Kitchen sink slow to empty

Hello. We’ve just spent our first night in our brand new symbol plus. Generally a positive experience though some confusion over bed layouts and heating controls. 

One thing that’s really disappointing though is the speed, or rather lack of, with which the kitchen sink empties, the shower drains just fine btw. Is this a common feature on this type of van or could there be an air lock, kink or some other problem causing this.

Thanks for any advice.

Common problem, the angle of descent of the pipework (which is small bore of course) doesn't help. We carry a small plunger if it gets too bad but normally the palm of your hand over the plughole and pumped like a plunger does the trick. Also swirling the water around the plughole creating a vortex works as well.

Yep that's what we do also.

One of the smaller snags with the van.
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Richard

We've discovered that by deliberately raising the front wheels higher than the back by just  a few degrees, our sink drains more efficiently. Seems that if we strive for absolute horizontal when pitching up, it only serves to slow things down especially as the pipe work seems to run ever so slightly uphill.

where is the waste tank in relation to the sink..?
one might suspect it 'should be pretty much below it with the kitchen and washroom at the rear....
in which case, a flexible pipe of a decent bore 'should' drain almost directly downhill at a reasonable pace....
however, the tank may be at the front (to serve the front washroom PVCs) and AS didn't want to reposition for the new layout...
also, does the shower, washroom sink and kitchen sink all have their own seperate pipework leading to their own spigot in the tank, or do they meet up and all run into the tank at the same entry point?
it's clear that different designs and pipe bore etc can have a significant impact on this issue..
some manufacturers think it's important to do this well, others are happy to fit cheaper systems....
my view is that these are blooming expensive PVC and poor waste drainage should not be a recurring theme for customers.
it's hardly any more expensive to design and build something like waste management well than it is to do it poorly... 
swilling your hand round or parking in a particular way are customer workarounds....should they be necessary at this price level?

Completely agree with you bolero boy.

I’ve spent the past 5 months improving my brand new van to a standard that far exceeds the standard A/S thought would be acceptable in a £50k+ van.  
They are by no means alone, in fact they are much better than most of the others to be honest.
The whole industry stinks quality wise IMO!!

Sorry, well off topic...the finger wiggle in the sink is my choice to speed up the drainage 

We use a plastic washing-up bowl in the sink and empty it directly down the plug hole: works a treat.

We used to have the problem as described (very slow drainage) and noticed that a full sink emptied quite quickly and that it was only small quantities of water that took some time to go down the plughole. A bit of analysis showed that once a flow of water was established, the drainage was much faster. With small quantities of water (less than a few litres), aiming the liquid at the plughole in a rush, worked much better.

The use of a plastic washing bowl and a deluge of water aimed directly at the plughole will solve your slow drainage (honest).

We have a similar issue with our washroom basin. The waste tank is placed above the chassis but the waste pipe has to run below the chassis so the water's final flow is uphill.

Spospe, we too use a w/up bowl but empty it outside the van (in an appropriate manner) as that saves smelly/mucky water being put in the tank.

Completely agree with your method Spospe (and I may well adopt it) but.....I’ve done 2 selfbuild Campervans and some simple investigation taught me how to fit the plumbing and I never had a problem.

Ok, I accept we are talking about a more complex vehicle but basic plumbing has been around for ever!

Dbvwt wrote:Completely agree with you bolero boy.

I’ve spent the past 5 months improving my brand new van to a standard that far exceeds the standard A/S thought would be acceptable in a £50k+ van.  
They are by no means alone, in fact they are much better than most of the others to be honest.
The whole industry stinks quality wise IMO!!

Sorry, well off topic...the finger wiggle in the sink is my choice to speed up the drainage 

perhaps this will soon be appearing in AS manuals?

Tinwheeler wrote:We have a similar issue with our washroom basin. The waste tank is placed above the chassis but the waste pipe has to run below the chassis so the water's final flow is uphill.

Spospe, we too use a w/up bowl but empty it outside the van (in an appropriate manner) as that saves smelly/mucky water being put in the tank.

TW, that's an odd position for the waste tank, isn't it? if it's above the chassis does that mean that (say) the shower drains are lower than the tank entry point?
from what you say, there will always be a bit of water in the kitchen waste pipe, won't there?
underslung tanks (and those built into double floors) should always be below any drains, even the lowest ones, the shower. 
surely it isn't difficult to use physics (and a decent bore, flexible pipe) to get the required flow?
I'm pretty sure it all comes down to cost (saving/cutting) but the cheapest (but just about adequate) solution isn't likely to be the best.
but why should cost (cheapness) be a driver when a van like yours costs around £60k, with a fully loaded 150 auto.

Many thanks for helpful responses.

Yes, we do find the problem is not so bad with a full sink. Seems to be most acute when you have just a little water in. An interesting problem for a fluid flow engineer to study perhaps

DesG wrote:
One thing that’s really disappointing though is the speed, or rather lack of, with which the kitchen sink empties, the shower drains just fine btw. Is this a common feature on this type of van or could there be an air lock, kink or some other problem causing this.

I believe the Symbol Plus has the exact same kitchen as my Stanway?

If so, half way down this thread are details and photos of the mods I made to my new van to allow the water to drain from the sink in a more acceptable manner!

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