Time for a little plumbing

So anyone who knows me, knows that I am a jack of all trades.  From assembly language to C#, from carpenter to electrician to auto repair, I fix stuff.  Well over the weekend we had new quartz counter tops installed along with an under mount deep sink.  I would take care of the electrical, to include under cabinet lighting as well as the plumbing.  After the counter top people were gone I went to work to get the sink operational.  The first problem I had is the new faucet came with its own fully integrated hoses.  But my house has these dumb plastic pull off, push on valves with integrated plastic hoses.  So I had to rip those out and replace them with normal valves.  I used SharkBite valves for the first time and love them.

Next problem was the trap weir (look it up) was above the level of the disposal output.  This was beyond my plumbing skills so I had to call in a pro to provide a drain connection that was lower.  Costly unexpected expense. I wasn’t about to pay $349 extra for him to connect the drains to the sinks because that is simple stuff that will take me 20 minutes.  Three trips to the local hardware store later and I knew I would have to share my experience.

Since all the heights and distances have changed with the new sink I decided I would grab a disposer drain kit and rework everything.  It’s all going good when I make a dumb mistake and cut one piece too short.  It’s the T that takes the disposal output on the side and the second sink output on the top and has a baffle inside that directs the disposal output down so you don’t get water splashing up in the other sink.  The kit is literally less than $3 so it is time for trip 2 to the hardware store.  I grab the kit, head home and rip it open.  I go to cut the T to the proper length and notice something funny inside.  The baffle is on the wrong side of the pipe.  I grab the one I cut earlier to compare and look at it over and over again.  Sure enough, if I were to install this the disposal output would hit the baffle on the other side of the pipe and spray everywhere.  Time for some pictures.

First pic is a side view of the T that I cut too short.  Disposal output is on the right with the second sink drain at the top.

Next is a shot looking down the drain from the view of the second sink.  You can see that there is a baffle on the right forcing disposal output down the drain.

So that makes sense right?  The disposal output hits the plastic which is curved down.  The second sink drains down and hits the baffle and just continues down the drain.

This next picture is a side view of the T from the second kit I bought at the same hardware store.  You’ll notice that the drain at the bottom is longer because I have not cut it yet.

And this last pic is a down view just like before showing the baffle.  Notice the baffle is on the left side instead of the right side.

With the curved baffle in this place disposal output would hit it and at least part of it would be directed up toward the second sink.  In addition the drain from the second sink would be partially diverted towards the output of the disposal.

Now it was time for trip 3 to the hardware store.  I explained the problem to the service desk and they told me to just go grab another package.  I grab the first one and look through the plastic down the T and notice the baffle is on the wrong side!  I go through a few more when the plumbing expert shows up and asks me what I’m doing.  I explain the baffle being on the wrong side of the pipe but he doesn’t get it.  Luckily my wife suggested I take the one I cut too short to explain the problem.  Bad think is I figured they would be smart enough to understand; wrong.  Walk out to the truck and get the good T to show the “plumber” and he says he needs to get his boss.  The boss figured it out immediately and had the plumber check all the disposal kits.  Every one was bad so they pulled them off the shelf.  I ended up going home with a 6″ extension instead to correct my short cut.

It was still better than $349 for the plumber to do it for me but this is one for the books so to speak.  The brand is Everbilt (not a typo) and I just check the package; made in china.  Kind of makes you wonder if this is a manufacturing mistake?  I wonder how many home owners have water spitting out the second sink drain when they run the disposal.