ᐅ Issue with Sink and Size of VARIERA Frame for Waste Sorting System

Hello everyone,

After reading this forum diligently over the past few weeks and getting quite a few tips for assembling my Metod kitchen, I now have a question of my own.

I have a 60cm (24 inch) Metod base cabinet for the sink, fitted with a 60x60cm (24x24 inch) drawer front using a Maximera box 60x45cm (24x18 inch).

The part of the kitchen with the sink was installed by a fitting team, and that’s where the trouble started (I’ll spare you the details – in summary, they simply forgot to attach the Maximera drawer to the front and instead mounted the front as a hinged door. No correction has been made so far).

Here is the problem:

Due to drainage issues and poor installation, my plumber replaced the IKEA Lillviken siphon with a standard siphon (unfortunately, I’m not very experienced or skilled in this area). Next week the drawer front will be installed as a drawer, and I would like to install the VARIERA / Utrusta waste sorting system for 60cm (24 inch) cabinets. The new siphon hangs about 30cm (12 inches) above the bottom of the base cabinet and leaves approximately 35cm (14 inches) of clearance towards the front; the 45cm (18 inch) deep Maximera drawer box (without the waste system frame and bins) is 20cm (8 inches) high. So far so good—the drawer should fit in the last 10cm (4 inches) of space below the siphon. However, I already suspect problems once the frame for the waste system is added, as that will make the whole setup significantly taller.

I am also a bit confused by the assembly instructions, especially on the last page.

The last infographic seems to show that the frame isn’t as deep as the drawer, so maybe it will still work out.

Does anyone know my issue? Would I possibly need to raise the siphon, i.e., shorten pipes, so the construction fits underneath? What are the exact dimensions of the frame that is mounted on the drawer?

I’d prefer not to touch the siphon again, as it took a very long time to get the system watertight.

Thanks a lot in advance and best regards,
Franzi

LILLVIKEN was a "space-saving trap" or a "cabinet trap." If the plumber installed a standard bottle trap, you can forget about the idea of an optimal waste system.

It may be that installers find flexible pipes unusual, but for DIY installation with various types of connection distances, LILLVIKEN is a good trap. If you don’t assemble it exactly according to the instructions or understand the concept of the flat oval pipe (to save space), the trap can be confusing.

Either ask the plumber again about switching to a space-saving trap or show us a photo of the current state of the cabinet.

Thank you for your reply, fleptin.

I already noticed that the LILLVIKEN is mounted much further back against the rear wall and much more compactly. "Kindly," the plumber took the LILLVIKEN trap with him right after replacing it... very helpful. Looks like he’ll have to come back. Fortunately, a new LILLVIKEN trap isn’t too expensive, but I’d rather not handle the installation myself.

Do you think there’s no chance of success with the standard trap? I’m really frustrated right now.

I’ll post a picture here this evening.

Have a plumber install a trap from their own product range; they usually have a catalog from their wholesaler and use rigid “HT pipes” (hardened thermoplastic pipes) to connect the trap to the drain outlet in the wall.

If you hire a plumber, you need to understand that they generally reject furniture store or DIY store parts and do not want to modify them. After all, they have to provide a full warranty on their work for these components, so they prefer to replace a 10 to 20 EUR (about 11 to 22 USD) part with a new one rather than take responsibility for water damage. If the part comes from their trusted wholesaler, the wholesaler will support them in case of material defects and customer claims.

You can trust the LILLVIKEN trap, although we cannot say why your plumber discarded it. Perhaps it was incompletely preassembled, and the universal IKEA trap designed for the international market fits together with standard pipe parts and traps commonly used in Germany. The flexible pipe has a disadvantage compared to smooth rigid components in terms of dirt buildup but offers a huge advantage in installation flexibility without the need for extra pipe extensions, seals, and adapters. I believe the risk of clogging is negligible because the pipe diameter is large enough to prevent blockages over the lifetime of a kitchen.

You can either fix it yourself and get another new LILLVIKEN trap, or have the plumber convert it to a space-saving trap using the material they are familiar with.

In any case, it is possible to use a waste sorting system combined with a space-saving trap in a METOD kitchen. Even with the older FAKTUM kitchens, there were many options, and those kitchens were much tighter in space. With FAKTUM, the base and thus the top edge of the trash bins were 8 cm (3 inches) higher compared to the current METOD kitchens.

My opinion: It’s better to buy a suitable trap again rather than forgo a flexible waste sorting system with a large volume.

Here is an example without LILLVIKEN:

From the statement that you can throw away the screw bowl, it’s clear that Plumber A isn’t very knowledgeable.

You don’t necessarily need the supplied plastic key, but other suitable tools such as an Allen wrench and an open-end wrench or a hex socket wrench are required.

Since you are skilled with tools, you shouldn’t have any major difficulties with the installation.