[mrua]

Help!. my kitchen sink gurgles and backs up whenever I use my dishwasher. I recall it working fine before my husband started trying to "fix it".. lol. Now, every other day or so he is in the basement disconnecting the dishwasher and kitchen sink lines so that the sink will drain properly. But as soon as he reconnects the dishwasher within a day or to the sink starts draining super slowly again. His next solution is to put in an air gap by removing the sprayer from my kitchen sink... this can't be right can it?

Any solutions or ideas would be SOOOO appreciated. Thanks!:eek:

[hkstroud]

Sounds like you have a partially clogged drain from the sink. An air cap will not help.
Air gap only prevents water from the sink entering the dishwasher.

[mrua]

So would the clog be in the sink line? As long as the dishwasher is disconnected in the basement the sink drains fine but once the dishwasher is reconnected the sink starts gurgling and draining slow again. Do I need a plumber? I have used draino a number of times without success and used the pressurized line cleaner a few times as well. Looking back, I remember the dishwasher and sink being fine until the dishwasher started leaking and we pulled it out, disconnected it and leveled it and pushed it back under the counter. Ever since then we have had the problems with the gurgling... could we have possibly put it back together wrong? Thanks folks!

[teresaluther]

Sounds like you need a high loop or an air gap. If the water drains from the sink every other time but when the dishwasher is running then it seems the dishwasher might be the issue. Try putting the drain line up high inside the cabinet and then down to drain into the sink. Called a high loop.

[massplumber2008]

mrua... if you installed the dishwasher back improperly after you removed it it would not cause the sink to backup.. I promise... DW might not work right, but will not cause sink to backup.

I think you have a partial clog that you are associating with the DW, but I am not so sure has much to do with it.

TRY this for me: Fill your sinks... DW connected or not... and then drain sink.. fill and drain a few times... see if backs up. NOW, if did back up... then drainline needs to be snaked out... if it did not... then run the DW and let that drain... did it backup then? If it did.. same thing.. drain line needs to be snaked.

AIR gap will not help with this... as HKSTROUD said... air gap is for keeping water from falling back into the dishwasher... not for venting the drain or anything even remotely similar.

A DW discharges water at a rate that is much greater velocity than normal sink draining... so would appear that DW clogs line, not sink... but if you fill sink and drain enough I bet it will back up and then you will know for sure that DRAIN LINE NEEDS TO BE SNAKED!

Good luck.. let us know how it works out... ok?



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