Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make sure to give some details.
I have a clogged drain line at my house (built 1966) which has kitchen sink, dishwasher, and washing machine draining to it (in that order, upstream to downstream). I have easy access to a cleanout at the washing machine. This is a secondary line which connects to the main sewer, which luckily is draining fine itself. We've had a plumber snake the drain many years ago and it worked well for quite awhile though gradually draining slower over time as to be expected. Recently, it stopped altogether. Knowing this day would likely come and hoping to not have to call a plumber out each time, my wife bought me a Ridgid K-400 drain snake a couple of years back. (Admittedly, had I used the thing earlier I may not be in this predicament.) I suspect that the drain is 1 " as the only cutting tools I can feed in the drain are 1".
Last night I used a "C" Cutter twice and a spade cutter once all for full 50' cable length, but saw no improvement. After each pass, I turned on hot water in the sink (about half pressure) just to see if anything would flush out. At the cleanout, water that was basically solid black would pour out for a bit followed by gradually clearing water (with some small black "debris") followed by completely clear water. When I used the spade cutter (the 2nd of the 3 attempts), it had some black "gunk" on it when I retrieved it so I know it hit SOMETHINGbut the clog still seems like I've had no effect on it.
My guess is that the 50' cable length isn't quite reaching the full length of the pipe. I'm thinking my options are either buy a longer cable at around $150 (but I will have it the next time this happens) or call a plumber out (assuming they'd have a longer cable or another alternative.)
Thought I'd see if any one here had any other advice or experience. Maybe this is one of those "on the 7th try, it worked like a champ" situations.
I have a clogged drain line at my house (built 1966) which has kitchen sink, dishwasher, and washing machine draining to it (in that order, upstream to downstream). I have easy access to a cleanout at the washing machine. This is a secondary line which connects to the main sewer, which luckily is draining fine itself. We've had a plumber snake the drain many years ago and it worked well for quite awhile though gradually draining slower over time as to be expected. Recently, it stopped altogether. Knowing this day would likely come and hoping to not have to call a plumber out each time, my wife bought me a Ridgid K-400 drain snake a couple of years back. (Admittedly, had I used the thing earlier I may not be in this predicament.) I suspect that the drain is 1 " as the only cutting tools I can feed in the drain are 1".
Last night I used a "C" Cutter twice and a spade cutter once all for full 50' cable length, but saw no improvement. After each pass, I turned on hot water in the sink (about half pressure) just to see if anything would flush out. At the cleanout, water that was basically solid black would pour out for a bit followed by gradually clearing water (with some small black "debris") followed by completely clear water. When I used the spade cutter (the 2nd of the 3 attempts), it had some black "gunk" on it when I retrieved it so I know it hit SOMETHINGbut the clog still seems like I've had no effect on it.
My guess is that the 50' cable length isn't quite reaching the full length of the pipe. I'm thinking my options are either buy a longer cable at around $150 (but I will have it the next time this happens) or call a plumber out (assuming they'd have a longer cable or another alternative.)
Thought I'd see if any one here had any other advice or experience. Maybe this is one of those "on the 7th try, it worked like a champ" situations.
