On Thursday, January 14, 2016 at 12:41:12 PM UTC-5, 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.

I bought a CO2 powered drain unclogger; it uses the same CO2 cartridges that I use in my seltzer bottle. Works pretty well but I have to cover the vent hole in the sink with a wet rag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxPltLENic