Review on DrainX Pro 50-FT Heavy Duty Steel Drum Drain 🔧 Auger: Ultimate Plumbing Drain Snake with Work Gloves and Storage Bag by Ryan Yap

Story time. A month ago, the chipboard backing on our kitchen floor began to swell and soften - only in places, first along the joints and near the cabinets. But it has spread. Waves could be felt underfoot, the only indication that something was wrong. Some vinyl tiles have peeled off. "We're throwing too much water out of the sink," I suggested. Then we noticed that water was seeping out of the cracks between the vinyl tiles, even after not splashing on the floor for several days. "Something's leaking," we realized, with that little sense of anxiety and "oh no" thoughts that come with that realization, "how bad is that? what damage does it do? How much will it cost? Has the floor rotted? Are we going to break through and find ourselves knee deep in our kitchen?” I grabbed a flashlight and started exploring. I lowered myself to the floor, pulled the skirt off the front of the dishwasher, and felt it with my bare hands, carefully avoiding the electrical cords. The floor under the left side of the dishwasher was wet, so I assumed the dishwasher was the source of the leak. The car was a few years old and I wasn't interested in finding parts to fix it. I wasn't too keen on spending a couple of Hondos on a new one either, but chose this as the quickest and easiest solution. I found one for sale - a smaller model, a lower model than the one we were replacing - at a large hardware store nearby. But a few weeks after installing the new dishwasher, the floor was still wet. It's not my favorite thing to do, but I dressed up like an astronaut and snuck under the kitchen floor to investigate the situation. I lit the top of the concrete foundation on the wall of the house under the kitchen sink. The bottom edge of the house's ten-foot window sill was damp. Painted dark, it looked wet for some time. I could not determine the apparent point of entry into the water. After an outside inspection, I gathered some evidence and tried to determine the source of the problem: the roof valley ended right above the construction site. I also noticed that the drain pipe was sticking through the roof right next to the valley. The crumpled soffit board under the eaves appears to have suffered water damage. I assumed the water slowly seeped through a leak in the valley or around the vent pipe, then flowed down between the wall and the outer brick siding and from there seeped into the ground. I installed safety wires (I always do), set up a ladder, climbed onto the roof and smeared around a couple gallons of Henry's roof patch, making sure it was smeared liberally under the clapboards and the casing around the vent pipe. It was a clear, hot day. I remember it. After a week or two without rain, the ground was still wet. Confusion and more head scratching followed. This time we assumed the culprit was the supply line to the refrigerator's ice maker, even though the refrigerator was at the other end of the kitchen. Maybe the plumbing was leaking and water was seeping between the floor and the chipboard, finding its way through the kitchen and rising up and out. We pushed the fridge away from the wall and looked around. bone dry. Finally, finally I started collecting things. The kitchen sink drain exits through the wall behind the sink, turns left, and then makes another bend down to connect to the drain and vent pipe via a tee. The star is in the wall above the floor, so I couldn't see it from below. I was beginning to think the main drain pipe was clogged under the tee that diverts waste water to the vent pipe, but not high enough to go all the way back to the sink. The sewage flowed from the mouth of the ventilation hole to the window sill and into the ground when it was backed up. I disconnected the P-siphon under the sink. A lot of water flowed from the drain pipe sticking out of the wall. The ban has been confirmed. I already had a 25ft manual drain snake. I went back to the basement to see if I could loosen the drain pipe cleaning plug to twist the line. The plumbing in the house is over fifty years old and the plug is stuck. I went back into the kitchen and tried to pull the pipe out from under the sink, but the snake couldn't make three turns to get into the main pipe. "What if I let the snake down the roof vent through the vent?" I asked. I knew the layout of the drains; The kite would only have to make one 45 degree turn instead of three, and after that there was nothing left on the line to damage. But the line I owned wasn't long enough to get the job done. I've already spent over $300 on this project with a new dishwasher and roof repair compound. I wasn't thrilled that I spent more money on a longer line, but I ordered this 50ft line. Long story short, I re-tightened the safety lines, set up the ladder, and climbed back onto the roof. I fed the snake through a vent tube which, with a little help from our good friend Gravity, ate it hungrily. Gravity also added a little force as I pushed the snake through the resistance in the tube. At first I felt some resistance as the snake's head hit the star and made a curve. Then I felt another resistance. There were no more curves or crossings, so I guess the snake found the blockage. I twisted the drum handle several times, moving the cord up and down like a piston, and the resistance gave way. I pulled out a few more yards of cord to make sure there were no more blockages, then pulled the snake in (ugh, messy). I then poured a gallon of liquid sewer cleaner down the vent tube. I climbed off the roof, pulled the snake all the way out of the drum, laid it on the driveway, and sprayed it with a hose. I let it dry before stuffing it back into the drum. So, here's a review of the snake: It's good. The snake drum is metal, and the collar that feeds the snake and holds the thumbscrew is also metal. I've seen complaints in previous reviews that the collar is plastic and doesn't hold up, so the metal collar needs a touch up. This snake will not gnaw roots, but will clear typical sewer blockages. The supplied gloves are a bit small, but they are ok. I only used disposable nitrile gloves. The not so pleasant part of it all - I found that there was a leak in the drain pipe in the kitchen wall which was still leaking even though the blockage had been cleared. So I'm going to reroute the kitchen drain pipe to avoid all that pipe in the wall. The happier ending to this story is that I didn't spend much more than if I had hired a professional to install the sewer. And the new dishwasher, although cheaper than the previous one, washes much better than the old one. And judging by the crumpled eaves, the roof still needed a little patching. And we know that the ice maker's supply line behind the refrigerator is tight. And PVC parts to divert the kitchen sink drain are inexpensive. And I've got another fifty-foot water line in case I need it again.