My son detected a foul smell coming from somewhere under the kitchen. Suspecting a dead animal in a vent, they called an exterminator. The exterminator said that it was a leak in a sewage pipe.
They then called a plumber who said they had a hole the size of a golf ball in the sewer line from the kitchen sink. The plumber said it was caused by not running enough water while using the disposal. The material then sits in the pipe and eats a hole.
I assume the pipe is PVC, but I'm not sure as I got the information second hand. Does this makes sense?
*The materials that you are putting down the drain are eating a hole in your pipes? If the pipes were galvanized I can see that they may have rotted out after many years.
There is corrosion and and erosion but looking at my disposal it exits into a sink trap and even if effluent penetrated sewer line, smell should not come back through drain. PVC is not subject to corrosion but I guess particulate sweeping it could erode it. I suspect your disposal was not hooked up right.
My wife seems to think that a garbage disposal is like a trash can. You wait until you can not cram anything more in there, then you turn it on. One can go in there and just about be overcome by fumes and stench, but like some old Okie Midwesterner who survived the Depression, she's not going to change.
You had a problem. You got an answer. You got a fix.
Are you going to let that happen in the future? If you used your garbage disposal that much, and used it so improperly, you should either adjust your methods or just get rid of a disposal. If you are on a septic tank, the insides of your tank should be corroded to a breaking point by now. The pipes past the fix are probably in bad shape, too.
Re: "My wife seems to think that a garbage disposal is like a trash can. You wait until you can not cram anything more in there, then you turn it on. One can go in there and just about be overcome by fumes and stench, but like some old Okie Midwesterner who survived the Depression, she's not going to change."
So she should not use a garbage disposal any more than someone who doesn't know their left from their right should drive a vehicle. Or someone who doesn't know how to strike match should try to light a fire. etc. etc.
Machines are designed and manufactured to work a certain way. If someone wishes to change that they either need a different or bigger machine (if available), or it will break or not operate correctly! A family with a lot of children, for example, may decide to buy a bigger clothes washer or dryer.
Also you would not send one small taxicab to pick up a whole baseball team and all their equipment, would you? You'd send a bus of suitable size and capacity! Or another example; you wouldn't make one small pudding for say, Christmas and then expect it to feed a family of 5 and 15 visitors/relatives!
Size and capability matters. If not considered then costs increase rapidly!
The women in my house think they can do anything, but are actually dangerous.
Case in point:
Vacuum cleaner won't clean. I take it apart, and find the bag is fuller than full, and the bag is the wrong bag. Outside the bag is packed with dirt and hair, too. When asked, the attitude is, Hey, I was able to get the bag in there, and it started and ran, what's the problem.
I take it all apart, blow it out with the air compressor, clean everything, unclog the tubes, and tell them to get the right bags, which I give them the number of. They have been to Walmart several times since then.
Fast forward to this morning: Vacuum not working again, but now, they have learned to simply press the thermal overheat when it does this, and they can go on vacuuming. I pull the panel, and there is NO bag in there. Just full of dog hair and dirt. When told about this, and I show them the inside of the vacuum, wife retrieves a non-standard wrong vacuum cleaner bag and sez, This will work. So, I roll the top down two folds, the bottom up three folds, and the hole fits over the interior nozzle, but sloppily. The vacuum works, but as the last time, I know that there is a lot of stuff going out the poorly fitting hole, and into the interior of the vacuum.
So, I guess I just have to go get the right bags to be sure they don't do this again. They are as clueless as a couple of teenagers. If they can get the thing started, they just run it until it quits. Then want to go buy another one when this one fails. This is a Riccar 8955, a spendy very good vacuum. When you use the right bags, and take the carpet strings out occasionally from the roller to keep from smoking the belt.
You could try to convince them that vacuuming with no bag (or the wrong bag) just distributes the dust all over everything. It's worse than not vacuuming. Do they ever wonder why everything gets dusty so fast? Chances are if you look at anything they vacuumed an hour later, it will be dusty.
But I suppose the only real alternative is for you to watch over the vacuum and maintain it, buy the bags, etc.
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