# Plumbers washer tool ???



## PLUMBER_BILL (Oct 23, 2009)

*Gentlemen! A little help here, my brain is in development mode. *


*My drain experience is with sectional machines. a K-50 and a K-1500, **I also have a super vee which is not being discussed here. **I have no problem with the K-1500 as usually it is used in an area that is outside or is used when the blockage has already created a mess. *

*Now the K-50 on a drain that is gookie, black, pasty, what ever. You know the kind that when the snake is pulled it is a mess. Wouldn’t it be nice to pull a clean snake from that kind of drain? **Yes granted sometimes you can wash [depending on how the piping is laid out] the drain and the snake. What if we could wash it all the time? Suppose we took a 1-1/2 female adapter and joined it to a short piece, then to a fernco then about a 6” piece with a wye bushed down to a hose thread. A short piece of hose [like a 6’ washing machine hose] and a adapter to fit an aireator [an assortment might be needed here] . Don’t forget a vacuum breaker! Now we **have a water connection to our drain. Now we have to seal off the inserted crummy cable and we don’t want to lose it. So lets continue with our PVC piping, from the “Y” lets glue in another short piece about 12” long and put another female adapter on there. Now we need something fabricated lets use an old kinked cable cut off the end with the push button and we will have to weld this to a short piece of chain. Now we need a 1-1/2” plug drilled for a bolt and a couple of washers so as to seal the bolt into the plug also the bolt gets attached to the little chain.*
*Ok now you feel the drain is open. The cable is cruddy so we run the cable in until a joint is about 9” from the wall and using the pointed release tool disconnect the cable. Now we take our first adapter with the fernco on. slip it over the cable and screw it onto the desanko at the wall.*
*Now we start to assemble the other parts the little chain gets attached to the cable the plug gets screwed in. Now the cable is sealed inside our new tool. We take our hose and connect it to our “Y”, the other end to the kitchen faucet and turn on the water. We can now wash the line and the snake. Think this will work --- or would it be a waste of time? *


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## plbgbiz (Aug 27, 2010)

It does seem quite involved but I like the idea.


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## PLUMBER_BILL (Oct 23, 2009)

[QUOTE=PLUMBER_BILL;158756]Gentlemen! A little help here, my brain is in development mode. 


My drain experience is with sectional machines. a K-50 and a K-1500, I also have a super vee which is not being discussed here. I have no problem with the K-1500 as usually it is used in an area that is outside or is used when the blockage has already created a mess. 

Now the K-50 on a drain that is gookie, black, pasty, what ever. You know the kind that when the snake is pulled it is a mess. Wouldn’t it be nice to pull a clean snake from that kind of drain? Yes granted sometimes you can wash [depending on how the piping is laid out] the drain and the snake. What if we could wash it all the time? Suppose we took a 1-1/2 female adapter and joined it to a short piece, then to a fernco then about a 6” piece with a wye bushed down to a hose thread. A short piece of hose [like a 6’ washing machine hose] and a adapter to fit an aireator [an assortment might be needed here] . Don’t forget a vacuum breaker! Now we have a water connection to our drain. Now we have to seal off the inserted crummy cable and we don’t want to lose it. So lets continue with our PVC piping, from the “Y” lets glue in another short piece about 12” long and put another female adapter on there. Now we need something fabricated lets use an old kinked cable cut off the end with the push button and we will have to weld this to a short piece of chain. Now we need a 1-1/2” plug drilled for a bolt and a couple of washers so as to seal the bolt into the plug also the bolt gets attached to the little chain.
Ok now you feel the drain is open. The cable is cruddy so we run the cable in until a joint is about 9” from the wall and using the pointed release tool disconnect the cable. Now we take our first adapter with the fernco on. slip it over the cable and screw it onto the desanko at the wall.
Now we start to assemble the other parts the little chain gets attached to the cable the plug gets screwed in. Now the cable is sealed inside our new tool. We take our hose and connect it to our “Y”, the other end to the kitchen faucet and turn on the water. We can now wash the line and the snake. Think this will work --- or would it be a waste of time? [/QUOTE]

I posted the above on 1/16/2011 there was one reply. Today I made it, I used it. It worked BEAUTIFUL! Job ... double bowl kitchen both bowls had standing water. Carefully I loosed one trap's nuts an caught the water in a bucket. Had the K-50 on the job piping was under slab, but looking at the layout I figured 3 cables should be more than enough to do the job.
I put in 3 cables, put on my new washer boot filled the other bowl and let it run. Guess what still blocked. So I opened the boiler drain, caught the water in a bucket coupled on a 4th cable and ran that it. Put the boot back on and filled the other bowl again. This time big loud sucking noise. 
Took off the boot pulled the snake [nice and clean] all washed off.
Reinstalled the trap and tested. 
All in all I got a new tool [patent pending]. 
Took a couple of pics. 
#1 line snaked 3 cabels in.
#2 Under cabinet pic.
#3 Boot on snake inside. Caution when boot fills could get heavy, note: support pipe.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

Seems like more work than just laying out a drop cloth and washing the cable on the real out front when done.


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## TomSV650 (Jun 18, 2008)

Why don't you just put the pipes together and leave the snake in the drain to wash it off? :whistling2:


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## PLUMBER_BILL (Oct 23, 2009)

TomSV650 said:


> Why don't you just put the pipes together and leave the snake in the drain to wash it off? :whistling2:


You guys amaze me. Cleaning the snake cable is secondary. Yeh pull out a crummy cable hose it off in the yard. Leave the snake in clean the cable then take it all apart and redo it after you clean it ... Thoughts like that would be the last day you work here. I like to work smart not hard. 

This job alerted me to the fact that the drain was not open.

Hense put in another cable. With out the boot the trap would have had to be reinstalled then the bowls drained down again. Causing more time on the job. Better re-read ... Like I said some amaze me!!!


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

Bill what I do is get the coupling about 6" from the pipe in the wall, disconnect the cable. Then reassemble the trap feeding the cable in the waste arm of the trap. Flush the line with some good hot water, then pull the trap out and remove the now clean cable.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

...


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## plumbpro (Mar 10, 2010)

SewerRatz said:


> Bill what I do is get the coupling about 6" from the pipe in the wall, disconnect the cable. Then reassemble the trap feeding the cable in the waste arm of the trap. Flush the line with some good hot water, then pull the trap out and remove the now clean cable.


Also what I do, as learned from another post of SR. Works well, if the drain isn't open, you are still in the drain to go further or start over.


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## plumbpro (Mar 10, 2010)

Protech said:


> ...


I don't even know what that's all about, but it is funny.
:laughing:


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## TomSV650 (Jun 18, 2008)

PLUMBER_BILL said:


> You guys amaze me. Cleaning the snake cable is secondary. Yeh pull out a crummy cable hose it off in the yard. Leave the snake in clean the cable then take it all apart and redo it after you clean it ... Thoughts like that would be the last day you work here. I like to work smart not hard.
> 
> This job alerted me to the fact that the drain was not open.
> 
> Hense put in another cable. With out the boot the trap would have had to be reinstalled then the bowls drained down again. Causing more time on the job. Better re-read ... Like I said some amaze me!!!


Re-read my post.....genius. :laughing:


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## RealLivePlumber (Jun 22, 2008)

What is this "boot" you speak of?

Round here, we never have 2 independant drain lines at a sink. It's always a connecting waste, or 2 traps into a wye.


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

I go top down almost always, through the basket strainer with my cable, never touch the piping underneath and use the sink full of water as a sight gauge to watch the water drop.


When the water drops, I'm leaving the machine to sit and turn, cleaning the bad spot in the line, then proceed forward and then back, watching to see if the clog is returning with the hot water on, full blast.


When it's open, the cable has hot water running past the cable, getting it hot enough to fast dry on its own, preventing surface rust most of the time.

Same goes for tubs, laundry tubs, sometimes lavatory sinks. It all cleans the cable.


If I go messing with the piping underneath, I take a chance of having to replace piping not initially called for.


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## user4 (Jun 12, 2008)

RealLivePlumber said:


> What is this "boot" you speak of?
> 
> Round here, we never have 2 independant drain lines at a sink. It's always a connecting waste, or 2 traps into a wye.


We pipe a separate vented outlet for each fixture, so a dbl. bowl sink with a garbage disposal and a dishwasher would have three separate outlets roughed into the cabinet, one for the sink trap, one for the disposal trap, and one for the dishwasher trap.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

I like your ingenuity Mr Parr, but I think it's a waste of time.

You could just advance the cable in a bit more and disconnect the coupling a few inches outside the trap adapter. Reinstall compression trap. Check sink. If it's still running slow or not at all. Pull p-trap and keep advancing.

Now, if you are dead set on hauling that rig around town and dragging it into the house along with a hose, you should at least make it more functional: Install an off set on the user end (open pipe end), and a tee with a 1/4 turn boiler drain on the drain end with the boiler drain in the middle leg and then a fernco on the end. This way you don't have to disconnect anything. You can just bump the valve open a bit and if it starts backing up out the raised end that you are cabling into, you can just shut it off and keep going (or just let it trickle as an indicator into a bucket). As soon as it starts to drain you can then crack the valve open again to wash the line while you go back forth to polish the line up.

If you do end up patenting the thing, do remember to send a bit of the royalties my way :thumbsup:.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

DUNBAR PLUMBING said:


> I go top down almost always, through the basket strainer with my cable, never touch the piping underneath and use the sink full of water as a sight gauge to watch the water drop.
> 
> 
> When the water drops, I'm leaving the machine to sit and turn, cleaning the bad spot in the line, then proceed forward and then back, watching to see if the clog is returning with the hot water on, full blast.
> ...


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## sandboxdoc1 (Jan 20, 2011)

old man parr :laughing::whistling2:


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## ToUtahNow (Jul 19, 2008)

The majority of the track homes here have the kitchen on an outside wall with a cleanout on the outside. It makes it nice because I leave the hot water running while snaking a kitchen drain. I leave it on just enough to let me know when I clear the stoppage and full blast after that.

Mark


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## plbgbiz (Aug 27, 2010)

I looked at the photos Bill. Is this to clean the cable before exiting the pipe or is there something else?


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