Dishwasher Draining - Pros/Cons of direct vs via disposal?

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#16

yep, plunging one side while covering other side AND if you have a dishwasher vent, either have someone hold a towel over the holes or wrap it with a plastic tape temporarily so no air can escape when you plunge.

I had an aunt that didn't get the importance of covering the air hole in her backed up bathroom sink before plunging.

So I told her to hold her finger over the hole and keep a tight grip, then I pushed the plunger into the contour of the sink where the drain is with one hand, then plunged (carefully) with the other, and that pushed blockage out.

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The worst is when oil or gunk has built up on the inside walls of pipes BETWEEN a sink and the trap.
This will smell and attract bugs. I had one rental where roaches were living in the drains because even though the drain line worked, the roof of the pipe had gunk they were eating.
So poured a cup of bleach in and covered the drains with a plastic cover and taped it in place, then let it sit over night. They couldn't get out and died. Then took the pipes apart, took them outside and with a stick removed the heavy gunk, put the pipes in the dishwasher (vertically) and cleaned them up and put them all back in place. No cost fix to a stinky, buggy problem.

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Common sense 101:

common issues with backup is not making sure your plumbing system can handle waste from a disposer, and making sure your system is thoroughly cleaned out before installing one...

there are models for septic use with no issues.....

and most important, you can't bring a YUGO to a Nascar Race, and then wonder why you lost!...

more times than I can count is seeing people replace a 300.00 disposer with a 50.00 Badger, and wonder why it doesn't perform the same!....just boggles the mind....

 
I periodically clean the disposer by running a small stream of water while dumping a mass load of ice down the drain. When the water stream to dumped ice ratio is properly balanced, the drain pipe will momentarily plug from an ice lock and the disposer will shoot out a slushy stream (reminds me of the slush puppy beverage I got as a kid) from the opening as it scrubs the blades and chamber walls from bottom to top. Too much water and the whole works go down the drain without scrubbing the chamber walls. Not enough water and the ice gets stuck to the walls of the chamber, the scrubbing action halts, and the drain gets ice locked.

 

Sort of hard to describe the process but I discovered this by accident over 30 years ago while dumping a bunch of watery ice from an ice chest down a running disposer.

 

Running dry ice down a disposer was good fun as a teenager, lol.
 
The weekend DIYer GD install

They install a NEW weirdly deep sink that's like 10-12" where the old sink was 7". But the drain on the wall was originally figured for that 7" deep sink.

If you have standing water in your gd these hilarious, and no doubt stinky, installation pics show you why.

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yeah, I ran into an application like that when installing a disposer at the country house....fortunately enough, I was able to run the pipe down through the floor and reconnect to existing plumbing....

but how many installs look exactly like the one posted...

as usual, personalities you can figure out in an instant, but understanding why people do the crap that they do will forever puzzle me....I could write a book!
 
I'm not sure what mine is. I think it's whirlpool but probably not made by whirlpool...it's from 2004...if I didn't have it, I wouldn't miss it at all. Wanna know what caused mine to clog? Green Lettuce...I had some in the fridge that had been washed in a container and all of it didn't get used and it got slimy...big mistake. Never again. The only thing that goes down my disposal now are just bits of food, crumbs....I still turn it on if there's a bean or a noodle that goes down or something like that...but that's it.

If I throw food out that I know is going to smell......I put it in a ziplock bag, seal it, then throw it in the trash
 
#25

yeah, if one has a basement or access below the kitchen I figure the easiest thing to do is drill a hole through the floor of the cabinet into the basement and run a new drop and use the existing wall connection as the vent. It's far easier than pulling apart the wall and lowering or installing another "Y" to connect into.
 
GD

You know, it’s funny. One set of grandparents dump everything down theirs. They have an old ISE and never any issues. The other grandparents forbid anything from entering their GD. The result? Theirs clogs fairly frequently with an older ISE as well. I agree the plumbing makes a big impact, too! Our rental has a newer badger that does well. The dishwasher dumps into it without an issue. No smells likely with the Cascade Fryer Boil Out.
 

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