Need to buy snake

When I was the maintenance supervisor at an apartment complex, I had to rent a power drain snake several times a year to deal with clogs in the pool skimmer lines (a more substantial solution was called for but the management company I worked for wouldn't authorize it.) Then earlier this year I did some work on a friend's rental property which involved clearing a clogged drain from the laundry room to the sewer. This person had power snake from Harbor Freight which I used. I found the HF snake to be well designed, sufficiently well made, and easier to use than the US made equipment from the tool rental place. The rental equipment wasn't Rigid; it seems like the name was Drain Eel, or something like that.

The HF snake sells for less than $200 on sale (which is often.) US made would be several times that. I would have no hesitation about buying the Harbor Freight unit if I wanted to own that equipment, but storage is such a problem for me that my first choice would be to rent when necessary. The cost of 1/2 a day's rent is well under 20% of the $541 you recently paid, probably more like 10%. And you don't have to store it.

All the best, Stan

Some people here have fixed the problem with a high dollar solution but cheaper than digging up street, sidewalk and disturbing landscape. Here is what was done. A long balloon, smaller than the sewer pipe, is pulled through the entire pipe and inflated with air. Then liquid is pumped into the area between the balloon and the pipe. This hardens into a material very much like PVC. In theory if there are not leaks, roots will not grow into the new pipe.

The cheapo bent handle snakes don't work all that well.

I have rented power snakes up to the Rigid Industrial. It gets real interesting when you have 50 or 60 feet out and the snake gets caught. And you work 2-3 hours to get it back.

Yeah, it is a lot of money when the job goes right. Pretty cheap depending upon who digs.