A clog in your drain isn’t just an inconvenience that puts your life on hold; it can cause some serious damage. Clogs can cause pipes to leak, which can flood your house and damage your home and your belongings.
While plumbing snakes have always been the answer to pesky household clogs, there is a new method for getting rid of clogs: hydro jet drain cleaning. Using the right method is important, but it can be difficult to know which is better for your clogged drain.
In this article, we’ll go over drain snaking and hydro jet drain cleaning, their uses, and which one is right for your clogged drain.
Drain Snaking and Hydro Jet Drain Cleaning: The Basics
To figure out which method is the better option, you need to understand the basics of how each method works. While drain snaking is an easier process for homeowners, hydro jet drain cleaning is more powerful and has more capabilities.
Drain Snaking
Drain snaking involves using a plumbing snake, sometimes called a plumbing auger. A plumbing snake has a long, flexible tube at one end with a cable inside that has a corkscrew shape or has blades attached. On the other end is a hand crank, used to twist and turn the interior cable.
To use a plumbing snake, you insert the metal tube into the drain and feed it until you feel resistance. Using the hand crank, you turn the cable to push through the blockage. Once you push through, you keep cranking the handle to free up the debris inside. The cable captures the debris, which is removed when the snake is pulled out of the drain.
This can be done by anyone with basic tool knowledge and is a good tool to keep around for homeowners.
Hydro Jet Drain Cleaning
Hydro jet cleaning involves inserting a high-pressure hose into the drain and using the intense water pressure to push blockages out of the drain. The hose is attached to a machine, which pressurizes the water and shoots it in focused streams that break up and penetrate debris in your sink.
Hydro jets are used to clean household drains, but they can also clean parking lot drains, industrial drains, landscape drains, sewage drains, and other large drains. Because the water pressure is so high, hydro jet cleaning has to be completed by a plumber and isn’t available for personal use.
Hydro Jet Drain Cleaning Vs Drain Snaking: Which is Better?
When it comes to which method is better, the answer is that both methods have their use. Drain snaking is a more convenient method that is great for households, while hydro jet cleaning is more thorough and has more applications.
Hydro Jet Drain Cleaning
Hydro jet drain cleaning has a wider range of applications that drain snaking. Drain snaking only removes larger pieces of debris like hair, toys, or pieces of plastic. It misses things like dirt, grease, and mineral buildup, which can cause frequent clogs and buildup.
It is also more effective for large jobs that have larger pipes because the pressurized stream can reach and clean areas that drain snakes cannot. If you have a large drain with larger pieces of debris, you’ll need hydro jet cleaning to get the job done.
With hydro jet cleaning, the water jet doesn’t just clear the debris, but it also removes any grease, mineral buildup, hair, dirt, and other materials from the drain. It’s also more effective for multiple blockages or blockages that are further down the pipe because the powerful stream can push them out together.
This makes hydro jet cleaning a more thorough and complete process than drain snaking, which can miss the debris that is causing your problems. But hydro jet cleaning is also a longer, more complex process than drain snaking.
Hydro jet drain cleaning requires a plumber because the high-pressure jet can be dangerous and cause damage. Before the plumber cleans your drain, they have to use a camera to inspect the blockage and the pipe.
If they discover weak or damaged sections of the pipe, they won’t be able to use the hydro jet on your pipes. The pressure from the pipe is so intense that it can cause damage to pipes that are weak or have damage, which can cause further headaches.
If you discover weak or damaged sections of your pipe, you will need to have the pipe repaired before you can use hydro jet cleaning.
Drain Snaking
While drain snaking isn’t as powerful as hydro jet cleaning, it still has many useful applications. Plumbing snakes come in a wide range of sizes and prices, which means that it can be a quick, cheap fix for homeowners with a minor blockage.
It is also more convenient than hydro jet cleaning. You can keep your plumbing snake in your toolbox and it doesn’t require complex machinery. You don’t need a plumber to come and use a drain snake for you. It’s a simple process that doesn’t require special knowledge and the instructions can be found online easily.
Drain snakes are a great solution to minor clogs, but using a drain snake might not be enough. Large blockages typically can’t be cleared using a drain snake due to their size and density. You might also need a different drain snake to clear clogs in different drains.
For example, a simple, “insert-twist-and-pull’ plumber snake might be able to clear simple blockages, but that drain snake won’t work for toilets or for larger drains.
This means that plumbing snakes are a great choice for simple bathroom sink issues or the occasional kitchen drain, but they won’t meet all of your needs all of the time.
Use the Right Method For Your Clog
Now that you know a little more about drain snaking and hydro jet drain cleaning, you can figure out which one to use for your drain issues. For best results, you should always add a camera inspection into your unblocking strategy. This will provide you with a guarantee that the problem has been resolved!
If you have any questions about your drain system or you have a blockage in your drain, please contact us.
Mike Cassidy
Mike and his daughter started these blogs as a way to start connecting with their customers. With all his years of experience, Mike has a wealth of information many people would find useful. So with this in mind, we created our first, educational Cassidy & Cassidy blog posts.
Still wanting to bring the customer service issues of today to light though, Cassidy Quips was then created. These quips are intended to help people realize that they deserve better when it comes to customer service, and offer them some tips and tricks to perhaps start feeling as though they're not constantly getting screwed with their pants on.
These quips may be rants, they may be fun, and with any luck, they may leave you coming back for more!
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