Clogs are by far one of the most common plumbing issues and something virtually everyone encounters on occasion. Having to deal with a severely clogged drain in your kitchen or a clogged toilet in your bathroom can be frustrating. After all, you obviously won’t be able to use that fixture until it’s unclogged. Luckily, most clogs are easy to avoid just by being careful about how you use your plumbing and making sure to have your drains professionally cleaned on a regular basis.

Why You Should Avoid Using Drain Cleaning Chemicals

The first thing most people do when dealing with drain issues is reach for a bottle of drain cleaner. The reason that drain cleaner works fairly well at clearing clogs is the chemicals it contains are extremely corrosive. They quickly start eating through or dissolving solid materials so that the clog breaks up. The issue is that they are so corrosive that they can do quite a bit of damage to drain pipes. Frequent use of drain cleaner will often result in the metal pipe fitting that connects the drain to the drain pipe corroding and eventually breaking. When this happens, you’ll end up with water leaking out around the drain any time you use the sink.

You should especially make sure to avoid using drain cleaning crystals or granules. These products are usually marketed as a solution to more stubborn clogs, and there is no doubt that they can be quite effective. The way this type of drain cleaner works is that, when it comes into contact with water, the chemical it contains produces a strong chemical reaction. This reaction creates an extreme amount of heat that can end up causing PVC drain pipes to warp, which also makes them much more likely to then start leaking.

The chemicals can also cause damage further along the drain pipe and lead to it leaking inside a wall or ceiling. This is obviously a bigger issue since it will require cutting out a section of sheetrock so that the plumbers can access the pipe to repair it. Using drain cleaner in a toilet is also a bad idea since it could lead to sewage leaking inside your house.

How Professional Drain Cleaning Works

There is a difference between having a plumber just clear a clogged drain and actually cleaning a drain pipe. To clear a clogged drain, a plumber will usually just run a pipe snake down through the drain. The auger at the end of the snake continually rotates as it gets fed down the pipe. This rotation allows it to break through the clog. When the snake is retracted, some of the solid material gets stuck to the auger and pulled out of the pipe. This is helpful since it reduces the risk of the solids getting stuck further down the pipe.

Fully cleaning a drain to remove fat, grease, food particles and other solid items is a completely different process. Drain cleaning is most commonly done by hydro jetting the drain pipes. A hydro-jet machine is essentially just a powerful pressure washer specifically designed for cleaning drain and sewer lines. The machine has a long hose and nozzle attached to it that are slowly fed down through the pipe. When the machine is on, it creates extreme water pressure so that a powerful jet of water sprays out of the nozzle. This jet easily blasts away any solids stuck inside the pipe and also gets rid of the fat and scum coating on the sides of the pipe.

Hydro jetting can typically be used to clean all of the drains inside a house. It’s an especially good option for unclogging and cleaning underground sewer lines. A common issue that affects many homes is that tree roots start getting inside the underground sewer line outside. Once inside, the roots continue growing to the point where they basically colonize the pipe. This leads to major clogs forming since toilet paper and other solids will get stuck within the root mass. At some point, the clog will usually get so bad that you’ll end up experiencing frequent sewage backups inside your home.

Hydro jetting works in this situation because the jet of water the machine produces is so powerful that it can slice straight through any roots. The water also washes the roots out of the pipe and into the sewer main in the street. That ensures that they don’t just get stuck and cause a clog further down.

How to Know if Your Drains or Sewer Line Needs Cleaning

Drain cleaning is an excellent preventative measure for preventing debris from building up inside drain and sewer pipes. Having a plumbing company perform this service yearly or at least once every two years will help to lessen the chances of major plumbing issues like sewage backups arising. Nonetheless, drain and sewer issues can still occur if you’re not extra careful about what goes down the toilets and drains in your home. Nothing breaks apart when flushed like toilet paper does. Items like wet wipes and hygiene products will often end up getting stuck as they travel down your pipes. Washing food scraps and any type of fat or grease down your kitchen drains can also easily result in a drain or sewer clog.

The good news is that there will usually be some quite obvious signs that tell you when a drain pipe or your sewer pipe is starting to get clogged. This includes water draining slowly in a sink or shower or a loud gurgling sound coming from pipes as water drains away. If a toilet or the drain pipe it attaches to is starting to clog up, you’ll usually notice it flushes slowly or incompletely.

When experiencing any of these issues, you should be able to easily tell whether it is related to just a single drain pipe or your sewer line. That’s because a partially clogged sewer line will cause issues with every drain and toilet in your house.

How Drain Cameras Can Detect and Prevent Plumbing Issues

Most plumbing experts also recommend having a camera inspection performed every time you have your drains professionally cleaned. A drain or sewer camera is a special fiber-optic camera connected to a long flexible cable that sends a live video stream to a monitor. Watching the monitor allows the plumber to check the entire drain or sewer pipe for any issues. This can include cracks in a drain pipe and debris, tree roots or severe corrosion in the sewer line, etc. If the inspection reveals any issues, you can often get them taken care of before they create a much more serious problem such as your sewer line leaking.

As the most experienced contractor in the Cheshire area, F.F. Hitchcock Plumbing, Heating & Cooling is who to turn to for your plumbing, drain and sewer needs. We offer professional drain and sewer cleaning services as well as camera inspections, and our team also specializes in all types of plumbing repairs and installations. Contact us today to schedule a drain cleaning service or if you need any help with your heating or air conditioning.

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