@ntm: Well, I think we've all learned something today - plumbing is tiresomely logical, blockages are bi-directional, others can't be trusted not to call the professionals and the adhesive cement used to weld plastic pipe smells divine.
@ntm: Did the snake extend all the way in and how long is it? I have a cheap pressure washer with a drain clearing attachment - similar to a snake, but with water jetting out the end - and also pushing it along the pipe. Maybe that's an option if you can borrow or rent one. Sometimes waste pipes go external on a building before hitting sewer pipe, often emptying into an external drain grating. That would be another route to stick something up to unblock. Sensible plumbing also has access points, so if you follow where that waste pipe goes through that hole in the fibreboard, you may find somewhere to poke something into.
If the snake went all the way, then the blockage is further than that from the point of use...
@ntm: I agree the blockage isn't in the u-bend, but it could contribute to the cause by large clumps of waste being formed there to then be passed onto other weaknesses in the system, where the idea is to evacuate all solid waste through plastic plumbing ASAP. It also looks like your u-bend is larger than the pipes going into it, which makes the "trap" feature less effective.
Maybe I'm too much of a plumbing purist - My greatest joy was fitting a bidet in my last bathroom so I never have to worry about blocking up drains with TP!
Oh, and if you've not tried it, have you tried putting the snake through the washing machine drainage pipe yet?
@ntm: May I make a criticism of your plumbing? The length of your u-bend is rather frighteningly long. The u-bend will always be full of waste water/food - to stop the smells of the sewer from coming through the drain and to be a first point of capture for blockages. But How full your u-bend will fill will depend on the length of the bend and the height of the bottom of the drainage pipe. All you need is sufficient for a water lock , so a few inches in a 2 inch diameter pipe works great. More than that means there's more chance of crap congealing at the bottom of the u-bend. The u-bend under that sink does look like a bit of a Frankenstein's monster and the bottom of it is much lower than the bottom of the drainage pipe. It is quite possible to shorten this by having seperate u-bends for each drain fitting in an extended (and maybe raised slightly) rear drainage pipe.
It's my pleasure to help (if that's what I'm doing) and I do hope you resolve your dodgy plumbing forthwith. I'm here until there's drainage/until being asked to leave.
After seeing those pictures, it seems you have one u-bend that the waste disposal on the left and the other sink above drain into. Those plastic pipes have plastic collars and rubber seals, so they are usually hand-tight serviceable - they don't have to hold liquids under pressure normally!
Your pipework then seems to go back up on itself (through the u-bend) and then turn right into that large black pipe. That black pipe that disappears through the hole in the board should have a slight fall on it (1 in 80 or better), as all "horizontal" drainage plumbing should. One from a waste disposal should really have a larger fall to clear the solid waste through. It should not slope upwards - and it looks like your one does a bit, although this may just be the angle of the photo. This might be a cause of the perennial problems, since once a blockage is cleared, the next one starts building up immediately.
It still doesn't solve why your water is coming out of your washing machine outlet, but I can't see where that connects from those pics.
@ntm: How cold is it where those pipes are? I'm assuming the plug lies somewhere after the u-bends (if draino doesn't work, because draino just sinks down to sit in them). How much of the pipes leading from the waste disposal can you see before they go into your main drain? If it's making even a slight difference, continued plunging, drain unblocker and hot water should break everything up eventually.
There are "drain snake" tools available that use a thin metal flexible rod to corkscrew past bends and disturb blockages up to 6 meters from the point of access, although I'm not sure how they'd cope with a waste disposal unit. Also plunger technology has increased recently to provide us with a greater whoomph through "bellows-style" increased pressures.
There are all sorts of mics available for PC usage without headphones. But I'd say you have an impossible task. Lavalier mics don't allhave good sound isolation - you can hear (for example) the air-con going during Giant Bomb's Unprofessional Fridays.
You could try a good stage mic (like a Shure SM 57 or 58), since they are unidirectional and do have fairly good isolation for stage useage with high background spls. Having said that, around 80% of sound in a room is reflected, so directionality is not always as effective as you may think. The backgrounds will still bleed through to others listening in, only it will not be noticable to you in the room, without monitoring.
Any mic that will do what you want would have to be so close to your mouth (and/or directional) that the sound will change every time you move you head. Additionally, you would probably have to have the volume on your surround system so low that you wouldn't feel the benefit and your multiplayer playmates would still feel the pain.
@shindig: I'll have to re-watch that - I skipped the moto2 through impatience. The main event has turned into a really tight formula and the season looks great. I was impressed when Dovi said he was anticipating the Marquez lunge at the last corner and had prepared his answer for it. Rossi is still up in there and Cal Crutchlow was showing how fast he is when he doesn't drop it. I've heard rumours of a mass migration of F1 fans to motoGP, through the often hilarious BBC comments section. Come on, Bradders!
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