Clogs are a part of life when you own a home. You pour the wrong food down the drain or the toilet backs up, or sometimes things just build up. Clogs are a pain because they can prevent you from using the affected outlet and create an unnecessary distraction from our busy lives. Most of us look for a quick fix solution, which usually involves buying a drain cleaner from the local grocery store, or perhaps a plumbing snake for the really tough clogs.
That, however, can usually be a mistake. Professional plumbers have the skills and equipment to take care of the clog the right way, while over-the-counter cleansers and other types of store-bought drain cleaners adopt half-measures at best. Simply put, plumbers just do the job better.
The Problem with Cleansers
The central problem with store-bought cleansers is two-fold. They (and over-the-counter tools like snakes) are designed to treat a wide variety of clogs the same way. That means that can partially work in most cases: enough to restore the flow of water at least. But they rarely get rid of the whole clog, leaving bits of it in place that will quickly reform a few weeks or months down the road. Snakes have much the same problem, and while they can handle some clogs quite well, they too will often leave parts of the clog in place.
Snakes, at least, don’t leave any toxins behind. Chemical cleansers usually do, and even when they clear up the clog, the wash down the drains and can contaminant the environment when they do.
How Do Plumbers Do It Differently?
Plumbers bring more expensive equipment in to deal with clogs: things that most laymen wouldn’t need to use more than a handful of times at the most (making them prohibitively expensive), but which plumbers use all the time. More importantly, they have the experience to apply them the right way, ensuring that the clog is taken care of permanently and won’t return to bother you in a short time.
Some of the tools professional plumbers use include the following:
- Video Pipe Inspection. Your phone likely has a small camera and a light built in” no bigger than a fingernail, but able to take home movies instantly. Video pipe inspection uses the same sized camera to travel down the pipes themselves on a line, giving the plumber an exact look at the extent and content of the clog.
- Hydro Jetting. Hydro jetting uses a hose fitted onto the drain that fires powerful pulses down the pipe to break up the clog. It gets the entire clog – including the residue on the side of the pipe – and because it uses water, it’s 100% environmentally safe.
- Drain Augers. Drain augers are essentially a mechanized snake. They work with a great deal more power than a hand-cranked snake, and most have rotating heads which lets the plumber tailor the tool to fit your unique clog.
For quality drain cleaning services in Plano, TX, call Hutchins Plumbing & Air Conditioning today!
