On Jan 7, 7:36*pm, Tegger wrote:
Pete wrote :



Yes, the snake came out in the basement. It's a cable snake with a
half inch spiral wire end. I've snaked it with water in it. In fact, I
had the snake all the way through to the basement and filled the pipe
at the same time (with an inverted elbow piece). I pulled the snake
back out, and the water still drizzle out in the basement. I'm
thinking gremlins.

Two things I can think of:

1) That 1/2" spiral isn't big enough for your clog. A guy I used to know
taught me a little trick: Loosely fasten a piece of wire to the spiral. *As
you spin the spiral, the wire flies outwards and acts as a sort of roto-
rooter, dislodging more gunk than the spiral does alone. The faster you
spin the spiral, the better the wire works.

2) Maybe you need a better drain-opener. I see that Pequa's drain-opener is
potassium hydroxide. This may not be as effective as lye (sodium
hydroxide). Drano (for one) is lye-based, and properly used, is an
excellent gunk-decomposer. Drano is septic-safe.

--
Tegger

Attach some fairly stiff wire to the end of the snake once you get it
coming out in the basement, bend the wire so it is at least 1/2 the
diameter of the pipe, and then fill the pipe with water and spin the
snake while pulling it back up, keep the water filled. That way, as
you come back up and dislodge anything, it is free from that point
down to the basement end. What you are doing may loosen something,
but then it clogs back up. My way will give whatever is clogging the
pipe an open pathway from the clog point into the basement.