while we're on the plumbing trouble.....

[Joc]

What whould cause your washing machine drain hose to overflow at the top of the drain pipe?

When I got married and got our first house it done that. My solution was duck tape the hell out of it and never looked back. Never leaked. It was just some pvc pipe sticking through the floor in front of the wall. old house lol.

When we moved in our current house almost 2 years ago I notice it did the same thing just not as much overflow. I cant duck tape it in this house so i just stuffed a rag around the gap and seems to work but i have to keep swapping it out due to moisture.

all drains work fine.
any ideas?

have a septic tank at the new house, last house was sewer (so i was told lol)

 

[BMWhittle53009]

I had the same problem at my first house and it was the plastic pipe had cracked in the back yard and had a ton of roots growing
Inside the pipe clogging it up. I dug it up and replaced it from the crawl space out. Mine didn't tie into the septic tank. It was just
burried in the back yard. I would find where it leaves from under the house and start digging. I'm no plumber so I'm not sure if it's
supposed to go to the septic or not. Just my experience maybe it'll help.

 

[grcthird]

What he said! :****:

Ex wife's old house did that, I had to dig a new field line for the washer, rented a mini excavator, gravel, 20ft slotted corregated black drain pipe, and some of that silt screen stuff on top before backfilling and it never overflowed again. Originally had concrete pipes slap full of roots, old field line ran under an oak tree about 3 ft in diameter.

I wouldn't tie it into the septic tank, no reason to.

 

[Joc]

that may very well be the problem. I was just under the assumption it went to the septic tank but i dont know chit about plumbing regulations. may very well have to dig a new drain line. Never really thought it was on a separate drain. Thanks for the info

if anyone else is got any other ideas post up.

 

[RobbyBobby]

Just cut the gotdayum pipe under the floor and drain that fawkin **** up under your house, problem solved

 

[DeleriousII]

New drain line like everyone else said...just make sure not to run it in a heavy traffic area. Down here it would never dry out enough to run a vehicle over a bunch of times

 

[Joc]

I haven't crawled under the house to see if it's separate line or not but I just filled it up with water and drained it and no water came back. Like I said I don't think it does it much but it's dry outside today so I'm gonna do the same thing next time it's coming a flood and just see if maybe it does it when the ground is full of water. Plan the laundry around the rain lol. I did pour some drain o down it for the hell of it.

 

[HotwheelsYJ]

Re:

Newer HE washers empty out @ a faster rate. I'm not sure on codes but I had an old plumber tell me to raise the valve / drain box to at least 42" above floor level and under the floor to give it as much straight line room as I could. And use 2" pipe.

The problem was the old 1.5" pipe had a p-trap in the wall about a foot below the drain box. The drain water was hitting it so fast it just splashed right back up.

 

[Joc]

Makes sense. Thats kinda what i was wondering too if maybe my cheapo washer was just pumping the water out too fast. One of them out of sight out of mind things but seeing the other plumbing topic kinda got me wondering again.

 

[pholmann]

Shouldn't the washer drain also have a roof vent because of the speed it drains as well as the massive amount of water?

 

[grcthird]

Neither mine or my parents' house has a roof stand pipe at the washer. Sounds like a good idea.

 

[Joc]

Well I've put off investigating this issue til I was doing some laundry this morning and checking the rags for moisture. I dry it up good and when the washer was draining I watched with a flashlight and no backsplash or over flow. So I let it drain again a still dry. By now I'm tired of waiting for the thing to cycle to drain again and just so happen to notice a small leak on the valve at the stem. I had it 1/2 open so I fully opened it and the trickle stopped. Still dry so I hope that fixed it but time will tell.
Pic for ref. middle valve under the knob

 

[grcthird]

Tighten the nut under the knob, it tightens the packing and will keep it from leaking.

 

[Joc]

thanks didnt know that would help.

 

[TheViking]

If you disconnected the line you could try some line cleaner, more than likely a blockage, before you dig up the yard it might be a cheaper option. Also while under the crawl space check your line and see if it connects to a line with a clean out, cleaning the clean out might help to. If all else fails call my boss he's the professional plumber I'm just the slack ass assistant