I am so over the plumbing in this place.

Not that we have any choice but to just run with the hits as they come.

With the main drain running from the kitchen to almost all the way to the septic cleared, we could finally do laundry without running a hose out the door to drain it. We did laundry all day before the drain was cleared, though, so it wasn’t until today that any of us needed to do laundry.

One of the things I wanted to do was run the tub clean setting, first, but we had a few extra grungy things in the washing machine, so that tiny load got done first. This new machine automatically adjusts the amount of water to the load, too, which is bonus.

The girls set the hose up before starting the load, but they can’t hear the machine from their “apartment” upstairs, so my husband and I were keeping an ear out. We didn’t hear anything unusual, but when I came out to check on things, I found water on the floor. It wasn’t flooding, as it has in the past. Enough that a few towels on the floor took care of it. I checked the drain pipe. It felt dry and I didn’t see wet underneath. The water and drain pipes are all framed with 2x4s, with cross pieces to keep things secure, and the lower one looked dry, too.

So we figured the problem was the discharge hose. It had been cat damaged in the past, and was taped up, but we figured it sprang a leak somewhere. My daughters taped it up as much as they could while I went hunting, ended up calling LG and ordering one in. It will be shipped by mail.

After taping up the discharge hose, the girls started the tub clean setting. After it ran for a while, I went out to check…

I immediately heard water splashing.

The drain pipe was overflowing around the discharge hose!

So I quickly paused the machine and threw a towel under to soak up some of the water – it’s a tight space and we can’t do much else without physically moving both the washer and dryer. The machine will automatically drain the tub when it’s paused or stopped, after a certain length of time, though – a protective feature so the weight of water doesn’t damage it – so we had to work fast. My older daughter came down to help while I started attaching the sump pump hose we use to drain the water out the storm door window. I got the hoses together, then my daughter started taping it while I started pushing the other end out the window on the door as fast as I could.

The water started draining while my daughter was still taping.

I dashed outside to straighten the hose out. With the tub clean setting, it was straight hot water. The water flowing through the hose melted a channel in the snow under it as it drained.

I didn’t fuss with it too much, though, and went back in to help my daughter finish securing the hoses together, then setting the rest up so there weren’t any lower hanging spots for water to collect.

Then we could restart the machine to finish the tub clean. I just checked on it again. The outside cats are VERY curious about the far end of the hose outside!

So while some water is going through the laundry drain pipe, it still must have a clog somewhere. I could even hear it trying to back up to the kitchen sink. The plumber worked on the pipe right near where the laundry drain reached the main drain pipe, so I know there is no clog near there. With the kitchen sinks, everything has been flowing fine.

But we still can’t drain the washing machine.

Wherever the clog is, the washing machine drains faster than the water can get past the clog.

Which has to be either in the P trap, which was replaced a couple of years ago, or in the short length of pipe from the P trap to the main drain pipe. I don’t think it’s the P trap that’s clogged, but I really don’t think it would be in the short length of pipe to the main drain pipe. Mostly because I could hear water backing up to the kitchen sink, so obviously, water it making it through to the main drain.

So why is it not only backing up and gurgling in the kitchen sink, but also overflowing the laundry drain? That’s a LOT of water to get backed up!

We’ve been diligent about following the maintenance instructions the plumber gave us, too. The pipes should be getting clearer, not clogging up.

I just don’t get it.

Meanwhile, we’re back to doing laundry with a hose out the door.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer