Any ideas on how to keep the kitchen waste outside from getting blocked.

anotherquestion

Hi folks,

The kitchen waste outside seems to get blocked at least once a year, and it is a dirty messy not to mention smelly job doing the business, of getting the water to run freely again, having to dispose clothes etc.

The set up I have is, the sink takes runs the water into a larger horizontal pipe pipe outside about a foot down in the gully and at the other end opposite there seems to be a U bend pipe which takes the waste water away.

We try to dispose as much as possible of any left over oil, fats food into the bin, and just wash the nearly clean cutlery in the sink, probably has a little residue of food left on it, as you can only remove so much.

We do have a dishwasher as well even the cutlery going into it is fairly clean.

Three of us in the house altogether, so a fair amount of cooking going on. The outside drain usually overflows once a year so its time to get it unblocked again, I have to empty the gully itself first with something like a plastic milk two litre container cut in half, and the water itself is repugnant with white leftover particles through it. So then I use something like a drain cleaner length or last time the bendy pipe that fits onto back of kitchen appliances to go into U—bend and unblock.

As you can imagine its not a job I particularly look forward to, but it has to be done, I have had a look at something called a Bamboo plunger on Youtube, but not sure that would work with the U-bend waste.

Any ideas of anything further we can try or something we can buy to make this unsavoury job easier,

Many Thanks.

TadleyBaggie

My house is the opposite, everything possible goes down the waste disposal, only had a local blockage once when too many sprout leaves were disposed of.

Longwalker

You may not have a deep enough drop on your pipes

We have a septic tank so any problem is a night mare

I no longer use powder detergent in the washing machine and always use the extra water button. Modern machines are very tight with water and as we are being condition to wash in low temps , powder doesnt dissolve

I also only use half a tablet ( bog standard basic tablet ) in the dishwasher. Cleans just as well tbh

Like you, no fats, oil or food And because we have a tank no san pro goes down.. we maybe get a blockage every 5 years or so

WIAWSNB

Any chance of a pic of your waste setup, AQ?

tetrarch

Do you know what the blockage actually is?

I run a small commercial charity property and we've had regular toilet blockages for over 20 years. In 2022, after an expensive callout I instituted a programme with our cleaner that we would dose the toilets on a bimonthly basis with a drain unblocker as a preventative measure

Since then (fingers crossed) we've had no problems

I would suggest something similar, most of the Lidl's and Aldi's of this world sell a cheap lookalike drain cleaning product that might do the trick

Regards

tet

plumb1_2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81861434#Comment_81861434

putting drain cleaner down toilets when they are not blocked is a waste of money, as it will just flush away down the drain. And bad for the planet.

You might of not had a blockage since using it, but that’s down to luck. Your expensive drainage work you had done most probably cured the problem.

TELLIT01

Caustic soda into the external drain when it starts to get a bit whiffy should help. As this is happening regularly it might be worth getting somebody to check there is nothing partially blocking the main drain too.

anotherquestion

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81861791#Comment_81861791

Thanks, so the caustic soda shouldn't damage the pipes or anything (probably we need something to break up any particles in there) I do remember years ago, I put the tail end of a petrol can in there, soon learned never to do that again, as it soon whiffed up into the kitchen through the sink waste pipe, so hopefully the caustic wouldn't do the same thing.

TELLIT01

I put it directly into the drain, not down the sink plughole.

Yorkie1

If you do put something strong like caustic soda down the drain, a) take all appropriate actions to protect skin and eyes, and b) if you then get a professional in (within a short time) to look at the pipes or anything else, let them know you've used it.