As you run your garbage disposal, you notice water backing up into both basins of your two-sided sink. Not just water but food scraps seem to float up with the backed-up water. This is not a good indicator, and if left untreated for an extended time, it may cause other issues with your plumbing lines. A blocked drain pipe is the source of your problem.
You can troubleshoot your trash disposal or unclog your drain. The plumbers at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Cedar Rapids are glad to assist you with this issue, and we’d like to advise you on how to resolve it. If you have any questions regarding the mentioned activities, please get in touch with Benjamin Franklin Plumbing for a quick and effective repair. Our plumbers are accessible 24/7 and consistently deliver good drain cleaning to our customers.
What is causing your sink to back both sides up?
If all sides of your double kitchen sinks get blocked and begin to back up, the most probable cause is a clog in your sink’s main drain or a clogged trash disposal. Baking soda and hot water may be used to unblock a drain and as a cleaning agent and odor absorber.
A clogged drain pipe might be caused by food scraps or more extensive materials that could not pass through the pipe, leading it to get stuck, and as time passes with this obstruction, more debris accumulates, causing the line to become entirely stopped. Keeping this obstruction here is terrible for your plumbing and may impact your home’s comfort. Your sink will be inoperable, and the stench of backed-up food and water will fill the kitchen.
Examining and Cleaning Your Trash Disposal System
- Disconnect your garbage disposal or Switch it off
- the main power panel’s circuit breaker for your convenience.
Clean everything in the disposal with your hands, but make sure the disposal is turned off. Reach down your sink’s drain and feel for any food bits clogging the blades; carefully remove any scraps that can be supposed on your fingertips. When you’ve removed all debris from the edges, restart your trash disposal and check whether water starts flowing from your sink.
Suppose this does not remove the water from your sink. Attempt the following action.
Rotating the Center Crank and Resetting the Trash DisposalThe obstruction might be caused by your trash disposal having to be adjusted or cranking the blades to ensure nothing obstructs them.
Find your trash disposal beneath the sink.
- Test it by pressing the red reset button a few times.
- Use an Allen wrench and spin the center crank clockwise a few times to free up the blades; this will clear any obstruction if it exists.
- Return to your kitchen sink drain and check if you can remove anything you can feel with your hands.
After completing the steps, try running your kitchen sink and trash disposal again. Is this effective at unclogging your drain? If not, go on to the next piece of gutter unclogging advice.
Unclog a Kitchen Sink with Baking Soda and Vinegar
You will need the following items:
- Box of baking soda
- Bottle of White Vinegar
- Something to plug your kitchen sinks drains with
- Kettle of boiled water
Here is what the process will look like:
- Pour half of the baking soda down the kitchen sink drain.
- After that, pour half a cup of white vinegar down the sink drain.
- Plug the drain immediately with anything that will fill the hole and prevent any fizzings from escaping.
- Let the baking soda and vinegar mixture settle in the drain for approximately 30 minutes.
- As you wait, start heating a tea kettle with boiling water.
- After boiling the water, pour it down the drain to check whether it solves your kitchen drain blockage.
We also suggest doing this once a month to clear out your drains as a preventative strategy to avoid future obstructions.
Reach For Your Sink Plunger
Remember that the sink plunger is not the same as the toilet plunger; these are two you should utilize the items of equipment appropriate plunger for your issue for the most outstanding results.
Insert your plunger into one side of the blocked sink. Plug a washcloth or rag into the opposite drain of the two-basin sink (the side that will not be plunged). Begin by providing some firm pushes to one side of the sink and repeat several times. Remove the plunger and stopper from both sides and check whether the water in the sink is still there and starts to drain due to this activity. Run your trash disposal to observe whether the water clears.
Repeat the procedure on the other side if this does not clear the blockage in your kitchen sink. So plug the side you dived with, then plunge the previously announced side (doing the same thing but reversing the sides.)
Remove and clear out the pipe assembly beneath your sink if this does not unclog your drain.
Take out and clean the plumbing assembly under your sink.Before beginning this procedure, again plug the sink drains with a towel or rag. This step may be difficult if you are unfamiliar with removing your plumbing assembly. If this is the case, we strongly suggest contacting a professional plumber from our plumbing business to assist you with this problem.
Remove the assembly by loosening the connections that attach it to your sink. This might be a set of three joints that need to be relaxed.
Warning: Water will begin to flow out as you remove the joints; this is the water trapped in the assembly. Let as much water drain from the pipe as possible, collecting the leaking water in buckets or containers to reduce the mess. You don’t want to have to clean up a lot of this backup water, so gather as much as you can.
Remove the assembly beneath the sink after you have drained the bulk of the water. After removing the body and draining the water, put a bucket beneath the pipe attached to the drain and pull the plug, clogging the sink drains to let out the blocked surplus water. Ensure that the water from the outlet goes into a bucket or container.
Clear away any material that might be obstructing your plumbing assembly. Little food pieces bunched together to block the drain are frequently the problem. Other times, it was objected that they needed to be more significant for the trash disposal to break up adequately. Be sure that whatever is creating the clog in your plumbing assembly is removed.
If none of these measures help to clear the clog in your kitchen sink, the issue is far more complex than imagined. It is preferable to hire a professional plumber at this stage to check and remedy the problem.
Contact Elizabeth Drain Service of Elizabeth, NJ, for the finest plumbers in Iowa to repair your kitchen plumbing!
