Plumbing – Installing a washing machine – sink drain pipe closed

kitchen-sinkplumbingwashing-machine

I am trying to install a new washing machine, but I found that the sink drain pipe is closed. Please see the pictures below.

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My questions:

  • Should I cut the top of this plastic or is there a component I need to buy?
  • Is it something that I will need to ask permission for from the house manager?

Best Answer

And for a clothes washer...

Based on comments, this is apparently really a clothes washer rather than a dishwasher.

  1. It varies a bit depending on the particular machine, but a clothes washer typically uses more water than a dishwasher, and therefore drains a LOT more at one time. A quick search found 6 gallons for a typical dishwasher and 15 - 30 gallons for a high-efficiency clothes washer. YMMV, but both machines have wash & rinse cycles, so that indicates somewhere between 2 and 5 times as much water being drained at one time from a clothes washer as a dishwasher. I would not count on the typical kitchen sink drainpipe being able to handle that much water. I suggest checking with the manufacturer of the washer for information/installation recommendations. Typical installations that I have seen have a rubber drain hose either into a laundry tub - which effectively buffers the water by having just enough space to hold a full machine-load of water as it drains down through the drain pipe slower than it comes out of the machine - or into a larger drain pipe. I'd be a bit uneasy about putting a clothes washer drain hose into that sink drain pipe.

  2. Lint is a big issue in general. It is even more of an issue draining into the kitchen drain pipe which will be more likely than a typical laundry room pipe to have a coating of grease. The flexible corrugated pipe makes this even worse. The solution to the lint problem is to install what we call in my house a metal meshie. There are a few varieties, metal, fabric or plastic, but the basic idea is to catch the lint in a removable/disposable mesh so that the water going down the drain is (relatively) clean of fibers that would eventually clog the pipes.

  3. Water usage is even more of an issue with a clothes washer than a dishwasher. I know of plenty of apartments (USA) that have dishwashers (which properly used can actually use LESS water than washing by hand) but have strict rules against installing clothes washers (due to water use) and dryers (due to electricity use).

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