Washing Machine Waste Question

Reg1988

Hi everyone (Yuletide felicitations etc). I have moved to a new house and the waste from the washing machine is as per the photograph. I am wondering why and wondering if I can replace it with a single pipe that goes as per my red line. Your expertise and thoughts extremely welcome and thank you in advance. Andy

TadleyBaggie

Might be a crude attempt to create a waste trap. Is there one on the inside?

Section62

Reg1988 said:

Hi everyone (Yuletide felicitations etc). I have moved to a new house and the waste from the washing machine is as per the photograph. I am wondering why and wondering if I can replace it with a single pipe that goes as per my red line. Your expertise and thoughts extremely welcome and thank you in advance. Andy

To do the red line you'd need an elbow of the correct angle at the bottom end.  The standard ones are 135 and 90 degrees.  Variable angle elbows are available, but usually look pretty ugly.

I suspect the pipework has now dropped, but when originally installed was one way of connecting the two points using standard elbows.  You might be able to do better with two 135 elbows at the bottom end, but you'd need to do some measuring up to work out whether that is the case.

Boohoo

While you're doing the pipework you should also seal the gap around the pipe coming out of the house because it would look neater and also stop vermin or other unwanted guests getting into your home.

EssexExile

The way it is at the moment it forms a trap at the lowest point which will hold water, and freeze in cold weather. So yes, replace it with a straight pipe and check you have a trap indoors so stop the smells. At the very least shorten the upper pipe so that the lower pipe has a slight fall to the drain.