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The dishwasher tubes that I bought are very long. The one going from the dishwasher to the air gap (white) drapes on the ground. The one going from the air gap to the garbage disposal (gray) makes a 360 degree loop. Does this matter? My knowledge of physics is not so good, but I vaguely remember that only the vertical height difference between the end points of the tubes mattered.

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Update: I tested turning on the dishwasher. Water was spewing out of the air gap. This may indicate the loops are blocking water flow or something else is wrong with my setup.

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As further discussed in your post here: Is my dishwasher air gap manufactured incorrectly?

It's not that you cant have loops in the line, its more about having a proper run per manufacturers guidelines. The dishwasher has a pump, it is going to pump as much water as it can through the line to it's endpoint. Too long of a run will leave dirty water in the line, do not exceed the length or height the dishwasher tell you to.

For the disposal side of it, there is NO PUMP, so the air gap is that, all gravity.

From your other post, as water is going into the air gap, it runs to the disposal. However, in your run here, the grey line has a few feet of water sitting below the disposal, thus, you are going to need ~3'*5/8"ID worth of water weight to move water into the disposal. Shorten the grey line run, make it direct, and both problems in both questions should be resolved unless your disposal or trap has a clog or slow moving drain due to an impending clog or water flow etc.

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  • Nearly all the stores sell this gray tube with 6 feet length. I don't really see a way to cut it and re-attach the rubber end because the plastic ends actually look different from the middle section.
    – JoJo
    Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 1:53
  • there are ends you buy that you can reassemble, some of the kits come with one *(rarely). Otherwise, you can do the "360" question you asked about, but do it horizontally, and ABOVE the disposal drain outlet, and below the air gap
    – noybman
    Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 2:09
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    I actually did try tightly coiling the tube above the level of the garbage disposal. Still had spewing from the air gap. Another thing I tried was just completely straightening out the tube and put the end in a bucket instead of the garbage disposal (just for testing purposes). A tiny bit of water came out into the bucket. Most of the water was still spewing from the air gap.
    – JoJo
    Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 2:15
  • that is intriguing. reviewing the air gap installation, you have the cap on properly and the parts are all included?
    – noybman
    Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 2:39
  • (given your experiment it should have worked)
    – noybman
    Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 2:46

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