What is a hydrojet, anyway?

There are 2 basic ways to clean out clogged pipes, conventional drain snakes and hydrojetters.  In the image above, the snake is on the top and the hydrojetter is underneath.  Both methods require accessing pipes directly through a clean-out and both methods employ sending a probe down into the pipes to physically clear them of debris out but that's about where the similarities end.

A hydrojetter uses water pumped in at high velocity to break up clogs or cut damaged roots.  A snake uses any of a variety of heads (chosen based on the clog type) to break up clogs or cut roots and pull them out of the lines. 

Our company uses snakes exclusively, and for good reason.  If pipes have roots, that means that they have already been breached and are no longer at 100% strength. If pipes are older than 20 years (which is often the case for homes in older neighborhoods such as Hillcrest, South Park, North Park, University Heights, Normal Heights, Kensington, Talmadge, Mission Hills, Bankers Hill and other central San Diego neighborhoods), pipes can break or crumble under the high pressure blasts from a hydrojetter.  Inexperienced hydrojet operators can end up causing more damage than they came to fix.  Our #1 job is to help homeowners solve their plumbing problems without causing new ones, so we don't take the risk of using a hydrojetter when a snake can do the job without having to worry about breaking already fragile pipes.

If your lines are draining slowly, let us know and we'll come out and let you know what's going on and suggest a solution for you. Give us a call, we are happy to help.