Lynx Defense

Sewer Drain Auger Suggestions

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  • gdr_11

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    So I just had the rooter guy run the front line of my house today for the second time in two years. The house was built in 1984 in an unincorporated part of the county and has one septic tank with two separate lines feeding it. The line in the back has a direct run to the tank and is never a problem. The line in the front serves the kitchen and one bathroom and runs in front of the house, makes a 90 degree bend to run along the side and then meets the back line about 20 ft. from the septic tank. There are just two of us so we don't have a lot of water running through the front line because 90% of the time we use the master bath which is in the back. So, for the past two years, I need to have the front line run either because of the low flow or because the 90 degree bend does not allow for a clean run to the septic; not sure of the real cause but it is a pain and the cost will add up over time.

    Since I have paid $280 already, I thought it might be cost effective to just buy a decent drain auger that can handle a 4" line with 100' of cable. I obviously don't need a full out commercial $4,000 unit but when I look at the others on the market, I can't tell which ones are junk and which ones will do the job for me once a year on a preventative basis. I figure if I pay $600 bucks it will pay for itself in 4 years.

    Any suggestions?
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    candcallen

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    FACEBOOK MARKET PLACE. I see them on there regularly.

    For 600 buck you could buy new if you shopped home depot or lowes or rent just once a year.
     

    Axxe55

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    If you are planning on doing this once a year, as a preventative for sewer issues, it would be way cheaper to just rent one of the commercial ones instead. If you bought one, then you have to store it, that takes up space. You will have to maintain it. Since you own it, that is on you.

    Back when I was supervising a equipment rental yard, IIRC, our large power sewer auger with about 150" of cable and would handle up to 6" pipe, rented for about $50 for half a day. I would think you should be able to do all of yours in about four hours? Way cheaper.
     

    hooper

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    My father-in-law has a Harbor Freight version (Chinese for sure). Has had it about 5 years now and has always worked when I borrowed it.

    His is the $350 dollar version on their site, but it looks to be only 50', which does not meet your requirements.

    It looks like Rigid makes one for about $550 (K400 model) that has a 100' reach, I found it on the inter web by searching "Rigid drain cleaner".

    Good Luck
     

    TexasRedneck

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    Is that 90 degree bend a short or long sweep? What drains into that front line? It really sounds like there was an addition done - no plumber I've ever met would run two drains from the same house.
     

    gdr_11

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    Is that 90 degree bend a short or long sweep? What drains into that front line? It really sounds like there was an addition done - no plumber I've ever met would run two drains from the same house.

    The front run is about 25' to the 90 degree and then another 20' to the connection with the main line from the rear. I am planning on digging up the connection at some time to see if they used a tee or a y connection so I could possible improve the flow at the junction point. The front line serves the kitchen and one full bath. The back line serves the master bath and the laundry room. It used to serve only the master bath and they had the laundry room on a french drain for the gray water but I put in a buried 30 gal tank with a sump pump and now run the gray water to the septic.

    It definitely must be an addition because I agree that it is crazy to run a line from the front of the house especially when it has to make bends that create hydraulic resistance. The old guy who ran the snake for me said that he sometimes sees older homes like this that were built with two septic tanks, one in front and one in back; this makes even less sense to me, but I will take his word for it since, if they abandoned a second tank years ago, rerouting the line to the other tank would make some kind of sense.

    I do know that the house was remodeled at one time to change the attached garage into a large media/family room and a new 3 car garage was built with a laundry room added to connect the two buildings. Neither of these changes explains the front drain so I still scratch my head when I look at it. I used to own a home that was building in 1969 and that one had the lines from the kitchen run under the house to connect with the main line from the rear where both bathrooms were; this is pretty much what I would expect anywhere.
     

    TexasRedneck

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    You might consider doing two long-sweep 45's when you dig it up. About the only other thing you might consider doing is replacing the existing toilet with one of the older, high-volume flush units, or see if you can adjust the current one where you'd get more water per flush - as much as you can possibly do. Some of those low-flush units barely use enough water to move the waste - and if there's not much other water flow, it's going to encourage the kinds of stoppages you're seeing.
     

    LaVbRef

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    Or make it a habit to flush twice.......old plumber told me that when I was having problems with stoppages. He said the low volume toilets were generating lots of income for him because like TR said: "they barely use enough water to move the waste."
     

    gdr_11

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    You might consider doing two long-sweep 45's when you dig it up. About the only other thing you might consider doing is replacing the existing toilet with one of the older, high-volume flush units, or see if you can adjust the current one where you'd get more water per flush - as much as you can possibly do. Some of those low-flush units barely use enough water to move the waste - and if there's not much other water flow, it's going to encourage the kinds of stoppages you're seeing.

    Actually, I still have the old style American Standard 3 gallon toilets. Had them both rebuilt last year with all new guts. One of the things I am going to do is to pull the clean out cap in front once a month and run the garden hose full blast for about 10 minutes to see if that helps. Only problem is that here, the cost of water might be worse than paying the rooter guy $140 a pop!
     

    TexasRedneck

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    Actually, I still have the old style American Standard 3 gallon toilets. Had them both rebuilt last year with all new guts. One of the things I am going to do is to pull the clean out cap in front once a month and run the garden hose full blast for about 10 minutes to see if that helps. Only problem is that here, the cost of water might be worse than paying the rooter guy $140 a pop!

    I'd first look and make sure that the float is adjusted so that the maximum amount of water is used to flush - and then make a habit of making that my "take a leak" toilet as much as possible to maximize both the water flow AND flow rate down the pipe.
     
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