On 1/14/2016 11:40 AM, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney wrote:
I have seen these gadgets that use air pressure for drain pipe blockages. I can see that could be useful where there are too many elbows in a small diameter pipe for a regular snake. Anyone have experience using pressure like this?

First thought I had was that all the other drains might need to be plugged first. And also what's a reasonable high pressure limit?

I have had this trouble with a 1-1/2 inch washing machine drain, where there are 4 elbows before it gets to the main house drain. I was able to clear out part of the piping with a small diameter snake, but not all. Eventually got it cleared out alternating boiling water, then flushing with hot water, then drano, water flush, snake, etc. Also make a tight connection from the hot water faucet to the 1-1/2 standpipe and ran it until it flowed normally. All this worked, but it took a lot of time.



Just a random thought here. Air is compressible and water is NOT.
That's why the plumbers recommend using the accordian bellows type
"plumber's friend." They have a hollow handle that unscrews from the
bellows to allow the air to leak out and be replaced by water. Once
it's filled with water, you tighten the handle and give it a push. That
shoots a solid wall of water at the obstruction hopefully dislodging it.
Since most drain obstructions are partial (or even if near total) air
would just leak around the obstruction and accomplish nothing.