Thanks for pointing that out. My immediate thought upon reading the headline was how a/c could be implemented without electricity. I wondered if a compressor could be beast powered somehow. @FlyingSquid should correct the title.
A radiant floor is just a heat transfer system that still needs a hot/cold source. Evaporative coolers (aka swamp coolers) are really the modern day equivalent.
Swamp coolers only work when the outdoor air is quite dry (Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico). The resulting indoor air is very humid. Swamp coolers cannot make a big difference in temp. In NM they are perfect because the air is dry (too dry for comfort, IMO) and you only need to lower the temp by a small amount. So the resulting indoor air quality in NM is perhaps the best in the world for those who like ~65—70% humidity. A lot of swamp coolers in AZ have been replaced with A/C because the city temps have increased¹ to a point where swamp coolers cannot make a sufficient temp decrease. So I wonder if an AZ residents kept their swamp coolers going & added A/C. Note that A/C dries the interior air, so I suspect the swamp cooler might actually be make the A/C work harder in that scenario. If anyone knows something concrete about this I’d be interested in hearing it.
① One theory on the temp increase in AZ cities is simply more and more concrete covering the ground (roads, parking lots, driveways), less soil and vegetation. This means rainwater is drained off instead of having the large scale evaporative cooling effect of soil & vegetation absorbing water temporarily until it evaporates. IMO one correction (apart from reverting parking lots to gardens) is to get roofers installing vegetated rooftops. I really don’t understand why #vegetatedRooftops are nearly non-existent in the US. Pick any city and call every single roofing company in the region, and most likely not a single one of them can do #vegetatedRoofs.
It was taking around 24 hours to drain just ~1—3 liters of water in my kitchen sink. Probably comparable to IV drip speeds. After a huge effort and expense, I finally fixed it without demolishing the kitchen – which would have been my next and final move¹. Sequence of events:...
Exactly… that was constantly on my mind. Last time I hired a plumber to fix a leak while I was away, the plumber was incompetent. Did not find the leak (which was in /exposed/ pipework), charged 200 cash and ran with the money. The plumber actually charged 4 times as much as I paid a doctor to make a house call.
Some plumbers can legally buy sulfuric acid for this purpose. So in fact by law I was essentially being forced to hire a plumber, in effect.
My way of thinking is that I’m going to learn something & my tooling costs will be less than a plumber. I’ll “own” the problem for the next time. This one about drove me to the edge, considering I was about to experiment with borderline parasites.
A pro would have had an expensive snake cam… so there’s that. I would not want to put my own snake cam down the pipe because it’s not made for such filthy environments… would likely ruin the cam.
I blame whatever plumber installed the drain. They used many hard-right 90° fittings that hinder snakes. Then they installed no clean-out. And no vent. I also suspect the pipes under the floor may be goffred (accordian-like). So the lesson here is that snakes are not always the answer if the pipes are lousy.
I so much wish I had a cleanout. If I reached the step of demolishing the kitchen, I certainly would have installed a cleanout at that point, as well as a vent, and I would refuse to use tight 90° fittings (unless they have a long “swept” shape).
(edit) I have a main line cleanout, but there would be several splits & turns to make if i tried to use it to reach the kitchen. Might be possible if there exists a quite fancy snake that would have a cam on the end and a controllable bending mechanism. Not sure if such a tool even exists.
It’s a kitchen drain but not like in the US. Garbage disposals are banned here. So there would be no way for wipes, qtips, or anything bigger than a pea to enter the drain. It’s a terraced house in a dense city, so no trees, which likely rules out roots.
The city water is /very/ hard, and past residents likely put plenty of oil down the drain. Every time the drain regurgitates something, it’s a stinky white substance that appears to have coffee grounds embedded in it. I know not to put oil or coffee down the drain but past residents are another story. So I think a mass of fat, coffee, and minerals from the hard water could be culprits.
WRT using a pressure washer, I think that would be an option if there were a cleanout with a straight shot. That youtuber would probably be paralyzed when coming into a ridiculous series of tight 90s and no cleanout or vent, and possibly goffred pipes. Or does he have some kind of special extra flexible high pressure hose?
I didn’t build it. I can see that the entry fitting & 2nd fitting is gray PVC, but that’s all I can see without a snake cam for wet environments. The behavior with the snake clearing the line temporarily, then the line being “clogged” after pulling the snake out somewhat suggests that maybe I have a shitty goffred (accordian) pipe. Maybe it’s getting kinked or folded somewhere.
