New house problems - Washer Outlet Box and the Drain Hose

[katu06]

So my fiance and I purchased a house about 2 months ago.

The washing machine hookups look like this:



The cold and hot lines go fine onto the shut off valves. The issue is the black drain pipe. Ya know, the one that just curves and sets inside the drain tube located on the right end there.

There is nothing to lock it into place. It doesn't screw, snap, pop, whatever. It just gets set inside. My dad, the electrician, and my fiance's dad, the handyman, were the ones that set up our laundry room. I even said something to them along the lines of, "that dosen't look very safe". "It will be fine".

Right, it wasn't fine. 2 weeks ago I got a big check from my insurance company to fix all the damage from it's un-fineness.

I've gone to Menards, Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Walmart, and Meijer attempting to find something to keep the drain hose stuck in the drain pipe. I've spent a ton of time searching the internet for answers and I can't find anything of value. The guy at Lowe's didn't even believe me until I showed him the units for sale, at which point he stated, "Well that doesn't look like a good idea."

I can't be the only person to ever have this problem. I mean, look at it! Anyone have any ideas? This forum has got to be the highest concentration of smart people in the Internet, certainly we can figure something out! I badly need to do laundry, haha.

[saleen970]

Not sure what the hose is coming from your washer but if it does not have this already I would adapt to PVC and make a U shaped bend into the wall drain or I think they make a pre made hose with the bend, I have seen them before. I would also plastic zip tie the drain hose to the hot/cold water supplies to keep the 2" drain hose from moving or pushing out of the wall. Goodluck!

[WinOrElse]

Not much of a handyman, but there is a bit of advice I can give; not just to you, but to everyone. That is to never, EVER run your washer and/or dryer unless someone is home. There are too many things that can go wrong, especially water and fire damage, even with the best possible setup. If someone is home the damage can be minimized or avoided alltogether. Also, make sure you clean out the dryer exhaust pipe on a regular basis. Lint can bulid up in those things pretty fast and create a fire hazard. Sorry for your trouble and good luck in the future.

[cdfillini]

This is what I used on my washing machine:

It may or may not work for you depending on the configuration of the in the wall drain in the box.

[JSpence]

Everyone is spot on so far. Don't leave your house with the stuff running. Investigate all unfamiliar noises. Check / clean the fixtures (at least the inside) every 1 / 2 years. (Dryer stuff more frequently.)

[image link]

I am not a huge fan of the traditional setup, but mine has served me well for five years. I've only once had a water problem - when the h/c hoses got a bit too much build-up on the o-rings, in spite of tight application!

Maybe you got a skimpy hose? It should be quite rigid (and not from age).

If your box is positioned so that it is too low for the hose or another reason is causing the box to be too close, I can definitely see how you could have a problem - the hose should 'want' to stay down. Adding onto the hose is the easiest solution. HOWEVER - don't be afraid to do a good job with it and drill into the box, adding a fixture for holding it down. Get medieval if you have to!

P.S. -
While you're back there - vacuum out that dryer vent!!

[pizzaman]

You have a "normal" washer-dryer rough-in. From your description there are two explanations that might cause the problem you described. The connection is supposed to be open to prevent back siphonage so you're not supposed to have a closed connection from the washer to the drain.

If the trap under the open drain is close to the open drain or there is an elbow close to the open drain, the washer may be discharging so quickly that the open drain overflows. Without knowing the rest of the plumbing I don't know if that can be altered.

If the washer outlet hose jumps out of the open drain, there is something about the way the outlet is set into the open drain that is not secure. The suggestion about using a zip tie to anchor the washer outlet should work.

Hope that helps.

[MTILLINOIS]

Any update Katu on the drain hose issue?

[katu06]

Originally Posted by JSpence

P.S. -
While you're back there - vacuum out that dryer vent!!

I did! :laugh:

Originally Posted by pizzaman

The suggestion about using a zip tie to anchor the washer outlet should work.

Originally Posted by MTILLINOIS

Any update Katu on the drain hose issue?

Thanks a lot for all the input everyone. Even though I didn't end up getting around to reply, I did read everything and applied a medieval fix (after I re-did the flooring in half my house) Then I kind of forgot to inform everyone.

First thing, I did get a new drain pipe with a more sturdy U shape at the end and that was a bit longer into the drain hole, to try to prevent it from jumping out.

So most of the advice I got was along the lines of pizzaman's, but I couldn't figure out what to zip tie too.

I did more searching around Lowes and found, in the electrical section, something that helped a ton. I have no idea what they are called, but it is shaped like this: p

They are used (I think) to hold bundles of electrical together. I used in total 3 of them. I put my drain pipe through one of them (in the circular part) and tightened it a little bit just so that it was somewhat snug (it doesn't take a degree in plumming to know it may be a bad idea to restrict the pipe). I then attached the flat part to a stud to keep the pipe secure on the wall.

I then used 2 more of these p shaped things into a stud next to my washer box, and put zip ties throug them, and a third zip tie around the hot water valve.

I can never pass up an excuse to do artwork in Paint, so I decided to draw my setup. It isn't exact (meaning I did actually put that bottom black p shaped widget into a stud, not into the drain pipe in the wall), but I tried to get the zip ties pulling in 3 different directions, that way it won't ever be able to move much. And on top of that the bottom is secured to the wall.

The first 2 loads of laundry I did after I got this all hooked up (and my flooring re-done) I sat on my dryer and just watched the pipe. It is freightning how much the drain pipe jumps when the water goes rushing out of it. I think that without it being tied down, it just jumped up little by little until one day it came out.

That shouldn't happen now :laugh:

[pizzaman]

Good solution. Rube Goldberg would be proud. That drain hose ain't goin' nowhere! Still, check it out once in while and make sure everything is remaining where its supposed to be.

[MTILLINOIS]

Great job. I'm not sure what I'm more impressed with, the plumbing or the drawing.