I purchased a new washing machine recently and have had the problem of it overflowing the drain pipe I have read about new washing machines having stronger pumps which may be my problem .here is what I have though I have a 2" pvc drain line going from my washing machine directly to my main drian line as soon as the line goes under the floor there is a p-trap(is the trap necessary)it goes over about 2' and hits a Y and then to the main I have ran a snake through entire pipe and found nothing any ideas would be appreciated

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Originally Posted by kimbrough

i purchased a new washing machine recently and have had the problem of it overflowing the drain pipe i have read about new washing machines having stronger pumps which may be my problem .here is what i have though i have a 2" PVC drain line going from my washing machine directly to my main drain line as soon as the line goes under the floor there is a p-trap(is the trap necessary)it goes over about 2' and hits a Y and then to the main i have ran a snake through entire pipe and found nothing any ideas would be appreciated

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If you have snaked and cleared out the drain line then there's nothing more you can do to it. And, yes, a trap's necessary. It protects your home from sewer gas escaping. You have two options here. You can do what another asker did and get the manufacture to replace the washer with a less powerful pump, or, you can do what I did when I had the same problem.
I took a 2" female compression fitting, (see image) and glued it on the stand pipe. The hose went into the compression fitting and was tightened down making a water tight connection. The pump will then have to force the discharge through the drain pipe and not out the top of the stand pipe. Good luck in whatever you decide. Tom

Hello!
We are having the exact problem!
We decided to concoct our own solution.
My partner bought a clear hose from Rona, 1 inch inside diameter. Just before the hose fits into the wall (the outflow pipe), he attached a 90 degree elbow joint, then attached a bit more clear hose so that it would go into the drainpipe sticking out of the wall. This was for two reasons: first, this 90 degree joint seemed to slow the water down, just like a curve on a track slows race cars down. Second, it keeps the hose from kinking. The only problem was that the water level needs to be lower than at full capacity. Our washer has 6 levels, and we have to have it on 4 or 5.

I have also hear of attaching a nylon stocking at the end to slow water flow. Again, as the tub spins, the water level will creep up the sides, so that is why you should have the level lower than full capacity.

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Originally Posted by speedball1

If you have snaked and cleared out the drain line then there's nothing more you can do to it. And, yes, a trap's necessary. It protects your home from sewer gas escaping. You have two options here. you can do what another asker did and get the manufacture to replace the washer with a less powerful pump, or, you can do what I did when I had the same problem.
I took a 2" female compression fitting, (see image) and glued it on the stand pipe. The hose went into the compression fitting and was tightened down making a water tight connection. The pump will then have to force the discharge through the drain pipe and not out the top of the stand pipe. good luck in whatever you decide. Tom

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Dude, you're a genius, I had the same problem as the young lady did, new washer, super duper pump, overflow, etc. took your advice but bought a rubber clamp instead (2" to 1") and some thick electrical tape and it did the job, that maytag asswipe told me to call a plumber and hook up some wider drain pipes, you saved me several hundered dollars, thanks again

"And, yes, a trap's necessary. It protects your home from sewer gas escaping. "

We're having a similar washer drain problem, and one time before the plumber could come out to snake the drain we had to let the washer sit for about a week. The first test load of clear water we ran for him made a terrible stink come up the drain pipe when the washer drained. I assumed this was just old drain stink, from a moist drain line that sat in hot days, not having water run through it regularly. Is that right? I mean, I take it we'd know if we had sewer gas regularly backing up into our house.

Give it some time and keep checking. Traps don't usually evaporate in a weeks time. This could be backflow pushing a bubble of sewer gas ahead of it.
Time will tell. Good luck, tom

It only did it the once, after we let it sit for about a week. Every other time the drain overflows, of course we get water overflowing everywhere but no smell. Well unless you count the smell of detergent.

Is it a big deal if occasionally we are getting a bubble of sewer gas come up the overflowing washer drain line? I just want to make sure we aren't cooking some sort of health hazard that could make the kids sick. (I've cleaned up a lot of overflowed water under that washer/dryer several times, gotten my feet soaked in it, and I'm still doing okay.)

If you think the plumber ckeaned the drain line and there is no partial blockage then the4re are still a few things you can do. Look back at the earlier questions just like yours and see what they have done. Yours is not a unusual problem. With today's higher velocity pumps and yesterdays smaller diameter pipes this has turned into major problems for home owners. Looking back at the solutions that others have found do you see anything that you wish to try? Waiting on you, Tom

Hey Tom, yeah I'm pretty sure the line is well snaked. He felt a partial block in the main drain line south of the clean-out and snaked it clear the first time; the second time he couldn't feel anything in either the washer drain or main drain. Unfortunately there is no clean-out for the washer drain line, but he was still pretty certain the drain line was clear.

From the looks of the water closet behind the washer this problem predates our 2.5 year ownership by a few years at least. So we have a short-term solution and I'm thinking through long-term solutions. Short-term, the delicate cycle does run the washer pump at lower power. I climbed behind the washer with a flashlight, ran a load of clothes on delicate and regular at large fill and watched the pre-spin drain. Regular it backs up, not spewing gallons everywhere but enough to be a problem over time. Delicate it doesn't even begin to back up; I can't even see the wash water rise up at the top of the drain pipe.

For a long-term solution, I'm a little worried about trying to use a water tight connection from the washer to the drain mouth, considering the condition of the metal of the water closet panel. I'm also worried about installing a shut-off valve in the line, as it may mistime the drain cycle in the washer, or put too much strain on the washer's pump. I think our best bet may be the auxiliary standpipe. Until we can get that done, we can wash on delicate, and I think we may have been over-washing our clothes, anyway, causing a lot of fabric abuse through what is really a pretty harsh regular wash cycle on this this washer unit. Some of the kids clothes look eaten up.

How do you feel about the auxiliary standpipe arrangement?

"How do you feel about the auxillary standpipe arrangement?"

Explain exactly how this would work? Tom

I can't track down the picture of it at the moment, but it's basically a Rube Goldberg contraption that extends the drain vertically, with the washer exhaust line still plugging in at the point of the original drain mouth. It just provides more pipe length for the water to back up. I can certainly see some downsides to this. If in the future the drain develops a serious clog or otherwise truly gets backed up all the way, you have a washwater shower on your hands.

Regarding my sewer gas up the drain line question, it hasn't happened again. You mentioned something about the trap drying out and I couldn't figure what that had to do with anything so I did a little research. We may have left the line dry for more than a week, maybe a couple weeks, so it could have dried out after all. Also, the smell as I recall smelled more like rot than hydrogen sulfide, so it may have been some fungus growing and dying in the drain line and/or the trap. It may have indeed been a bubble of sewer gas, but until it happens again and I point my sniffer for hydrogen sulfide gas, I couldn't say for sure.