Plumbing Questions & Answers

Question:

The drain to our kitchen sink has a half moon opening in the pipe which limits drainage when I run water in the sink. What is the purpose of this?

Answer:

The “half moon” pipe is a baffle tee which helps make sure the water from the garbage disposer goes down the drain and not back up the other sink. I have never heard of this plugging up. If your disposal is running properly it should grind up the debris before it ever reaches the drain pipe. Hopefully you are not dumping fibrous or starchy vegetables like lettuce, potatoes, rice or celery down the drain as these will plug the drain even with a disposal. If you don’t have a garbage disposer, you can install a regular san tee which does not have a baffle.