When most of us have a drain clog, we tend to reach for some kind of store bought drain cleaner. That can work, but it comes with quite a high cost. The highly caustic chemicals that can melt through the waste that commonly clog drains will also corrode the pipes themselves. If you want to have your drains cleaned, but don’t want to pay for it with negative side-effects, the best thing to do is to take advantage of professional services. There are two common methods used in professional drain cleaning services: drain snaking and hydro jetting.
Drain Snaking
Drain snaking is by far the most common method professional plumbers use for drain cleaning. A drain snake is a long cord with an auger attached to the end of it. The snake is fed down the drain until it comes into contact with whatever it is that’s clogging the pipes. The auger is then either turned by a powered motor or a hand crank to drill through the clog. This clears out the pipe, allowing the normal flow of water to resume.
Drain snaking is so popular in part because it’s a cheap and easy way to conduct drain cleaning. Most clogs that you’re likely to have in your home’s drains can be easily resolved by drain snaking. However, there are a couple of times when this method is not ideal. First, there are some kinds of clogs that are not able to be completely cleared by drain snakes. This is often due to the material comprising the clog being more entrenched than the auger is capable of dealing with. The other time that drain snaking is not ideal is when it has to deal with things like lime scale. Problems that restrict the flow of water through the pipe, but don’t necessarily clog it, often won’t respond well to drain snaking. For times like those, hydro jetting is often used.
Hydro Jetting
Hydro jetting involves using a thin hose to spray a high pressure stream of water down the drain pipe. The hose has an omnidirectional head attached to it, allowing the water to reach all areas of the pipe. Hydro jetting has become quite popular lately for its ability to thoroughly clean waste out of the pipe. This is ideal for a lot of situations, especially since hydro jetting can clean out waste deposits before they even form complete clogs. Hydro jetting is also often used in situations where drain snaking can’t resolve the clog easily. Of course, hydro jetting has its own set of situations where it’s not ideal. Most commonly, hydro jetting can’t be used on certain pipes that can’t withstand the pressure the method creates. In those situations, drain snaking tends to be used instead.
Saddleback Plumbing offers a full range of drain cleaning services in Ladera Ranch, CA. If you need drain cleaning services of any kind, contact us today to schedule an appointment. We’ll make sure that your drains stay in good condition.