Mark1
Full time employment: Posting here.
OP here. I really appreciate all responses. I'll try to response to your comments, since folks were nice enough to give their thoughts.
If the piping is clogged it is within the wall and not the piping shown in the photo for sure as I have had this piping off numerous times now and it is always clean. Probably should have snaked the piping within the wall when I had the drain piping off, but I didn't. Besides, the only snake I have is really for fishing wires though walls and not cleaning piping.
There are 2 vents above the bathroom that breakthrough the roof and both look like Broan Universal Roof Caps (not round PVC piping). Not sure who goes with what vent, but there is a toilet, a sink and exhaust fan within the room that need to vent somewhere. The plumber will be the one going up on the roof to inspect and not me since I'm getting more scared of heights as I age.
Sounds like the air admittance valve really needs to be higher to work properly. I guess I could run it up behind the corrugated metal wall below the faucet and hide it there, but I really hate to keep going down the admittance valve route as it is not really addressing the root cause of the problem.
I guess in the near future I will remove the air admittance valve tee and put the piping back the way it was originally. While doing this I can easily perform Winemakers bucket test and it might actually test the small strainer hole size theory that NW-Bound highlighted. I actually had the same strainer thought early-on, but I talked myself out of it, when I tried to address 6miths surface tension theory, by adding lots of soap and surfactant within the sink water to help break the surface tension and it didn't help. One data point that does support the NW-Bound's theory is that absolutely no air exist out of the water column within the bucket once it starts to drain fast (no bubbles and no early whirlpool action), which means all the air had to exist down the sewer piping. I have no small straws or tube in the house to try the new straw experiment.
I was looking closely at the seal between the bucket and wood counter top to determine how difficult it would be for me to just change out the drain tail piece to a new tail piece (without the strainer on top) to test NW-Bound's theory. The seal is well under the bucket between the wood and the bucket with a sealant in somewhat of a jerry-rigged manner. Therefore, I think I might just need to commit to a new sink and new counter top with the remodel, which means I can now take my drill and make a rather large hole in the strainer to test the “get the air out” theory. However, I won't perform this test until I'm closer to my remodel date.
I have to agree with Finnsky that it probably time for a new plumber, although, my normal plumber typically solves my problem; shows up the same day; and has not charged me for 2 of the last 3 visits.
I'm tend to be slow and deliberate so I don't have a time table yet, but I will definitely let you all know how this story ends. Thanks for all the help.
If the piping is clogged it is within the wall and not the piping shown in the photo for sure as I have had this piping off numerous times now and it is always clean. Probably should have snaked the piping within the wall when I had the drain piping off, but I didn't. Besides, the only snake I have is really for fishing wires though walls and not cleaning piping.
There are 2 vents above the bathroom that breakthrough the roof and both look like Broan Universal Roof Caps (not round PVC piping). Not sure who goes with what vent, but there is a toilet, a sink and exhaust fan within the room that need to vent somewhere. The plumber will be the one going up on the roof to inspect and not me since I'm getting more scared of heights as I age.
Sounds like the air admittance valve really needs to be higher to work properly. I guess I could run it up behind the corrugated metal wall below the faucet and hide it there, but I really hate to keep going down the admittance valve route as it is not really addressing the root cause of the problem.
I guess in the near future I will remove the air admittance valve tee and put the piping back the way it was originally. While doing this I can easily perform Winemakers bucket test and it might actually test the small strainer hole size theory that NW-Bound highlighted. I actually had the same strainer thought early-on, but I talked myself out of it, when I tried to address 6miths surface tension theory, by adding lots of soap and surfactant within the sink water to help break the surface tension and it didn't help. One data point that does support the NW-Bound's theory is that absolutely no air exist out of the water column within the bucket once it starts to drain fast (no bubbles and no early whirlpool action), which means all the air had to exist down the sewer piping. I have no small straws or tube in the house to try the new straw experiment.
I was looking closely at the seal between the bucket and wood counter top to determine how difficult it would be for me to just change out the drain tail piece to a new tail piece (without the strainer on top) to test NW-Bound's theory. The seal is well under the bucket between the wood and the bucket with a sealant in somewhat of a jerry-rigged manner. Therefore, I think I might just need to commit to a new sink and new counter top with the remodel, which means I can now take my drill and make a rather large hole in the strainer to test the “get the air out” theory. However, I won't perform this test until I'm closer to my remodel date.
I have to agree with Finnsky that it probably time for a new plumber, although, my normal plumber typically solves my problem; shows up the same day; and has not charged me for 2 of the last 3 visits.
I'm tend to be slow and deliberate so I don't have a time table yet, but I will definitely let you all know how this story ends. Thanks for all the help.