Sewer Rodding Vs. Hydrojetting – What's Best for Your Home

 What do you do if while having your shower you unexpectedly find yourself standing in a pool of foamy water that will not drain away? The usual solution in those situations is to reach for a drain snake. But drain snakes are only good for dealing with blockages near the top of the drain. What about when the obstruction is deeper inside the system?

Previously the only options would be to use a heavy-duty snake or corrosive chemicals, both of which can hurt your pipes. Two fairly new methods for solving clogged drains and sludge accumulation in pipes are sewer rodding and hydro jetting. While the new methods won’t replace time-tested methods like drain snakes, they are more effective in certain situations.

What is sewer rodding and hydro jetting, when do you need them, and which is better for solving plumbing issues?

HOW DRAINS GET CLOGGED

Most times when there is a blockage in your drain or sewer line, says T-Square Properties, the explanation you expect is that hair or some foreign object has obstructed the passage. What you may not know is that drainpipes and sewer lines don’t need any object to fall into them to get blocked. Most of the problems you encounter with your drainpipes and sewer actually come from sludge.

Sludge is created by a mixture of soap, grease, and other residue. It progressively coats the sides of pipes until they become so narrow that any small object that falls into them causes a blockage. Getting rid of sludge is harder than removing blockages near the top of the drain. The usual solution is to use chemicals and heavy-duty drain snakes, but they create even bigger problems.

Drain snakes only punch a hole through the obstruction. They won’t remove sludge obstructing a channel. This gives time for the problem to get worse. Corrosive chemicals, on the other hand, can damage pipes and sewer lines, particularly if the sewer pipes are old. Sewer rodding and hydro jetting offer a better way to deal with these problems.

WHAT IS SEWER RODDING OR POWER RODDING?

Sewer rodding uses a flexible metal cable with a sharp-teethed cleaning head attached at the leading end of the cable. The metal cable follows the bends of a pipe as it is threaded through the system. The cleaning head is about the diameter of the pipe and a motor inside the cable rotates it at high speeds to remove tree roots and other obstructions inside the pipe.

Before the invention of sewer rodding, if a blockage could not be removed with chemical drain cleaners or a cable snake, the blocked pipe section had to be removed and cleaned manually. Depending on the location of the blockage, this was an expensive and time-consuming process. Sewer rodding solves the same problem in a quicker way.

WHAT IS HYDRO JETTING?

Hydro jetting is a newer technology that utilizes jets of high pressured water to blast away obstructions inside a pipe. The system uses a thin high-pressure line capped with a nozzle that shoots powerful jets of water in several directions at once. The water pressure can be anywhere from 3,500 to 4,500 psi. The resulting water stream is powerful enough to remove tree roots.

Due to its versatility, hydro jetting is the go-to method used by plumbing experts. It has been deployed to successfully clean drains of all sizes, from home drains of no more than one-inch diameter to the huge pipes of a municipal sewer system. But this does not make hydro jetting the singular solution for all drain blockages and sludge accumulation in sewer lines.

WHEN SHOULD YOU USE HYDRO JETTING OR SEWER RODDING?

WHEN TO USE SEWER RODDING

• If your drainpipes or sewer lines are old, sewer rodding is the better option. Old pipes or sewer lines may be too fragile to withstand the impact of high-pressured water. Newer pipes, on the other hand, are typically able to handle power jetting without adverse effects.
• If you don’t have a lot of space in your property, use sewer rodding. Power jetting uses large equipment to deliver the high pressure needed to clean out pipes. This can be problematic if you don’t have enough room for a large truck or a mounted rig.
• Sewer rodding is better at dealing with some kinds of blockages. If there is a hard clump of tree roots or large clogs in the sewer lines, it is easier to break them up with the spinning head of a sewer rodding line than a stream of water.

WHEN TO USE HYDRO JETTING

• Sewer rodding can be very messy. This is often a big problem for homeowners and completely unacceptable in commercial buildings. Unlike sewer rodding, hydro jetting leaves no mess behind. If you have concerns about the mess that will be created and how much time it will take to clean it up, use hydro jetting.
• Hydro jetting is fast and versatile. It can be adapted to a variety of plumbing systems and sewer lines. If you need to have a blockage removed ASAP, hydro jetting is the better option for you.