I am wholly willing to bet that the sulfuric acid didn’t fix your problem but rather put a hole in the pipe itself above the blockage. I guarantee that you are now draining the contents of that drain directly into either a wall or some unseen cavity and are not actually draining out of your home/apartment/wherever.
That was my worry indeed. But I figured my next step is to replace the pipe anyway, so it was time to test the nuclear¹ option. The main sewer line in the basement is accessible just before going out to the street. I could clearly hear the water running through the main exit pipe when the kitchen sink is draining. But I can’t quite judge if the sound is gushing to the extent that it should be. So jury is out on this.
There is a cleanout at this central point where all big pipes merge. I could get more certainty if there was a way to divert all water from the main cleanout to a bucket. Then I could put 5 liters down the drain and see if 5 liters comes out. But I’m not sure now to rig up that diversion (or if it’s worthwhile).
(edit) footnote 1. I originally thought attaching the leaf blower to the drain pipes was the nuclear option… that it might blow pipes off their joints. It’s kinda like #BruceWillis in #pulpFiction in the pawn shop, where he picks up a weapon then realizes the nuke is yet to come… progressively upgrades weaponry as more options come to light.
The episode spans several months, so my memory is fuzzy. But I recall on one occasion I got full penetration with the snake. I went to the main cleanout in the basement and saw that the snake made there. But that was before the occasion where i had /only apparently/ got full penetration, then pulled out the snake and it was permanently curled up. I think the snake was ~10—15 meters long originally. I didn’t log every attempt. Many times i only got partial penetration with the snake & made a mental note of how far but didn’t log it. There is one point that is very hard to get past… I think like 3 meters or so in.
That’s worrying just because I have a suspicion that there are accordion pipes. So I just did a test. Plugged the drain & filled the sink to the top with water. Pulled the plug and ran to the basement. There is a strong gushing from the main pipe. So I’d say at least most of the water is going to the right place. So certainly it’s not a case where the sewage found a complete alternate path. The clog is in fact gone. Though there’s always a chance of leaks, which in this case would be into or below a concrete slab.
If I’m in this forum asking why my whole kitchen floor smells like sewage in a few weeks from now, plz remind me about this.
Maybe if I track down the MSDS it might say, but I can say for sure. The bottle is labelled as a pro drain cleaner for that purpose. So it’s not likely laboratory or military grade or anything intense.
The same branch is shared by a bathroom (toilet, shower, sink) and those bathroom drains have never had a clog. Although they always periodically stunk despite full traps so I suspect a leak was always there. But since it’s only occasional I wonder if it’s a leak at the top of a pipe, not spillage. Well, otoh there might be spillage going on in the bathroom because there are drain flies, which might be feeding on spillage from somewhere. It just seems bizarre that the odor only manifests occasionally.
The big branches meet at a main Y connector. That Y connector is new. The basement had a serious leak under the concrete a couple years ago. The basement floor was dug up and new pipe was installed. I doubt there would be any issues with this new pipework. I think the only segment that’s quite dicey is from the kitchen sink to wherever it joins the bathroom.
(edit) are you perhaps thinking that the clog has moved along and will clog again downstream? I doubt that, because the diameter of the kitchen drain is 40mm and it eventually joins a branch that’s like 90mm in diameter. If this thing were to snowball for some reason, it could probably be reached from the cleanout at the main Y fitting, no?
I don’t think those bladders are sold in my area, but it sounds like something that would have worked in my situation. So to be clear, once it fills with water, does not also discharge water on the opposite side that it is fed water? Is the pressure then limited to the household water supply pressure?
Ok, so as you noted at the end, sulfuric acid was a bad idea for the pipes.
Not exactly. The sulfuric acid likely solved my problem (in combination with a plunger). It overflowed a little & attacked radiator pipes due to me underestimating the foam expansion rate (user error - perhaps poured too fast), but AFAIK it did not harm the drain pipes. Sulfuric acid would not be a good early stage choice, but when most chemicals and techniques have been exhausted it’s one of the most effective options.
The problem you will quickly run into is that you poored many chemicals in your pipe, so new chemicals might react with them.
That’s good general advice. But note that my episode spans many weeks. I know not to mix them (acid & bleach in particular). Every chemical went in on a different day with a water flush in between (which often took ½ day or a full day).
Bleach is not a dissolvant, it’s a disinfectant. It’s of no use to free a pipe.
I’m a bit confused on this because many of the consumer grade drain cleaners seem to rely on bleach as the active ingredient. Some of them are simply “thick bleach” (in a gel form).
