Maybe someone can help me figure out a new way to drain the kitchen sink.
I have installed a new kitchen sink along with a garbage disposal. I am having problems with the drainage system. The drain is horizontal and is at a higher level than the discharge drain to the garbage disposal. Basically it is like I am draining up hill. Any ideas?? Thanks

Hi Laris,

You must have a older house where we roughed in kitchen sinks, (that's before dispoasals) at 21" off the floor. We rough them in at 18" at the present time. You're not going to like what comes next. Since the replacement sink might have deeper tubs and the disposal drops it even farther you are faced with two options. You either remove the disposal and hope you have enough elevation to drain the sink or you open up the wall all the way over to the sanitary tee and lower the tee and the arm/stubout all the way from the stack. Door number one loses you the disposal and door number two is major surgery. Not a great choice in anybodys book but you just found out what every plumber knows.
Drainage will not flow uphill, you got to have fall for it to work.
Sorry I couldn't be more upbeat but it could be worse. After removing the disposal you could find out the sink tubs are still too deep to drain through the trap and stubout properly. Good luck and if we can help feel free to call on us. Tom

What about a different disposal with a high discharge port.

what about a different disposal with a high discharge port.
That will work if the back fall isn't too great. Because the sink tub drains higher then the trap you could possibly get by with zero fall. But if you have back fall it ain't going to work. Cheers, Tom

How about adding a sink pump to get it uphill?

Smarter to just open the wall and cut in a new, lower connection than to rely on a pump that costs quite a bit of money and needs repair/replacement every few years or so... ;)

Never mind that this "problem" was posted from back in 2005!

Mark

I know it was an old post, but I found it on Google, so it's still alive. I have the same issue as the OP, so figured I'd test the waters with a response.

I've opened up my drywall, and found a hard cement material behind it. It's very smooth and appears to be the old interior wall surface. It's laid on top of a rougher material, almost like cinder blocks.

To lay the original horizontal drain pipe, they chiseled out some of this material, so I'm going to have to do the same at the lower level for the new connection.

Any thoughts about that?

Pics in a Google Doc here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qpwxdq1WIT02BKjm25lTfO32Jps2EtBfVkwNpDBsSK4/edit?usp=sharing