During the drain cycle on my washing machine water overflows the line and comes out of my laundy box that I just had installed. The lines in the wall are 1 1/2 in diameter, I believe, but the standard box drain line is larger. The installer ran a line from the box about 30" down into the original line and joined them with a reducer. Could this be my my problem? Does my line leaving the washer need to be below that reducer for it to drain properly? Any help would be appreciated!

Hey Hardman:

Sounds like the plumber did job fine.. as you presented anyway. If 1.5" is what you have, not much he can do unless there is a 2" pipe nearby, of course, and then he should have at least tried to interest you in increasing that pipe to 2" all the way as 1.5" is sometimes an issue for the newer washing machines.

Tell us, is this a new or newer style washing machine? What is brand name? What is model #?

Where is washer located?

How old is home?

You said new washing box installed... SO, when was last time this drain saw water from a washing machine?

Sounds like the drain line is clogged to me... see if can answer some of those questions..

Let us know... Mark

You didn't say but I'm going to assume that the washer box and stand pipe's 2" choked down to 1 1/2" on down the line. We have had a slew of complaints on 1 1/2" washer drain lines. Back a long time ago 1 1/2" was fine but with today's more powerful pumps they can't handle the volume and so they back up. Since you've installed a washer box you can't install a compression fitting on the stand pipe and make this a closed system. However, what you can do is pack the hose with wet rags to seal it in the stand pipe, (jam them in tight). This will force the discharge to stay in the drain and not all over your floor. Had I have been that plumber I would have run two inch all the way to the main. Good luck, Tom