CLOGGED MAIN HOUSE TRAP

Hi all,

I've been living in the same home for 25 years now, and have had the same problem for those 25 years. Every year, my main house sewer trap cloggs up. For the past 5 years, i've been cleaning it twice a year, and that solves the problem, but there's got to be a reason why this happens. Many years ago, when I was still living at home with my parents, we never had this problem.

My current home is on a septic and a well system. I have the tank pumped every year, just to be safe. I've never had a septic problem in the 25 years that I've been here. What happens is that the "house side" of the trap loads up with a jelly like substance from the cap down until it closes off the main pipe coming from the house--that's if I let it go for a full year. Every 6 months, all I have to do, is unscrew the cap and ream it out with a screwdriver and flush the toilet, and I'm OK for another 6 months. If I don't do this, it cloggs up.

We used to use powdered laundry & dishwasher soap, but we switched to liquid--no difference. One other thing--my trap is different than most of the traps I've seen--both caps are NOT horizontal and parallel to each other--one cap (street side) is level, and the other cap (house side) is at about a 30 degree angle. This probably explains why the jelly builds up on the house side of the trap, but it DOES NOT explain why the jelly itself builds up. ANY IDEAS OUT THERE ???

Thanks,

RON

*************************************************************** Ron Goldstein.....KA2IIA STAY YOUNG---DRIVE A VINTAGE 427 CORVETTE. KEEP YOUR MIND ACTIVE---BECOME AN AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR. REMEMBER, THERE ARE NO STRANGERS IN AMATEUR RADIO, ONLY FRIENDS THAT WE HAVE NOT YET MET. snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net****** snipped-for-privacy@arrl.net
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Ron Goldstein
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Well water- could be bacterial growth (iron bacteria). Might experiment treating the growth with chlorine. You could modify the cleanout cap so you could inject bleach right into the house trap. (If it is iron bacteria, the real solution of course is to treat the well water.)

Experiments aside, you could also cut the house trap out (I'm betting it's cast iron) and replace with PVC trap which will be far less likely to clog.

Jim

Reply to
Speedy Jim

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