plumbing service. The kitchen line is the second hardest drain to clean yourself, right behind the sewer line. The kitchen drain usually plugs after slow accumulation of food deposits,  resulting in the build-up around the circumference of the pipe eventually causing the drain line to plug.

You should not use drain cleaning chemicals in your kitchen drain. Chemicals are not effective on kitchen drain lines and should not be tried. They corrode pipes and will take years off the lifespan of your garbage disposal unit. They will burn you, causing injuries and can seriously injure your eyes due to severe reactions with the materials in your kitchen drain.

The first thing you should do is remove the trap beneath the sink and clean it. If the clog is further down the line you will need to use a drain auger. You can try a small hand held auger or it's time to call in the professional drain cleaning company. The average length of a kitchen line is about 50 feet and as long as 75 feet.

It's a better idea to do away with most of those plumbing calls by doing scheduled maintenance and proper use of a disposal. Kitchen drain lines are subject to greasy food buildup and should be treated regularly with enzymatic drain cleaners. This is totally safe unlike caustic and acidic liquids and tends to keep the kitchen drain free flowing.

Cleaning a Bathroom Lavatory Drain

Many times, when I am called to unclog these sink drains, the problem turns out to be only in the pop-up assembly After removing it, I find a big hair ball attached to the pivot arm. After cleaning and replacing it, everything is usually fine. most of the smells coming from a Lav sink are usually related to this pop-up assembly.

If the clog still persist, It is time to try the plunger. It is best to do this by first filling the lavatory with water, then using the plunger. Make sure you get all the air out of the plunger before plunging. If the clog is before the vent, plunging will clear it in most cases. If the clog is past the vent then an auger must be used to clear the drain.

Drain lines from lavatories are usually less than 20 feet and you can use a cheap auger from a big box store to clear it, but in isolated cases, you will need to call a professional plumber that has heavy duty equipment to clean the drain line

Laundry Drain Line Clogged?

Washing machine drains will clog, back up and will get persistent stoppages because of a couple variables:  lint. Lint only will not cause back ups because it will run down the drain line freely. The problem is laundry drain lines flow into the kitchen drain line , causing lint and grease to mix and now the lint no longer drains freely but mixes with the grease and food causing it to now stick to the inside of the drain lines when cold water is released downstream. This grease will now catch every piece of lint that gets mixed with the laundry water causing major laundry drain line back ups and clogs that often times cause large spills in the laundry room creating at times water damage to floors and walls.

The key to solving this problem is to use strainers. Any local hardware store will have strainers specially designed to fit around the laundry machine hoses. There are household items to achieve the same results like: ladies pantyhose. Having a good strainer will greatly reduce the chances of having laundry and kitchen drain clogs, back ups and persistent stoppages.

Even after taking precautions to filter the laundry lint out of the drain, your kitchen line is still prone to clog and it will show up as a spill in your laundry area because it is lower than your kitchen sink. A good way to solve this is to install a deep sink and drain you laundry water into it and when you have a back up, all you have is a deep sink full of water.

Hot Water Heater Maintenance

It is important to perform yearly water heater flushing and inspection on your water heater to get the maximum usage out of it. Water heaters that are taken care of properly get many more years of usage than those that are not taken care of, thereby saving you much of your hard earned money.

The most important thing to keep watch on is the inlet and outlet supply lines to make sure water is not seeping into the interior of the water heater. A leak can develop that will slowly seep into the interior of the heater causing corrosion and you cannot see it cause it is a very small leak and you have to inspect the very top of the heater to discover it.

Your water heater needs to be flushed once a year to prevent a build-up of debris in the bottom of the tank which will cause your heater to burn to much gas, driving up your utility bill due to the insulating factor of the build-up. This build-up will also cause your heater to corrode faster and a leak will develop at the bottom of the water heater tank