# Wholly trap sucker !!!



## AlbacoreShuffle (Aug 28, 2011)

I was just sitting at my desk and here this slow rumble under my feet .
Then I here a strange noise coming from the bathroom.
I run into the bathroom just in time to see the toilet get sucked dry. 
I run into the other bathroom and same thing going on there. :yes:

Both toilets , shower and tub are sucked dry as well as the traps in the lave sinks. 

Anyone want to venture a guess what caused it ?


PS: I know the answer.


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## UN1TED-WE-PLUMB (Oct 3, 2012)

The Ivanka Trump perfume ad at the bottom of the page??


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## newyorkcity (Nov 25, 2010)

A vactor truck at the manhole?


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## BROOKLYN\PLUMB (May 21, 2010)

No fresh air inlet, no vent through the roof and provents everywhere


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

Another sinkhole near you?


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## AlbacoreShuffle (Aug 28, 2011)

newyorkcity said:


> A vactor truck at the manhole?


Ding Ding Ding !

There is a manhole right in front of my house, and the vactor was up the street at the next manhole.

I walked down there to see what they were up to.

Young kid was retrieving the hose when I got there.

I told him what happened and he said it happens all the time when you have a belly in your sewer .

What ? 

Not sure I'm buying this explanation. 

My house is 14 years old and I have never had any sewer problems.


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## AlbacoreShuffle (Aug 28, 2011)

BROOKLYN\PLUMB said:


> No fresh air inlet, no vent through the roof and provents everywhere


Each bathroom is vented to the roof as well as the kitchen sink.


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## newyorkcity (Nov 25, 2010)

.....


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## SewerRat (Feb 26, 2011)

My guess is it was his jetter and not the vac that sucked ya dry. A jetter creates a lot of suction in a line and if all the houses combined on the line don't have adequate venting for the air he's pulling it's gonna suck them dry. Now just think what would have happened if that nozzle went past your tap but the line wasn't clear behind it... 

Around here the city guys will sometimes go up the block removing cleanout plugs before jetting a problem line for that very reason.

I got one more burning question... was the truck owned by the city, or was it subbed to a company with 2 S's, 2 E's, a T and a W in their name?


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## MarkToo (Dec 17, 2011)

AlbacoreShuffle said:


> Ding Ding Ding !
> 
> There is a manhole right in front of my house, and the vactor was up the street at the next manhole.
> 
> ...



I suspect instead of keeping the manhole clear while they jetted, he sucked on the sewer where it's benched into the manhole.

I wouldn't buy his explanation either.


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## AlbacoreShuffle (Aug 28, 2011)

newyorkcity said:


> ...............


.......... ?:laughing:


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## AlbacoreShuffle (Aug 28, 2011)

SewerRat said:


> My guess is it was his jetter and not the vac that sucked ya dry. A jetter creates a lot of suction in a line and if all the houses combined on the line don't have adequate venting for the air he's pulling it's gonna suck them dry. Now just think what would have happened if that nozzle went past your tap but the line wasn't clear behind it...
> 
> Around here the city guys will sometimes go up the block removing cleanout plugs before jetting a problem line for that very reason.
> 
> ...


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## SewerRat (Feb 26, 2011)

Laugh all you want last spring on the Idaho Power auction there was a municipal jetter truck that was SWEET and I was thinking about bidding. I called the Boise public works department and asked who I should talk to for more info on the truck. They said they would transfer me to the city shop. When they did the "city shop" person answered "S***t's City of Boise, how can I help you? " made my head spin but obviously somebody's providing suction to the right people.

It's a conspiracy, Greg, it's a conspiracy. :yes: :laughing:


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## AlbacoreShuffle (Aug 28, 2011)

SewerRat said:


> Laugh all you want last spring on the Idaho Power auction there was a municipal jetter truck that was SWEET and I was thinking about bidding. I called the Boise public works department and asked who I should talk to for more info on the truck. They said they would transfer me to the city shop. When they did the "city shop" person answered "S***t's of Boise, how can I help you? " made my head spin but obviously somebody's providing suction to the right people.
> 
> *It's a conspiracy, Greg, it's a conspiracy. :yes: :laughing:*


I think your right, maybe we should move this to the P&R area. :laughing:


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## BROOKLYN\PLUMB (May 21, 2010)

AlbacoreShuffle said:


> Each bathroom is vented to the roof as well as the kitchen sink.