To my limited knowledge, the best chemicals are acid chlorhydric or soda. Never ever use both. acid chlorhydric might be bad for the pipes though, so soda is usually better. Acid chlorhydric is best to remove limestone. Soda is best to remove biomater. Both of these are very cheap.
Do you mean hydrochloric acid & caustic soda (aka sodium hydroxide/NaOH)?
The hair-specific drain cleaner I have is based on sodium hydroxide.
The 2-component one was based on sodium hydroxide & sodium hypochlorite (aka bleach). I don’t recall what the other cleaners were.
Another point of confusion: chemists told me consumer drain cleaners are useless against hair. Then I noticed hair-specific drain cleaners on the shelf, which somewhat supports the idea that universal/generic drain cleaners lack effect on hair. But then the hair-specific drain cleaner I bought only mentions sodium hydroxide as an active ingredient, and this is the same common ingredient in many non-specific drain cleaners.
That’s interesting, but would you ever expect to find drain pipes in copper? My house came with a box of old scrap parts, one of which was a thick metal trap for a sink. It wasn’t copper though. All drain pipes I’ve seen in the house are PVC (mostly gray, some white and some orange).
I can’t quite work out if you’re making a prediction of a clog returning, or if you’ve not realized that there is no longer a clog.
For weeks I have been fighting clog. But the clog is finally gone and the drain is now faster than I have ever seen. The drain actually keeps pace with the faucet on full blast. In the past, even in the best of times, I think the fastest it drained was 1 liter in 20 seconds. Now 1 liter drains in 6 seconds.
You’re already hundreds of dollars into gadgets and chemicals. Stop it. Cut your losses and call a professional next time.
Pros give different results in different areas. I called a plumber for a leak once. I was out of town, but a simple leak was dripping and forming a puddle on the floor. The leak was in exposed PEX pipe visibly strapped to the wall (yes that room is quite ugly). The plumber spent little time, failed to find the leak, blamed something that was fine, and charged €200. We called him back and he made the outrageous claim that the puddle was due to “condensation”. Left and gave no refund. I would love to have a reliable & trustworthy plumber. But since I don’t have that I have to become the plumber.
My costs in the drain fight were ~¾ of €200 (less than the incompetent plumber’s charge for simply showing up). Every time I redo the pipes I’m appalled by the work of past plumbers. So I think I’m just not in a good place to hire plumbers. There is no quality control of any kind in my area. No Better Business Bureau of sorts to record complaints. So the infrastructure is not setup for bad plumbers to fail.
I think it’s like this in all of Europe. I know in the US you can get 32 oz. of it at Menards for $8. But that’s not an option here. I have no idea what people do if they need to build a battery. The stuff I got would be different than what’s in batteries. Probably the battery acid is more pure. What they sell to pro plumbers is a bottle labelled as /drain cleaner/ with sulfuric acid as a main active ingredient. It likely has a cocktail of additives to optimize it for drain pipe usage or perhaps make it inconvenient for other usages.
What if you do that? Illegal to buy, own or both?
I doubt it’s a possession offense. They are controlling the sales. If you go to a pro plumbing shop and try to buy it, they will require proof that you’re buying on behalf of a company that was constituted for the purpose of plumbing.
The drain infrastructure in most US cities is relatively modern. The city drain pipes are big & thus able to handle a big amount of food waste coming from residents. I think I heard some minority of US cities also ban garbage disposals because for whatever reason their pipework can’t handle the load.
Old cities have small pipes that could not sustain the onslaught of thick food waste, as I understand it. In my city, rats outnumber humans by 2 to 1 and I think they thrive in the sewer. So I’m not sure if it’s also an effort to not feed rats. In any case, the city’s preferred way of dealing with waste food is to put it in the trash.
Recently they required food waste to be separated into a different color bag than the others. So they collect the food waste together and compost it. In the end, this is probably the most forward-thinking approach despite the sewer system being quite behind.
Plumbers are a nightmare in my area. I give some details in other replies. I am also a nightmare for them because my screwed up town gives them nowhere to park. So they often don’t even want to come. Their fee just for showing up is about what I spent on tools and chemicals.
Ancient Iran had air conditioning (lemmy.world)
Client hangs in Ungoogled Chromium
The client often gets stuck with an endless spinning circle, in #UngoogledChromium. No issue in Tor Browser.
Fixing my drain required breaking laws, pissing off IRC users, breaking tools…
It was taking around 24 hours to drain just ~1—3 liters of water in my kitchen sink. Probably comparable to IV drip speeds. After a huge effort and expense, I finally fixed it without demolishing the kitchen – which would have been my next and final move¹. Sequence of events:...