Recently bought a house that has this setup under the kitchen sink. The garbage disposal flows into other side of the sink, which seems obvious when looking at the tee connecting the two sides. Without ripping everything out and starting from scratch, what would fix this? I was thinking of a wye instead of tee, but can’t find what I’m picturing that would direct the disposal flow down the drain instead of across to the other side. I also had half a mind to just remove the disposal, but prefer to keep it if it’s an easy DIY. Suggestions?
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I had the same configuration (before I replaced sink with a single drain unit), and had no problem with it. Why is this a problem? What have you tried so far?– MadMontyCommented May 26 at 18:51
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Water shoots out the other sink with enough force to reach the countertop when starting the disposal. I'm assuming because the tee allows water to cross into that side more easily than divert 90° down the drain line.– WarmOven01Commented May 26 at 19:01
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Plumbing subreddit is recommending I lower the drain in the wall and redo everything (I'd sooner just remove the disposal). But I'm picturing something like this in a slip fitting that would just direct the water downstream, but I can't find it in a slip fitting: amazon.com/Genova-Products-70716-Double-Elbow/dp/B006P1MTZW/…– WarmOven01Commented May 26 at 19:03
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Got it. If you don't get a better answer, and there's a plumbing supply store (that plumbers use) near you, I would go there with the pic and see what combo they can come up with. They've always been helpful to me, generally preferring to know what problem I'm trying to solve than asking for specific parts that may not be the best solution. And kudos on your research and pic.– MadMontyCommented May 26 at 19:12
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Thanks, other than big box stores we only have a Ferguson warehouse. I'll give them a call after the weekend to see if they have customer service staff or if it's just a distribution center.– WarmOven01Commented May 26 at 19:53
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2 Answers
There are many things wrong. Many.
It is really simple. One of the sink drains needs a T, a p-trap and exit to the back sewage pipe. The other goes to the T. You don't need two p-traps and you surely can't have that much height after a ptrap.
To me it looks like your connection in the back is rather high. You will have minimal room for your tailpieces so keep them short. (ignore the AAV in the picture, just an example of simple double sink)
What I would do:
- Get a straight piece out for the disposal. Also I know some people hate this and I would install it on mine, not houses I sell... I would get a quality flex pipe. Reason why it is easy to give it a slight down tilt going into a T.
- Install a new tailpiece (WTF is there a metal coupling on a plastic tailpiece... my head hurts) on the left.
- Install a T below it. Attach straight pipe or flex pipe to T.
- Install ptrap under the T.
- Install 90 and straight piece to drain.
There aren't many piece you need to do it right. If you go flex pipe (not the crappy see through ones the thick rubber ones) then you don't have to be very exact with everything and this is literally a 10-15 minute job.
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1Also I just noticed the grey pipe in the back... WTF is that and can you get more pictures. This is one of the most "unique" installs and no way in the world could this work long.– DMooreCommented May 26 at 19:26
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1I can't for the life of me see how your garbage disposal can push up that high and then it actually tilts back to the other sink. This must be an anti-gravity install. Are you in Australia?– DMooreCommented May 26 at 19:28
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Makes sense. Its been like this since 2017 with no issues other than water spitting up the other side - can you expand on what shouldn't continue to work? I was really hoping for an answer like "here's an angled wye to replace that tee and you'll direct the water downline instead of across, problem solved". I don't see any way to adhere to the guidelines you mentioned and in that picture without removing the disposal to increase the initial height (which is fine with us), or ripping open the whole horizontal drain to drop the height which I'd really like to avoid. Commented May 26 at 19:51
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There's no gray pipe in back, are you looking at the hanger strap right where it enters the wall? I opened up a couple inches of drywall and got another picture: imgur.com/a/SzdMlF7 Commented May 26 at 19:51
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It doesn't look like there is enough vertical height to install this correctly and the only way to fix that would be to open the wall and move the tee down lower.
As it is, the garbage disposal would never fully drain. Everything below the red line would always be full of water (the red line should be below the garbage disposal's outlet):
If you simply want to stop the water from coming into the left sink, you could repipe to eliminate the tee. Here a couple of options:
This will not eliminate the standing water in the garbage disposal unit but should stop the water coming up the left sink when in use.
A couple of other notes:
- Make sure the dishwasher line goes up as high as possible inside the cabinet before it connects to the garbage disposal unit
- Being that the garbage disposal unit will not fully drain, be sure to run the water after using it to make sure that the p-trap is flushed of any debris
- Always run the garbage disposal unit before running the dishwasher, if the p-trap or disposal unit becomes plugged, the dishwasher may overflow the sink when it runs (depending on flow rate and sink volume)
