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Discuss Blocked Saniflo outlet pipe in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Zippymark

Gas Engineer
Messages
94
I've got a job with a saniflo that's not put pumping away, the cause of which being the waste pipe downstream of it being blocked. Not entirely, but only letting mains pressure through at maybe 1ltr/min say. It's run in copper right out to the stack as far as I can see, so it should be able to take a bit of pressure. I've disconnected the saniflo from the copper pipe so it's not involved and I'm alternating pouring drain acid down it (yes I know they won't recommend this) and linking it to the shower hose to run mains pressure hot water down it, which has improved it slightly but it's still clearly restricted.

I'm wondering if it's not a 'blockage' as such and more a build up of something restricting the size of the entire pipe, has anyone got any ideas of what to try and clear it with? Would it be scale, in which case I have DS-3?

Thanks for any help
 
Pub line cleaner is great, but can you see all of the pipe run ?
Can you get to the other end. Alternative is the old routine
cut in half and see which end is blocked ....its quite a good earner...loads of labour hardly any parts....what od is the copper then....Rob Foster aka centralheatking yank it out of the stack and see what happens....get some gauntlets and get a hose running
 
I'd not heard of pub line cleaner, I've just had a quick look, it seems to be caustic soda based. It's 22mm copper at either end, it runs under the floorboards inbetween, the bends I can see are pulled which is good but I don't know what's happening under the floor. There isn't any vertical rise though, probably just fairly flat all the way with a few turns. I have access to either end, my other idea was get a long enough hose and link my powerflush machine to it, I'm just not sure I want what'll come out going through my machine haha. Or what chemicals to use.
 
Oh and it connects to 1 1/2 plastic waste for the final section where it connects to the stack, with an access point so I've had that off and you can just see the water trickling past so it's somewhere (or all of) the pipework
 
All depends on what is causing the blockage, if it’s solid enough (like I’ve seen some caustic sodas go) it won’t move, and maybe only way to go is renew section of pipe where it’s blocked.
 
Yeah It's hard to say really. My gut feeling is it's kind of just restricted all the way down, like a calcium build up or something? It was a bath, basin and toilet running through it, no washing machine. With alternating drain acid and mains pressure I've got the shower hose connected to one end and its flowing quick enough to keep an old biasi alight for hot water, so it's getting there.

This property had the exact same problem about a year or so ago, so it's reoccurring.

I've never really used caustic soda, can you mix it with water? What I'm thinking is connect my powerflush machine either end and let something circulate through it for a few hours.
 
East London so yeah, pretty hard water. The Saniflo is about 10/11 years old so it may not be pushing at full force any more, which may be a contributing factor, but as I say, even with that disconnected and mains pressure running down the pipe it was only trickling the other end at first.

In the end after a few doses of acid and running hot water through I managed to get it clear enough for the saniflo to now work.

I feel like this'll happen again so might offer my powerflush idea, maybe an hour with FX2 and an hour with DS3 (scale remover) or something
 
East London so yeah, pretty hard water. The Saniflo is about 10/11 years old so it may not be pushing at full force any more, which may be a contributing factor, but as I say, even with that disconnected and mains pressure running down the pipe it was only trickling the other end at first.

In the end after a few doses of acid and running hot water through I managed to get it clear enough for the saniflo to now work.

I feel like this'll happen again so might offer my powerflush idea, maybe an hour with FX2 and an hour with DS3 (scale remover) or something
At +10 years old it could well be down on duty and seeing as Dyno rod and the like won`t touch them anymore I`d be interested to hear if the powerflush worked.
 
How about a jetter attachment for a Powerwasher? I've got a Karcher one which would be slim enough to fit inside 22mm. It pulls itself along and certainly in 100mm drainpipe it negotiates corners wonderfully well - not sure how it would work on 22mm bends mind you!
 
How about a jetter attachment for a Powerwasher? I've got a Karcher one which would be slim enough to fit inside 22mm. It pulls itself along and certainly in 100mm drainpipe it negotiates corners wonderfully well - not sure how it would work on 22mm bends mind you!
Interesting, any chance of a link or model number of this please.
 
If it's a blockage of "toilet materials" like paper and poop I have always had good results simply wet vacuuming the pipework clear. Sometimes the machine on suck will clear it, sometimes on blow and sometimes a bit of both. If the pipe is reduced in bore diameter by build up from water deposits, I've not had any luck clearing that and would probably just replace the discharge pipework for new if that was the case. That's a guaranteed fix.
 
Hi All, came across this post which seems to be the problem we are having. How did you sort this out in the end @Zippymark? Plumber came around and told us to lift the floor.. a bit depressing thought. Any ideas appreciated, plumbers who can assist welcome :) thanks.
 
I managed to clear it by diconnecting the actaul Saniflo, and pouring drain acid down the pipe and then linking it to the shower hose and running hot water down it and it seemed to clear, but I absolutely wouldn't recommend you try this yourself as drain acid can not only be really dangerous to you, but could also cause more harm than good if you don't know what the pipework is made of (it can eat through a plastic pipe if it doesn't work its way through).

Once it was clear, the tenant has been using a Saniflo descaler once a month or so and that seems to have kept on top of it since,
 

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