You don't seem to be getting the purpose of the recommended vent. The smell is typically sewer gas smell coming up the drain line where the trap has lost its water seal. The trap seal can be siphoned out when there is no vent to break the siphon. So it's critical that the vent be located within a reasonable distance of the trap it's protecting and before the drain line takes a vertical drop.
This looks like a great forum for my plumbing question! I am hoping someone can chime in with what my problem may be. House was built in 2000.
Issue:
I always have a smell in my dishwasher. No matter what detergent or how many times I run it when I open it up from a fresh wash, it stinks. I found that my dishwasher drain line has about 4 feet of slack in it so I just removed all of that and now it seems to drain much better. It does have a high loop. During this testing though, I found a few things. When I run the sink on the left with the garbage disposal, it seems to fill a bit and when I turn it on (the disposal), water rushes down the drain and shoots into the other drain geysering 3 feet up from the sink drain on the right. At that point the disposal side drains but looks like it is sucking the water lock out of the right drain allowing sewer gases to come up. I can from time to time smell sewer from here. I put a new tail piece on the right (today while fixing the extra dishwasher drain length) since the one on there was restricting flow. I got a larger one that allowed much more flow from the dishwasher. Looking down the drain with a flashlight while the dishwasher is draining shows a nice heavy stream of water. But when I took off the old tailpiece it stunk to high heaven like sewer. Not sure where this is coming from since I use this since many times a day the drains should be well flushed.
Some backstory - This setup never worked well. I replaced the dishwasher myself last year and instead of running it through the disposal tap (I got a new disposal with the dishwasher so I had the option of not using that setup by not punching out the dishwasher plug) I got a new right-side sink tailpiece with the dishwasher tap. I did this because when I removed the old dishwasher drainline, it was incredibly nasty with so much garbage in it right where it connected to the disposal that I didn't want to go this route again. I suspect it was like this because the disposal (as I found today) has never drained properly.
Any advice greatly appreciated! At this point I am ready to cap off the disposal and not use it anymore. I am on septic so they don't recommend using a disposal anyway.
Most of the undersink plumbing I have seen there is only 1 trap. Perhaps that it the issue?
VIDEOS
Right side draining - You can hear that "blub blub blub" when it is done for a long time.
Right Side
Left (disposal) side draining.
Left Side
Picture:
This looks great! I note you are in Baltimore a mere 45 minutes away. When can you get it all done?
The elbow in the drainline down stream from the wye is a code violation. It is a functional violation, the water dropping down that elbow causes a siphon and sucks the traps water seal out. The sewer smell can then enter the fixtures. Code does not even allow any downward fitting after the trap, not even a 1/4" slope so long as to cause siphon. There are standards and codes based on physics and history in plumbing. This is not my opinion, look at the plumbing code. My calif. code book likely uses a different page, chapter and citation, or I would quote that and you could see.This looks like a great forum for my plumbing question! I am hoping someone can chime in with what my problem may be. House was built in 2000.
Issue:
I always have a smell in my dishwasher. No matter what detergent or how many times I run it when I open it up from a fresh wash, it stinks. I found that my dishwasher drain line has about 4 feet of slack in it so I just removed all of that and now it seems to drain much better. It does have a high loop. During this testing though, I found a few things. When I run the sink on the left with the garbage disposal, it seems to fill a bit and when I turn it on (the disposal), water rushes down the drain and shoots into the other drain geysering 3 feet up from the sink drain on the right. At that point the disposal side drains but looks like it is sucking the water lock out of the right drain allowing sewer gases to come up. I can from time to time smell sewer from here. I put a new tail piece on the right (today while fixing the extra dishwasher drain length) since the one on there was restricting flow. I got a larger one that allowed much more flow from the dishwasher. Looking down the drain with a flashlight while the dishwasher is draining shows a nice heavy stream of water. But when I took off the old tailpiece it stunk to high heaven like sewer. Not sure where this is coming from since I use this since many times a day the drains should be well flushed.
Some backstory - This setup never worked well. I replaced the dishwasher myself last year and instead of running it through the disposal tap (I got a new disposal with the dishwasher so I had the option of not using that setup by not punching out the dishwasher plug) I got a new right-side sink tailpiece with the dishwasher tap. I did this because when I removed the old dishwasher drainline, it was incredibly nasty with so much garbage in it right where it connected to the disposal that I didn't want to go this route again. I suspect it was like this because the disposal (as I found today) has never drained properly.
Any advice greatly appreciated! At this point I am ready to cap off the disposal and not use it anymore. I am on septic so they don't recommend using a disposal anyway.
Most of the undersink plumbing I have seen there is only 1 trap. Perhaps that it the issue?
VIDEOS
Right side draining - You can hear that "blub blub blub" when it is done for a long time.
Right Side
Left (disposal) side draining.
Left Side
Picture:
