OK so helped a mate today take out his old washing machine and put new one in. The waste hose from the machine just bends round and sits in the plastic waste pipe that leads to u bend under sink.
Into this pipe, further down, is the waste hose from the dishwasher.
Install new machine, test it and the waste water comes spewing back up the pipe so me being me, decides that we might as well take apart all the pipework and check for blockages.
I found lots of gunge and I also discovered that the waste hose from the dishwasher had went right down into the plastic waste pipe under the sink and was effectively acting as a blockage.
So took it all apart, cleaned all the pipes out and put back together and fired up the washing machine.
On the first rinse and drain, foam started appearing. From the top of the washing machine drain pipe. Then from the top of the dishwasher drain pipe. Then coming up through the plughole in the sink!
It was only after a lot of head scratching that my mate pointed out that I had used almost half a bottle of the Fairy liquid to clean the pipework out.!!
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Every three to four months i put some soda crystals down the washing machine drain pipe. Our machine is upstairs and an overflow would not be fun.
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Every two months i run a maintenance wash, an empty hot 90c wash with white wine vinegar in the water.
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Every year I just say to myself, Aren't washing machines reliable these days - and do absolutely nothing except go on using it.
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What's a washing machine?
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>> What's a washing machine?
>>
A kind of kiss
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Me too Cliff, me too.
Our current washing machine is outside, has been for some years. I think it's about 6 years old. It'll probably break one day. And when it does I shall get another having put no money or hassle into this one.
Down the bottom of the garden is a fridge with beer and wine in it. Its been out there for 6 years that I know of and it was second hand when I got it. There's a chest freezer in a shed down there as well, and I'm surprised they'd even invented chest freezers when that one was made.
The dishwasher, which is actually in sensible surroundings, has been there for almost 10 years now.
Preventative maintenance on cheap white goods is overrated from an effort/return point of view. IMO of course.
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The measures described aren't really preventive (preventative?) maintenance on the appliance - one is keeping the drain clear, the other is cleaning (and the vinegar might remove/reduce limescale a bit).
Good idea IMO. Modern washers/dishwashers use minimal water and low temperatures, and undissolved washing powder commonly causes blockages, perhaps when folk use too much.
Drains are at the front of my mind just now. I spent half of Thursday rodding and jetting our foul drain, for the second time in 14 years here - the first was not long after we moved in. That appeared to have been caused by solidified fat, and as we don't put much of that down the sink I didn't expect any more problems.
I didn't reckon with "flushable" toilet cleaning wipes.
I have now diarised future regular drain inspections - the reactive maintenance requirement never crops up at a convenient time.
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OCD raises its ugly head - drains this time.
32 years with washing machines waste into a pipe and never any issues..
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Aye well, can't claim 32 but I can pitch in with 12 years.
Mind you, they don't have proper water down there. It's all been round ( as in recycled ) about 6 times they reckon. No wonder it's a bit grotty.
Supposed to be good for you though isn't it? Drinking pee?
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>> Mind you, they don't have proper water down there. It's all been round ( as in recycled ) about 6 times they reckon. No wonder it's a bit grotty.
>>
>> Supposed to be good for you though isn't it? Drinking pee?
Where do you think "fresh" drinking water comes from?
Of course you're drinking pee!
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Bit of an urban myth that one. Treated waste water from effluent is not discharged into sources of drinking water so you are not drinking re-cycled pee whatever the bloke down the pub says.
Of course in the sense that water evaporates and returns to the earth as rain all water could be said to be re-cycled. There is after all a finite supply of the stuff.
The is no reason why in theory waste water from sewage could not be returned to the drinking water supply and in the future it might have to due to pressure on the supply of fresh water but it is really a matter of convincing the public that this would be acceptable. The natural disgust at the idea would be hard to overcome.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Sun 14 Dec 14 at 22:53
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>>Bit of an urban myth that one. Treated waste water from effluent is not discharged into sources of drinking water so you are not drinking re-cycled pee whatever the bloke down the pub says.
Our water comes from Grafham, which is supplied by water pumped from the Great Ouse. Treated sewage effluent is passed into the Great Ouse, upstream of where it's pumped back into Grafham.
It's reckoned that part of the water we're drinking has been through half-a-dozen folks before, not to mention the fluoride!
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>> Our water comes from Grafham, which is supplied by water pumped from the Great Ouse.
