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Not good for plumbing in NYC

Comments

  • KC_Jones
    KC_Jones Member Posts: 5,715
    Those dumb things clogged a toilet in my house to the point of needing a snake and then clogged up my main sewer line which also needed snaked and cleaned. As far as I am concerned they are evil and should never be flushed no matter what the label says. My wife didn't listen until we had all the problems. I don't even allow "quilted" TP in the house.
    2014 Weil Mclain EG-40
    EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Boiler Control
    Boiler pictures updated 2/21/15
  • FranklinD
    FranklinD Member Posts: 399
    I remember reading about the 'fatberg' in London. It's an ongoing issue in our city too. They regularly muck up our screen belt filter press. The amount of solids removed per day has risen a lot... They used to run one dump truck load of solids to the landfill, over the last 5 years it's increased to 3 loads per day.

    Only 'regular' TP gets flushed at our house. No quilted stuff and certainly no wipes. My reasoning wasn't because of the effect at the treatment plant... It is (selfishly) due to my concern over my 100 year old cast iron sewer lateral that I just found out is 200' long. Don't want to have to clean It OR dig it up.
    Ford Master Technician, "Tinkerer of Terror"
    Police & Fire Equipment Lead Mechanic, NW WI
    Lover of Old Homes & Gravity Hot Water Systems
  • RobG
    RobG Member Posts: 1,850
    My wife (and my butt) will settle for nothing less than quilted paper at home. I've never had a problem except with feminine products and wipes. Sewer incidents only seem to happen when I have guests, imagine that!
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,090
    I used to have a saying... if it can be flushed, it will be flushed. Unless you've worked with sewers or a treatment plant, you have no idea...

    You should see what a pair of panty hose can do to a big centrifugal pump, for instance!
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    I just hauled a T-shirt with latex paint blotches on it out of the main line on our house. Apparently one of the painters let it fall in the soil pipe while we were doing the rehab. Took my plumber 3 different pulls with the big drain machine to clear it.
  • bricksea
    bricksea Member Posts: 13
    Grease mixed with coffee grounds makes a mortar that a mason would be proud of.
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,405
    I have a ton of respect for all you guys that are Plumbers. I'm just glad I am not one.LOL
  • Hilly
    Hilly Member Posts: 427
    It's not the questionable 'flushables' that I find funny. It's the things that people drop in the toilet by mistake and don't have the stomach to retrieve so they flush it.
    Pulled an nail poslish, box of tissue - yup a box, loads of access cards and employee id's in commercial buildings.
  • Hilly
    Hilly Member Posts: 427
    Our treatment plant went online a few years back. First day there was a shutdown - A set of Dentures were pulled. Yes sir a perfect set of chompers.
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat."

    "If you didn't eat it first, don't flush it down".

    AlCorelliNY
  • vaporvac
    vaporvac Member Posts: 1,520
    I think that's why my mom always told us to close the lid!
    Two-pipe Trane vaporvacuum system; 1466 edr
    Twinned, staged Slantfin TR50s piped into 4" header with Riello G400 burners; 240K lead, 200K lag Btus. Controlled by Taco Relay and Honeywell RTH6580WF
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    Respect your mother and all the other ladies in the house.
    AlCorelliNY
  • Harvey Ramer
    Harvey Ramer Member Posts: 2,239
    I once pulled chopsticks out of a lavatory drain.....

    I don't know either...
  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,853
    If you ever get an opportunity to visit a large sewage treatment plant, don't pass it up.

    Amazing what they find in their primary screens. False teeth as Hilly noted, usually lost in the course of power projectile vomiting. Most don't realize they lost their teeth until its too late. And the grease coagulation room gives grease ball a new meaning...

    Also guns, glasses, whole wallets, small animals, and you should see the condoms. They had to develop a rake to control the rubber.

    Here in Denver, their anerobic digester creates enough flammable gas that they run electrical generators (recip. engines) and they have excess electricity that they sell or trade back to the electric utility. Sewage treatment is very energy intensive. I am also aware of plants that recover the heat from the raw sewage and use that for treating conditioned spaces. They go through a lot of hot water cleaning things up.

    People know where their water comes from, but have no idea where it goes after they flush it down the drain. Eye opening for sure.

    Imagine being an underwater pump mechanic that dives in this muck to repair them? Pays REAL well.

    The sign in my mountain home (Septic/leach field)) reads "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If its' brown, flush it down. The fish thank you for conserving their water."

    I like the mantra above of "If you didn't eat it (or drink it) don't flush it..."

    ME
    It's not so much a case of "You got what you paid for", as it is a matter of "You DIDN'T get what you DIDN'T pay for, and you're NOT going to get what you thought you were in the way of comfort". Borrowed from Heatboy.
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,038
    Any time spent in third world countries make one aware of the necessity of sewage treatment. And for sure you appreciate what we have here. We spent 3 weeks in a fair sized town in Thailand a few years ago. Plenty of time to walk around. Our hotel was not a tourist hotel but one where the natives would stay. The storm drains were combo with sewer drains. About every 300' there was a open grate/manhole that you could view the flow. So when it was not monsoon season it was obvious there was not enough water flow to clean the system. The pipe was roughly 2' square cement poured raceway. So before the big rains come, (when we were there) the cleaner crews would scrap the sludge out of tunnels and load it into barrels to be hauled to the treatment plant. Which was across the street from our hotel so I could view the entire process. The treatment plant discharge went into the sea, this was noticeable by the water being quite darker on this unused beach. Again we were not in a tourist hotel. One portion of sewer raceway was used to house a 6" water main up to the Hilton Hotel on the hill. (Why dig up the street twice?) You don't drink the water anywhere there and not know it the next day.
    We had coffee at the Hilton every morning (real coffee) and in visiting with a couple staying there they complained of lack of hot water in their room. We never had that problem because of an instantaneous electric water heater located right in our shower, yes you could set your soap on top of it! The hand spray hose came right out the bottom of it .
    A great place to visit.
  • Charlie from wmass
    Charlie from wmass Member Posts: 4,318
    Try the sink that the nic little old lady faithfully used every morning to dispose of the two egg shells she made for her and her husband through the disposal, for 12 years. The line was PVC and had a very slight back pitch to it from new. Less than 1" in 20', but backwards just the same. I ended up cutting out 4' of pipe to clear the blockage and 4" of pipe off the drop to get the pitch on the 15' run.
    Cost is what you spend , value is what you get.

    cell # 413-841-6726
    https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/charles-garrity-plumbing-and-heating
  • 4Johnpipe
    4Johnpipe Member Posts: 480
    Found this a few weeks ago...

    LANGAN'S PLUMBING & HEATING LLC
    Considerate People, Considerate Service, Consider It Done!
    732-751-1560
    email: [email protected]
    www.langansplumbing.com
    vaporvac
  • Patchogue Phil_2
    Patchogue Phil_2 Member Posts: 304
    The "personal wipes" we use ( Kirkland aka Costco brand), breakup into thin slurry like wet toilet paper. No worse than toilet paper itself.
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,217
    YMCA in Toronto recovers heat from shower drain. Strainers catch large objects. Maybe you can flush stuff but how do those objects go down shower drains?