In message ,
ARWadsworth writes

"Phil L" wrote in message
. com...
wrote:
Had fun shoulder deep in blocked drains today, but what I fished out
puzzled me a bit. The pipes were caked to blocking point with a soft
white solid. I cant work out what it is though. There were a few rice
grains floating about, so perhaps a block of congealed rice? Also
wondered about solidified washing powder, but I would have thought
that would wash through, being water soluble.

Any ideas?


NT

It's almost certainly fat.
Having unblocked masses of the stuff over the years from various drains
and manholes, and knowing the cost and amount of work involved in
replacing sections of drain that have needed breaking to remove such
blockages, I never put any animal fats down the drains, vegetable oils are
usually OK because they normally stay liquified, but drippings from
cooking meat, especially sausages, get's scraped into the bin once
solidified or poured in when only slightly warm.

--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

Phil

Any chance of some unblocking tips mate? I can be more specific about the
drains at my house if it helps.

Best rods, rodding from above or below (I know of one pitfall to avoid!),
getting the rods into the hole when it is under 5 feet of you know what,
clearing fat on a long run when 4 houses share the run.


I had the problem of our drains being blocked by fat (from previous
owners, must have built up over years given the amount that came out)

It was in an awkward position down stream from a trap after a 90 degree
bend, about 7-8 meters upstream from the manhole. Acess with rods didn't
work as they got stuck at an junction partway along.

I bought a drain cleaning attachment for my Karcher pressure washer. Not
cheap (esp as I bought it in a shed), but it did the job, and has been
used a couple more times to clean other bits of drain.

e.g.

http://www.espares.co.uk/product.aspx?ma=877&id=547362
--
Chris French