Inspection chamber: what should water level be?

[Tim Southerwood]

The Natural Philosopher coughed up some electrons that declared:

Taking of which, I did chuck about 1lb of caustic crystals down my bog, followed by water and more caustic when the outside bend/rodding point got blocked. Cleared it overnight. Landlord was happy as he didn't have to get the drain man in. But the blockage was fairly minor and only about 10ft of

4" pipe away.

To the OP: Not sure that would help you, sounds like you have a *lot* of water backed up, but perhaps chucking a few pounds of caustic down the last filled manhole might do it. Careful though, that stuff is highly exothermic.

But if you want to try something whilst gathering devices for other solutions theres no harm. Rods are still the best bet.

[bruce_phipps]

Thanks, Tim. I'll open the last chamber, bale it out a bit, and try the rods before resoring to chemical weapons! It might be something obvious.

Bruce

[Roger Mills]

I wouldn't rate your chances of baling it out. When you have several linked chambers which are all full, you'll have quite a few hundreds (if not thousands) of gallons to deal with. Removing a few bucketfuls will have very little effect on the level.

[bruce_phipps]

WC.http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.d-i-y/browse_frm/thread/8d6910d8f...>> Having no luck with finding any internal obstructions, I opened the

OP replies: It turned out to be a plug of toilet paper lodged in the outlet pipe. I used a couple of rods + the corkscrew end connector. It came out just like a plug, and the whole system emptied in seconds. Total time taken, about 10 mins (not including the cleaning up!). The hardest thing was lifting the inspection chamber covers. A messy job, but a lot cheaper than getting a cowboy drain clearance company in.

Trouble is, I have now lost all confidence in the "evacuation efficiency" of my new WC, which has a smaller cistern than the old

1970s model. I regularily flush twice, just in case. So much for saving the environment. Bruce Bruce

[John]

The WC isn't the cause or the solution. The drain may have had a long standing partial blockage of stones or a brick-end. Just lift the cover every now and again to re-gain your confidence. A new WC will make no difference.