Kitchen grease blockage

[srinia]

This is a home owner here.

The kitchen pipes are blocked and water flows way too slow that i cannot run the dishwasher. The dishwasher floor is filled with dirty water at the end of the cycle.

Double sink with GD on one side.

I tried the 5/16 x25 ft auger. No grease found on the auger.
Used all kinds of liquid plumbing solutions.

A professional visited yesterday. He used the Ridgid Flexshaft and was able to extract some grease (white semi solid). He gave up after an hour. I too have seen this gunk in the past while using my auger.

Last night i sucked as much standing water out of the pipes with a wet/dry vac. Poured an ounce of "Green goblin" and let it sit over night. Today morning poured about 10 gals of hot water in 3 batches.

The last batch of water went through quick as if there were no blocks. Made me believe the issue is gone. When i ran the dishwasher, i realized the issue is still there.

Nothing explains why the last batch of hot water went through so quickly.

What are my options ?
a) Do i just replace the pipes that lead to the sewer line (these pipes are under a low level deck. so the deck may have to be partially dismantled.)
b) can i do the green goblin/hot water treatment for a period of time to realize any benefit.

Plumber suggested bringing in heavy machinery to jettison the grease out - About 2K dollars is the estimate.

Expert advice appreciated. Thank you !

 

[breplum]

It would be worth having another drain cleaning pro snake, and/or worth shopping around for a company with jetter that prices LOWER than $2k.
Forget chem attempts, just worthless and hopeless waste. Never use sink for any greasy waste.

 

[Twowaxhack]

See if the dishwasher will completely drain into a bucket

 

[chinarus]

I ran a garden hose to the hot water tank and used a plumbing unclog expanding bladder to clean out a build up a greasy accumulation of "stuff".
https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Husky...429e5fd65da613f8f07138026146f4fa&gclsrc=3p.ds


Best i recall I took the drain under the sink apart for access.

 

[Peva]

I ran a garden hose to the hot water tank and used a plumbing unclog expanding bladder to clean out a build up a greasy accumulation of "stuff".
https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Husky...429e5fd65da613f8f07138026146f4fa&gclsrc=3p.ds


Best i recall I took the drain under the sink apart for access.

Time out for a funny story about my using one of those unclog bladders. (I'm a DIYer - and a know-it-all engineer, which will make this even funnier to you guys.)

We were renting a two-story house with basement. We were juicing vegetable's (carrots and celery) every day and dumping the waste pulp down the sink drain in the first-floor kitchen sink. Big mistake - right? OK - I KNOW THAT NOW!!

Anyway, not surprisingly, a hard clog developed in the drain pipe from the sink that dropped down into the basement and then out into the municipal sewer system.

So - I figured out a sure/fire solution to this assumed routine, simple drain clog: One of those bladder unstoppers. What could go wrong!?

I removed the trap and inserted the bladder hooked to a garden hose adapted to a nearby bathroom sink faucet. Ran the hose for several minutes to make sure any clog surely would have been blown out of the way. Wrong!

So what I figured out after the fact was that the air in the probably 12 or 15 feet of drain pipe compressed and pressurized against the dead-end, hard clog.

So - fat, dumb, and happy me figured it was finally time to turn the hose off to enjoy a clog-free drain. Wrong!

As soon as the water stopped flowing and the bladder deflated just enough to loose it's grip on the ID of the drain pipe (powered by all that energy stored in the compressed air), the bladder and the hose comes flying out, followed by a jet stream of gallons of water and old residue food particles - aimed straight at me and ricocheting all over the kitchen.

My mother-in-law happened to be visiting and sitting with my wife adjacent to the kitchen in the open floor-plan living room watching this brave protector of the family save the day by unclogging a drain.

So they were literally ROTFL'ing while I was pissed off yelling and cussing while being blasted with water and food garbage. Of course, I was laughing 15 minutes later.

Great times that my wife and I still talk and laugh about years later (MIL passed a few years ago - RIP).

Photo of toy rocket that uses the same principle:


That's it ... back to the thread. Just use those bladders intelligently.

 

[srinia]

Today Roto-rooter came in and addressed this. $500 with 6 month warranty.

The plumber ran a 3/16 x 50 ft motorized auger from under the sink for about an hour. He started running the water and poured a gal of draino that i had around while running the auger.

I did not see any of the grease come out along with the auger so this seems to be a temporary solution.

His suggestion was to dissolve a bit of Lye in hot water and pour it on a regular basis to melt the grease and that Lye should not be poured directly since it could harden.

 

[srinia]

See if the dishwasher will completely drain into a bucket

Yes. Diswasher drained ok into a bucket.

 

[Geofd]

Breplum is correct there are DRAIN CLEANING CO out there that have the proper cutting heads grease cutting heads maybe a small electric jet, if you have basement access that's even better

 

[GReynolds929]

You should not be using draino or lye, they are caustic, dangerous, and only give temporary results. Any company that recommends that should not be used.
What material are your pipes? 3/16" snake, are you sure it wasn't 5/16"? I wouldn't use less than a 3/8" with a cutting head for a kitchen drain grease clog. Jetting would be best.