Any experiences with hydrojetting a sewer line?

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May 6, 2005
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San Francisco Bay Area
I had a secondary main line snaked a little over a month ago. Back then the plumber recommended a hydrojetting because there was likely a lot of grease buildup from the kitchen sink. Wanted about $400 to jet what he thought was a 2" line. As far as I can tell it's only connected to the kitchen sink, laundry room sink, and washing machine. The kitchen sink and laundry room sink are pretty much tied before heading where they tie into the washing machine drain. Then there's a cleanout hole that the plumber used to snake the line. As far as I can tell it's a 2" lateral line that eventually meets up with a 4" main line connected to the municipal sewer.


I'm probably getting overenthusiastic about trying to get this thing clean. I've bought five different drain treatments hoping it will A) slowly clean out the sludge and B) keep this from happening again. I've gotten both versions of Zep Drain Defense, Green Gobbler Bio-FLOW (put a couple right in the cleanout hole), Roebic K-67 granular drain/trap cleaner, and Roebic K-97 main line cleaner (still waiting to use). Still not sure how much I'm going to do this, but once a month for just one treatment per drain is what I'm planning.

At this point is it worth doing it, or will this stuff eventually clean out enough of the grease that I won't need to worry about hydrojetting? I've been using a lot of these bacterial/enzyme cleaners recently and it's hard to know if it's making a difference. I never asked the plumber to maybe use a camera. When he snaked our sewer cleanout he offered a camera check for free.
 
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I don’t have any first hand experience with it, but I love watching Drain Addict do it on YouTube. I’m amazed at some of the stuff he manages to clear out, from grease to roots to limescale buildup!
 
They had to use it on our main after they broke off the cable they were using, in some tree roots. Finally got the cable out, then used the hydrojet and opened the line.
 
I bought a 100’ jetter kit for my pressure washer and have used it twice with success. No roots in the line though. I’m sure it’s not as good as a pro setup but it gets the job done.
 
Gravity-drawn water flattens out fast in a pipe. You can hope chemical drain cleaners completely clean out a 2" line, but in reality they're only touching about 1/4" of that 2".

Also, a few years back, after many, many, snake jobs on a 4" cast-iron bathroom pipe at work they finally paid for a plumber to go at it with a sawzall.
There was 3 3/4" hair clog packing most of the pipe, with 1/4" hole "snaked" through it.
 
While in graduate school, my wife and I rented a house that needed to have it's sewer line cleared about every 6 months due to age, settling of the sewer line, roots growing, etc. Luckily, our landlord was a plumber. Well, after about 3 years of at least twice a year sewer line cleanouts, he stopped by one afternoon to test out a sewer jet he was considering purchasing.

The sales rep fired the sewer jet up, and 45 minutes later they were done. The next time we needed the sewer line cleaned out was 3 years later. So, yeas, it really cleaned the line out wonderfully!
 
Didn't help at all for my plugged storm sewer line for good reason. When I dug up around the house, the four inch line was plugged with #57 gravel and acorns!! I am still scratching my head over that one.
 
I have similar issues with 2-inch branch lines merging into the 4-inch main. Mine is all cast iron, which is bad for kitchen drains due to grease clinging on rough walls of cold cast iron (buried). Lived in this house for over 30 years, and we do not to put grease / food down the drains, but normal use over years causes build-up. After previous tries with small hand-crank augers, I was only able to achieve a slow drain.
However, over the past month I have been successful with a combination of a rented commercial auger -and- a rather low-cost hydrojetting kit I bought.

The commercial auger had various large swap-able tips (covers most of the 2-inch pipe), 1/2-inch cable, and 1/3 HP motor. I list these details as necessary equipment to push past clogs & nineties. Importantly, the grease / debris is pushed forward as you progress, making the effort harder the farther you go. I run a little water as I auger, and it blocked & cleared 3 times as I pushed through -> 1/3 HP motor got very warm! Clogs / restrictions / nineties caused auger cable to whip around in the pipe, which really helped clean the inside of the pipe. This level of cleaning is simply not possible with small hand-crank augers.

Hydrojetting then removed much small debris, as evidenced by inspection from down-stream clean-out. This removes grease film, which will hopefully keep new grease from clinging as readily.
Note: Don't start with Hydrojetting - drain will clog and spit back at you before you can release the trigger - I learned that lesson!

Final inspection with a fiber-optic confirmed clean pipe, and branch line runs very freely.

I also bought harsh drain-cleaner, but did not use it since I was afraid of spit-back - a good decision!
 
I don’t have any first hand experience with it, but I love watching Drain Addict do it on YouTube. I’m amazed at some of the stuff he manages to clear out, from grease to roots to limescale buildup!
Lol! Fellow drain cleaning video watcher here, too. Gross, but oddly satisfying to watch the progress of getting the drains unclogged. Drain Unblocking and Drain Pros are a couple more.
 
About 4 months after I moved into my newly-constructed house, when the ground started to freeze, I noticed that the sewer was backing up into the house. Fortunately not a huge mess but I could tell that the water wasn't leaving as quickly as it should. Long story short, when they backfilled the sewer line, one of the joints was dislodged. Until the ground started to freeze, the water just leached into the gravel and soil, but once things started to harden, the water stayed put until it could filter through the gravel and find the other end of the connection. This caused a lot of gravel to be sucked into the sewer line, so when they found the problem, they ran a hydrojet line all the way to the main to clear out the gravel that was sucked into the pipe before putting it back together. It was a while ago, but I recall it was pretty effective.
 
Gravity-drawn water flattens out fast in a pipe. You can hope chemical drain cleaners completely clean out a 2" line, but in reality they're only touching about 1/4" of that 2".

Also, a few years back, after many, many, snake jobs on a 4" cast-iron bathroom pipe at work they finally paid for a plumber to go at it with a sawzall.
There was 3 3/4" hair clog packing most of the pipe, with 1/4" hole "snaked" through it.

I kind of gave up on chemical drain cleaners in favor of drain snakes. However, I though many chemical clearers are designed to foam up a bit so they fill up a pipe. I tried Green Gobbler Drain Pacs (not caustic or acid), but they're really designed for drains and not longer main or branch lines. I did try when it was blocked and it didn't fix anything. The plumber didn't seem to be concerned although he might have refused if I had used Drano.

However, it's not blocked any more, but even after the professional snaking the plumber recommended the hydrojetting to get it cleaner. That's my main concern - if I really have to hydrojet to keep it from plugging up again or if other means are adequate to at least keep it open.

Not sure about the bacterial/enzyme treatments. At least with those I thought that if they get splashed they would end up establishing a colony of bacteria. So far I've just tried small doses of the drain treatments in the drain and in the floor cleanout hole. I've got one of the main line treatments but I haven't used it yet. The instructions (for Roebic K-97) say to pour it in a toilet and flush, but there's no toilet upstream of that branch. I'm thinking maybe pouring it in a few gallons of water and then pouring it down the closest drain should simulate what a toilet flush would do.
 
Didn't help at all for my plugged storm sewer line for good reason. When I dug up around the house, the four inch line was plugged with #57 gravel and acorns!! I am still scratching my head over that one.
Squirrels drop the Acorns down the vent lines.
 
I would want the problem remediated permanently. With my private septic system, when I get backed up drains I clear them. Slow drains just create more trouble later on Pro says to Roto rooter, Take his advice
 
Squirrels drop the Acorns down the vent lines.

Don't the acorns rot?

Isn't the vent line the same line as the sewer line, just the other end? If so, shouldn't an acorn just be finished away? I don't understand how it can clog?
 
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