Electric Eel Drain Cleaning Sydney
Electric eel drain cleaning for Sydney lines blocked by roots or anything else that has to be cut rather than flushed. A powered cutting head clears the obstruction, then the camera shows where it got in, so the entry point can be dealt with rather than left. Call any hour, or book online.
Cutting head matched to the pipeWhat an electric eel actually does
Four things worth understanding, because they explain both what this tool is good at and where it is the wrong choice.
A flexible cable, driven under power
An electric eel is a steel cable on a powered drum. The drum spins the cable as it is fed into the line, so the whole length rotates rather than just being pushed along.
A cutting head sized to the pipe
Different heads do different work. A root cutter shears through timber and a spade or auger head breaks up compacted material. The head is matched to the pipe diameter and to what the camera found.
It cuts rather than pushes
This is the point of the tool. Pushing a root mass along the line relocates the blockage. A spinning cutter removes it, so what comes out is the obstruction rather than whatever was behind it.
The line is checked afterwards
Cutting roots out does not close the opening they came through. The camera goes back in so you know whether the pipe needs sealing or whether the line is sound.
When an eel is the answer, and when it is not
Being honest about the second column is what stops you paying twice. A machine that cuts is no use against a coating that needs scouring.
- Tree roots growing in through a joint or a crack
- Compacted material that has hardened in place
- Wet wipes and fibrous matter bound into a mass
- Older clay pipe where the bore is rough and material catches
- A blockage that has to be cut out rather than flushed through
- Fat and grease coating the pipe wall along a whole run
- Silt and sand in a stormwater line
- A pipe that has collapsed or lost its shape
- A foreign object better retrieved than broken up
- A line that needs the full bore restored rather than a channel opened
Roots cut out, then the pipe sealed
An eel removes what has grown in. It does not close the crack or the open joint the roots came through, and roots return to the same moisture they found the first time. A line cleared this way and left alone will usually block again within a season or two.
That is not an argument against clearing it, because the line has to be opened before anything else is possible. It is an argument for looking at the pipe straight afterwards. If the camera shows an open joint, relining seals it without digging. If it shows a sound pipe, nothing further is needed.
How the price works
There is no charge for coming out and looking at the problem.
Drain clearing starts at $69. What a job costs depends on the cause and where it sits.
You get the price before any work begins, and nothing goes ahead until you agree to it.
We take calls through the night, on weekends and on public holidays.
Electric eel questions
What is an electric eel and how is it different from a plunger or a snake?
An electric eel is a powered drain machine. A steel cable is driven from a motorised drum so the cable rotates as it travels, and a cutting head on the end shears through whatever is in the way.
A hand snake has no power behind it and no cutting action, so it will clear a soft blockage near a fixture but will not touch a root mass in a main line. A plunger moves water, nothing more.
Will the cable damage my pipes?
Used on a sound pipe with a head sized correctly, no. The cutter is matched to the pipe diameter so it clears the bore rather than working against the wall.
On a pipe that has already failed the honest answer is different. If the camera shows a line that is cracked or collapsing, running a cutter through it is not the right job, and you will be told that instead.
How long does it take?
Most single blockages are cleared in the same visit. Setting up, running the cable out, cutting through and winding it back is the bulk of the time, and a long main line takes longer than a branch off a fixture.
Will the roots grow back?
Yes, unless the opening is sealed. The roots were drawn to moisture escaping through a crack or an open joint, and cutting them out does not close it. The same roots find the same opening again.
That is what relining is for. Until the line is sealed, the realistic alternative is cleaning on a planned interval to keep ahead of it.
Is an eel or jetting better?
Neither is better. They do different work. An eel cuts solid obstructions out. Jetting strips coatings off the pipe wall.
Roots call for an eel. Grease and silt call for jetting. Where a line has both, the eel goes first to open it and the jetter follows to clean the wall back properly.
Related drain services
Book an electric eel drain clean
An eel will cut them out and get the drain running again today. The camera afterwards is what tells you whether it will stay that way.
NSW Licence 306733C. Fully insured. $0 call-out fee. Blocked drains cleared from $69.