gurgling drains

[wayne]

my first post, I've been reading this forum for a while.

I have a 1991 Redman double wide that I bought 3 months ago. When the washer drains out I get a gurgling noise in the kitchen sink.

I doesn't back up or anything and I've put drain cleaner in the kitchen drain but no change.

It looks like the drain pedestal going to the city sewer is about in the middle of the house, same half of the house as the kitchen sink and washer. The washer drain water would have to run up hill to get to the kitchen sink.

I've changed the vents under the kitchen sink and the washer.

I think the trap under the kitchen sink is the source of the gurgling sound.

I'm thinking of renting a snake to see if there is a partial restriction in the drain somewhere. The only drain lines I can see under the house is the two toilet lines going to the sewer pedestal.

Thanks for any help
Wayne

[Mark]

Sounds like you either have a partial blockage, or an air problem.

One way to test to see if it's an air problem is to unscrew the vent caps and see if it gurgles then (keep a bucket under it and don't leave it that way or you could get sewer gases in the home).

Is the trap underneath your kitchen sink an s-trap or a p-trap? An s-trap drains straight down, going thru an 'S'. A p-trap dips then drains to the back (almost looks like a 'J' so some may call it a 'J' trap). In residential homes, S-traps are a code violation because it's so easy for water running down a drain to pull the water out of the trap. Anyway, that pulling might be creating a 'gurgling' sound. Do you ever smell sewer gas at the kitchen sink?

Mark

[wayne]

thanks for the reply Mark.

No I never smell any sewer gases anywhere.
Here is a photo of under my sink, the vertical pipe in the back is the vent.



thanks Wayne

[Mark]

Looks like a good drain. I'd still unscrew that auto vent in the back and see if it still gurgles or not.

Mark

[ImaDufus]

Looks like a good drain. I'd still unscrew that auto vent in the back and see if it still gurgles or not.

Mark

What is an auto vent in a mobile home? When you mentioned a vent cap in a previous post, I thought you meant a vent cap on the roof. Where are the vent caps in mobiles?

Thanks

Tim

[Guest]

Trap vents (which you said you already replaced) are sometimes called auto vents. I think mark was talking about the same item. Mobile homes that have no vents going through the roof have these on all the plumbing fixtures. They sometimes get stuck and need to be replaced.

http://ashvillemobilehomes.com/trapvent.html

[Guest]

Oops, sorry Tim. Just realized you weren't the original poster.

[ImaDufus]

Oops, sorry Tim. Just realized you weren't the original poster.

That's OK.

I am not at my mobile now. I wish I were so I could check under the sink to see if I have those type of vents.

Do most mobiles have these auto vents or do they have the vents in the roof?

Thanks

Tim

[Guest]

I guess it depends on the make, age etc. I have them in mine and judging from a scan of the nearby rooftops, so do a lot of my neighbors.

[ImaDufus]

I guess it depends on the make, age etc. I have them in mine and judging from a scan of the nearby rooftops, so do a lot of my neighbors.

I am learning so much about mobile homes and mobile home living since I discovered this forum. Kudos and "thank you" to those that keep it running flawlessly.

I can't wait until I get back to Florida to I can check under the sink to see if I have auto vents or a sewer vent in the roof.

Tim

[Greg]

You usually have roof vents for the toilet drains, most likely due to the volume needed for a flush as opposed to a sink drain. Greg

[wayne]

You usually have roof vents for the toilet drains, most likely due to the volume needed for a flush as opposed to a sink drain.

The amount of water that drains out of the washer is why I'm thinking the lack of air maybe causing the noise in the kitchen sink trap.

I'm going to remove the auto vent tomorrow and do some laundry to see what happens.

Thanks for all the help. I'll let you know how it went.
Wayne

[Guest]

The only time I ever had gurgling in a drain was from an unused laundry standpipe. The water in the trap had evaporated. Not a good situation as it can let sewer gasses into your home, but at least it alerted me to the problem. Now that I have a washer and dryer hooked up it's one less thing to worry about.

[wayne]

I finally got the chance to take the auto vent off from under the sink and do a load of laundry. With the vent cap off it doesn't make any noise in the sink at all. I can hear water running from inside the drain line under the sink ( with the auto vent cap off).

I'm assuming that I'm not getting enough air in the drain lines with the sudden rush of washer water. Is there anything I can do to fix this? It sometimes pushes out the plug in the sink that has dish water in it. I changed the vent cap but I bought the same kind that was on there, a little rubber flapper inside to let air in but keep the air from coming out kinda like a check valve.

Lowes had other kinds of vent caps for a lot more money but will those work better?

Thanks for any advice
Wayne

[Mark]

I'm not sure if one kind of auto vent would make anymore difference than the other. In fact, I didn't know there was a cheap and expensive one. Figured most were the same.

Have you gotten on top of your roof and checked the other vents? If they are fine, then you need more air. Best solution is to remove the auto vent, and run the vent pipe all the way up thru the roof.

Mark