What about a fresh air inlet, because if you have that and she still sucked you dry then I would be shocked


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## dclarke (Dec 22, 2012)

i was on a sewer replacement a few years ago. the city does a tap inspection before we reconnect. they have an issue so they have the jetter come out. its the end of the run and they jet. a minute later the neighbor across the street comes running out. toilet water on the ceiling. she was doing laundry so theres also suds everywhere. ahhhh it was comical.


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## JHITT (Feb 27, 2013)

dclarke said:


> i was on a sewer replacement a few years ago. the city does a tap inspection before we reconnect. they have an issue so they have the jetter come out. its the end of the run and they jet. a minute later the neighbor across the street comes running out. toilet water on the ceiling. she was doing laundry so theres also suds everywhere. ahhhh it was comical.


This happens all the time here in Buckhannon, WV. People here are getting fed up with the whole thing. This is a small town and the city is so dang proud of their new "truck". There have been meetings, lawyers, complaints filed and still the city won't stop or change their practices. They have blown out main obstructions that have clogged two or three residential lines downstream. People have been blasted while on the toilet. I don't understand how this is even allowed.


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## dclarke (Dec 22, 2012)

JHITT said:


> People have been blasted while on the toilet.


Ugh. I couldn't imagine. I still find humor in it even though it could be quite harmful.


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## JHITT (Feb 27, 2013)

Oh, no doubt. I picture it and laugh every time. The one lady that got blasted was a school vice principal. They wouldn't say which one, but the kids knew an drew pics of her getting blasted off the toilet into the air and posted xerox copies all over the school. She was .......uh.....upset! LOLOLOL! There have been over 100 blow throughs reported. Someone else HAD to be on the pot when it happened.....lol.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

Prime example of oversized jetters being used on smaller lines. To much gpm will blow out water closets while the nozzle is upstream, and as it pass by it can suck out traps.

Lots of the truck jetters are 40 to 120 gpm and the lines they are jetting around here where they have the blow outs are 8"


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## BROOKLYN\PLUMB (May 21, 2010)

BROOKLYN\PLUMB said:


> What about a fresh air inlet, because if you have that and she still sucked you dry then I would be shocked


I know alot of you guys don't have house traps and fresh air inlets, here we do and I've never heard of that happening. And I can assure you our city workers are just as incompetent as yours.


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## JoshJ (May 10, 2012)

dclarke said:


> Ugh. I couldn't imagine. I still find humor in it even though it could be quite harmful.


:laughing::laughing:

Too true.


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## gear junkie (Jun 20, 2008)

Always wondered about that 18gpm 4000 psi.....always wondered what else it could effect when it can lift and rattle manhole covers.


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

Only funny if it was the plumbing inspector on the pot writing bogus report.


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## Kevan (Jul 5, 2010)

BROOKLYN\PLUMB said:


> I know alot of you guys don't have house traps and fresh air inlets, here we do and I've never heard of that happening. And I can assure you our city workers are just as incompetent as yours.


A few of our "environmental maintenance" people know a cleanout from a hole in the ground, but I've been dealing with them for twenty three years now and I'm quite sure that most of them don't. Yet, like Brooklyn\Plumb says, I've never heard of it happening here in Memphis.

I cannot see how any amount of negative pressure in a main could suck trap water in a house that is vented. On the other hand, we all know that, if a sewer backs water into the vent higher than the floor, it will suck the toilet down while the sewer goes down.

In the OP, could the city have created a backup first, which would have accounted for the toilets going down?


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## newyorkcity (Nov 25, 2010)

The house is vented, but you'ze like to run 2" vents through the roof.
We have to have at least one continuous 4" pipe from the building house drain through the roof, and any other vent stacks/stack vents have to increase to 4" a minimum of 12" below the roof deck to stop frost closure. And, as B/P said, a fresh air intake at the house trap.
(and no more vulgarity, he, he)


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