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jduke44 · Oct 20, 2005, 12:29 PM

I had a plumber install my garbage disposal because he was doing other work anyway. Sometimes when we put put in the disposal, the food shoots through the pipe and into the other sink creating a huge mess. I uploaded a picture of how he installed it. Looking at other disposals, it seems that the other sink drain should have been at a different height(at a lower level) than the disposal drain so this wouldn't happen. The rst of the drain goes down to the trap. I am checking because I am trying to get him back to fix the problem and I wanted another opinion. I don't think there is a clog because this happened almost from day 1, after he left of course. What are your thoughts?

mojave guy_at work · Oct 20, 2005, 12:42 PM

Hello. The problem is in the way he set up the drain from the other side of the sink. There must be a down pitch coming from the other side of the sink so that when you turn on your disposal it won't have a way to get up there. The way yours is set up, it is level and it can't be that way. The drain pipe coming from the other side of the sink has to be made shorter so that there can be a pitch. Just like when you put gutters on a house, they are higher on one side and lower on the side where it drains. That way the water knows where to go. Have fun.

jduke44 · Oct 20, 2005, 02:25 PM

Do you think that any food might try to come back up and even though it won't go up into the sink it may stay in the other side's drain until water is run? Would it be practical to instead of putting the other side on a pitch to maybe lower the pipe so it is not level with the disposal. I just thought this would eliminate the whole issue. Thanks for your input. I will make sure he does this.

speedball1 · Oct 20, 2005, 03:36 PM

Hey Duke,

Nice conversion piece, poor installation. Do you have a "S" trap that goes into the floor instead of a "P" trap the comes out of the wall? "S" traps are outlawed in all the US states and Canada and means that your sink is unvented. But let's put that aside for a minute. The reason you're getting garbage in your right hand tub is that the disposal table acts like a centrifugal pump when it's spinning. Giving the pipe more pitch,( as some other experts have suggested) won't help, you'll still be discharging directly into the right hand tub. The discharge needs to be redirected. Your plumber should have configured the drainage like this (even with a "S" trap).
The left hand disposal and the right hand Tub should have gone into a double combination wye and eighth bend looking down and then connected to whatever's hidden down there in your picture. That way the discharge from both sides would have directed downward instead of into each other. That's just plain stupid to drain one into the other, even dumber (if that's possible) to aim the discharge from a disposal directly into the drain of the other tub.
My advice? Get your plumber back and have him correct his mistakes. And then find another plumber and have him check the vent issue on your kitchen sink. Regards, Tom

jduke44 · Oct 20, 2005, 04:30 PM

That's what I thought. I am trying to get him to come back. I don't know much about plumbing so I trusted him on this. My father in law installed his kind of like what you are saying. Sorry about the picture it was the only way to get the main area. It is an s trap that goes down to the basement main drain. He did put a vent on the s trap that comes up past the trap. I can't remember what it is called but it lets in air but doesn't let it out. There is also a vent down off the drain in the basement that goes out to the side of the house. He is hopefully coming down on Monday. The sad thing is this is something I know I could have done with help from my father in law but I didn't have the time to do it (2 kids and we just moved in the house 5 months ago). Thanks for the input.

speedball1 · Oct 21, 2005, 05:05 AM

Good morning Duke,

In place of the double combination that you would have to plug off the top end, another way would be to install a upright wye with two street ells to pick up each tub Either way you have to change that drainage setup to direct the discharge from both tubs down instead of into each other or spend the rest of your days cussing out the plumber. Good luck, Tom

jduke44 · Oct 21, 2005, 12:36 PM

Thanks, Tom. I didn't want to tell the plumber how to do his job even though he did it wrong the first time. I am going to give him the chance to correct the problem but I wanted a second opinion as backup so it didn't seem like it was coming from me directly. He is a guy down the street from me that does furnaces usually but he said he does plumbing work also. Between him being slow, expensive and the disposal installation, I am definitely not letting him replace my boiler. He scares me now. Thanks again.

speedball1 · Oct 21, 2005, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by jduke44

Thanks, Tom. I didn't want to tell the plumber how to do his job even though he did it wrong the first time. I am going to give him the chance to correct the problem but I wanted a second opinion as backup so it didn't seem like it was coming from me directly. He is a guy down the street from me that does furnaces usually but he said he does plumbing work also. Between him being slow, expensive and the disposal installation, I am definitely not letting him replace my boiler. He scares me now. Thanks again.

Duke,

You better tell him how to do his job because from what I've seen he needs all the help he can get. The only way it's going to work is to direct both drains down instead of into each other. Good luck, Tom

jduke44 · Oct 21, 2005, 01:28 PM

I will. Thanks for the advice.

speedball1 · Oct 23, 2005, 08:11 AM

Good morning Duke,
Below see the fitting your plumber should have used in place of the tee.
Cheers, Tom

jduke44 · Oct 24, 2005, 03:06 PM

I see. Well, he came today and if I was able to get online I would have been able to suggest this but unfortunately I didn't. Anyway, with your help in I had the knowledge to know what needed to be done. I don't want ot bash the guy but he couldn't understand why this didn't work. The tee that he put in actually did have a 'y' bevel like you have in the picture but not as deep as this one. He ended up doing it over in pvc and having the disposal drain into the trap and making a 'y' connection from the other sink into the drain of the disposal. I hope it makes sense. My feeling is there should be no way for the disposal to back up into the other sink and everything should flow nicely and I am happy with it. I can upload a picture if your interested in seeing what he did. I will keep your post on file just in case I need it in the future. Thanks for sticking with this.