Blocked Kitchen Sink Drain - Any Suggestions

Sistergold

I thought it was the landlord’s responsibility to sort out drains and whatnot? No hot water? You should really not need to do so much diy on someone else’s property especially if you are not qualified. Not too much diy is probably one of the few joys of being a tenant. 

Homer_home

GS.. said:

Yeap the white bits are fat and that's what is blocking your pipes. I just cleaned ours just before we moved house. You'll need to lift the outside drain if you can, and lift the next drain after the blockage and rod it between the two. I used a spiral thing, followed by tubs if hot water

Why would the op need to rod between two outside drains when the blockage is between the sink and drain?

TAJ9

Thanks for the suggestions, just to clarify I live in a third floor flat, so pushing anything in from the outside is not possible. Might give the caustic soda route a go to see if that helps. Additonally as I have lived at the property for a few years I beleived it is my responisability to fix. With hindsight I should have made more of a point about the slow flowing drains when I moved in, but as it was liveable then I did not.

Also with the slow flowing hot water the landlord is aware, however he said he is unable to do anything about it as it caused by the hot water cylinder position (which is at floor level - resulting in a low pressure head).

George_Michael

TAJ9 said:

Also with the slow flowing hot water the landlord is aware, however he said he is unable to do anything about it as it caused by the hot water cylinder position (which is at floor level - resulting in a low pressure head).

The position of the hot water cylinder shouldn't have too much effect on the pressure out of it. It's the input pressure that determines the output pressure.
I live in a bungalow and the hot water tank is in a cupboard yet there is plenty of pressure from all of the hot water taps.
Is your HW tank fed from a separate cold water tank or is it straight from the mains supply?

TAJ9

George_Michael said:

TAJ9 said:

Also with the slow flowing hot water the landlord is aware, however he said he is unable to do anything about it as it caused by the hot water cylinder position (which is at floor level - resulting in a low pressure head).

The position of the hot water cylinder shouldn't have too much effect on the pressure out of it. It's the input pressure that determines the output pressure.
I live in a bungalow and the hot water tank is in a cupboard yet there is plenty of pressure from all of the hot water taps.
Is your HW tank fed from a separate cold water tank or is it straight from the mains supply?

I assume you are referring to an unvented cylinder (I have had one of these in an apartment also at floor level which generated a suitable flow of water). The cylinder in this property is vented (fed from a cold water tank) however I do not know where the cold water tank is in relation to the cylinder but based on the flow rate in I would assume it is not much higher than the hot water cylinder.

George_Michael

The HW tank in my bungalow is a vented one with the CW tank being in the roof space which is about 6 feet above the top of the hot tank.
My previous property (also a bungalow) had a vented system and both the CW and HW tanks were fitted in the loft with only about 3 feet height difference between the two but again, there was ample hot water pressure from the tank.
If your landlord was really interested, I'm sure that a resolution could be found, something such as installing a pump.

TAJ9

Coming back to the original problem I wasn't able to get hold of any caustic soda today but did have another go with the drain snake starting at the point past the U-Bend (the furthest I can get from the drain - where I beleive the blockage is downstream of). This time had a bit of sucess, managed to get it all the way in as far as possible up to the point at which the drain pipe goes behind the cupboard back (I measured it by marking the drain snake when it was fully in). After removing it I did a bit of an experiment by pouring water directly into the lower part of the drain from a 1L water bottle and it flowed away instantly (no issues, no backing up etc., didn't remain in the pipe for even a very short time).

Thinking I had solved the issue I put everything back together and did the same thing from the sink (poured from a 1L bottle at the same rate I did directly into the pipe), however the sink quickly backs up and then takes ages to drain again. I have had a look at the U-Bend and run a brush through it and it is clean. So I am slightly confused as to what is causing it to back up only once the U-bend is connected back up, the only other thing that is connected back into the circuit with the U-Bend is the wahsing machine drain outlet as well (but this seems clean anway and I am not sure this would have any effect on it).

Anymore suggestions before I go down the chemical route.

George_Michael said:

The HW tank in my bungalow is a vented one with the CW tank being in the roof space which is about 6 feet above the top of the hot tank.
My previous property (also a bungalow) had a vented system and both the CW and HW tanks were fitted in the loft with only about 3 feet height difference between the two but again, there was ample hot water pressure from the tank.
If your landlord was really interested, I'm sure that a resolution could be found, something such as installing a pump.

Thanks for the info as I said I do not know exactly where the cold water cylinder is in relation to the hot water cylinder. I know pumps can be installed and some of the neighbours have had it done (I can actually hear one running now), but as that costs money that would eat into the Landlords profits etc. and they would have to arrange someone to fit it, so I assume that is why they are not willing.

Rosa_Damascena

OP, have you got Stockholm syndrome? Why are you so reluctant to ask your LL to fix the problem of the drain, and the HW pressure?

SuperHung

I had this problem last month, did all the steps you did as well, the sink water just wouldn't drain. Had to call out a professional!

Method 1, he used those industrial vacuum to try and suck the object out. It helped but still not draining fluently
Method 2, he used a snake coil with an industrial driller and whip the object out. Better, but still not 100% At this stage he showed us a can size tube of fat.........
Last method, he took out this industrial size pressure washer thing and finally blasted out the remaining fat.

It cost me £180 but it was worth every penny to see that damn sink drain after doing the washing up. We learnt a lesson, avoid pouring any oil/grease/olive oil leftover etc from food/pans. Wipe it clean with kitchen towel or pour the excess oil into a can instead.

Apodemus

TAJ9, when you have the U-bend off does water flow freely from the sink into a bucket?  Can you see directly down through the sink plug when the U-bend is off?