>> Treated sewage effluent is passed into the Great Ouse, upstream of where it's pumped back
>> into Grafham.
Similar stories about the Nene* - Northampton gets it's own pee piped back from downstream.
*pronounced as 'Nenn' you're upstream of Northampton
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 14 Dec 14 at 23:10
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But if they basically pump water out and the treatment removes the rest... what's the problem? Or do they not pump just H2O and there's other substances?
Now astronauts/cosmonauts know they have to drink recycled wee.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sun 14 Dec 14 at 23:21
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The only wast water treatment plants that discharge into the Great Ouse are at Kings Lynn, West Walton, and Watlingham way downstream from the extract fror Grafham water
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 15 Dec 14 at 08:15
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>> The only wast water treatment plants that discharge into the Great Ouse are at
>> Kings Lynn, West Walton, and Watlingham way downstream from the extract fror Grafham water
Wot about the large one at Bedford?
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>> The only wast water treatment plants that discharge into the Great Ouse are at
>> Kings Lynn, West Walton, and Watlingham way downstream from the extract fror Grafham water
>> Wot about the large one at Bedford?
A picture's worth a thousand words: goo.gl/maps/b7kUj
Perhaps CGN can tell us where he thinks the liquid from this plant goes?
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>> Bit of an urban myth that one. Treated waste water from effluent is not discharged
>> into sources of drinking water
There will be lots of small-scale private systems that in effect do that, but obviously on a very small scale.
Our loos discharge into an ancient private underground pit of some sort, and eventually water seeps out through a reed bed, into a gulley down the road, and then into a stream and then a bigger stream and then a small river and eventually into the main Tivy water works at Llechryd.
We don't drink it though- our water comes from a private spring uphill of the house.
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>> We don't drink it though- our water comes from a private spring uphill of the
>> house.
You will. If not today, then at some time in the future.
All the water in world, whether it be salt water or fresh water is recycled.
Don't kid yourself.
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I had a work contact in early nineties who lived on edge of the Malverns. At the time Malvern spring water carried the Royal Warrant (implying that The Queen drank the stuff).
Andrew claimed to take great pleasure in weeing on Her Maj's gathering grounds.
Alfred Wainwright made the same claim in relation to Manchester when writing up his wanderings on Thirlmere's surrounding fells.
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>> OCD raises its ugly head - drains this time.
>>
>> 32 years with washing machines waste into a pipe and never any issues..
You think I was rodding drains for fun?!
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>> >> OCD raises its ugly head - drains this time.
>> >>
>> >> 32 years with washing machines waste into a pipe and never any issues..
>>
>> You think I was rodding drains for fun?!
>>
Of course :-)
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>> I didn't reckon with "flushable" toilet cleaning wipes.
>>
No problem. Years ago I inadvertently flushed a terry towelling nappy down the lavatory. Disappeared like the proverbial ferret.
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>> I didn't reckon with "flushable" toilet cleaning wipes.
Plumber friend reckons they and cotton wool buds keep him in business.
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Liquitqbs - a bit pricier than the 2 scoops needed in BIG BOX Powders but there is no undissolved powder to get stuck halfway down the wastepipe.
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I use Waitrose liquid. No dissolving needed!
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>> No problem. Years ago I inadvertently flushed a terry towelling nappy down the lavatory. Disappeared
>> like the proverbial ferret.
If it's just the one and you're lucky you'll get away with it. I'd never heard of toilet wipes but wet wipes, whether of the baby or make-up removal type, tend to go down the bog day in and day out. Neighbours a few houses down (in flow terms) have had several manhole overflows due to 'wipes' possibly augmented by female sanitary stuff. The whole close got a rather snotty note from one of those affected.
CAB colleagues aver that wipe blockages are pretty common subjects for landlord/tenant disputes.
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>> Neighbours a few houses down (in flow terms) have had several manhole overflows
I've been the 'neighbour downstream' a couple of times and after rodding the foul mess, I told them upstream (in no uncertain terms) they can do it in future or bear their part of the commercial cost of hiring a professional!
Not had any problems the last few years.
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>> Since 2011 not your responsibility for any shared section.......
>>
>> www.stwater.co.uk/households/pipes-leaks-and-drains/responsibility-for-sewer-pipes/
Some of our neighbours only discovered that fact after they'd paid dyno rod or whoever.
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We have a washing machine. I know because I saw it when they delivered it 8 years ago.
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Today's DIY ...... - MD
