General Pipe Cleaners R-25SM Spin Thru Drain Auger with 1/4-Inch by 25-Feet Cable (P-25SM)

Rental house, improperly installed basement shower that piped water to a floor drain by the water heater. Bottoms of walls were rotted when we moved in and we soon found out why. Shower would flood the bathroom regularly. Called slumlord, sent plumber. Landlord charged us without notice. Thing flooded again. No way I'm calling the landlord. Ordered this thing. Failed on the first two tries. Went back, shoved it in there as hard as I could. Finally got it about 20 feet in. When you turn the crank, the tip acts like a screw: it drills into a clog and hooks into it. If you hit a block of hair or something, you'll feel a slight resistance. I hit MAJOR resistance, but it wasn't hard like metal. It was like catching a big fish. I had to pull MUCH harder to get it out this time. Know what I found? A BALLED UP RAG DOWN THE FREAKING DRAIN. 20 FEET BEYOND THE HOLE IN THE FLOOR. Shower runs like a dream now. No more sharing the second bathroom. So grateful for this simple, killer tool. Fantastic bargain for perfect results and peace of mind. I covered the line with tool/gun spray that's supposed to prevent corrosion, as per the suggestion of another reviewer. Too soon to say how well it works, but it seems sensible. I want this thing to last as long as possible.

I literally received this drain auger tonight and used it right away. I had a major clogged drain in my bathtub. The water would fill up like i had a stopper on the drain. Before i ordered the product, i watched a youtube video on how to use it. It looked pretty simple. I filled the tub to a point where at least the bottom of the tub was covered...maybe a bit more. The water drains super slow. I removed the cover to the overflow which is above the drain. The issue in my situation as you can see from the photo is that there is this bar in the middle. This is not common. Usually there would be no bar. I believe this is the original tub to the house and maybe this is how it was in the past. The screws were so rusted that i couldn't remove the bar. In any case i had to shove the drain auger above the bar to get it in and down the pipe. There are simple instructions included with this product. Please attached photo. It really works if you follow them. In order to get the auger out of the barrel, you have to loosen the screw. See photo with my thumb. I pull out enough of the auger to push it down the pipe easily until it can't go any further. Then i have about 6 inches at the most sticking out of the overflow. At this point you want to tighten the screw. Now you hold onto the handle and turn the knob clockwise while pushing forward on the auger until it goes further down the pipe and you have reached the overflow. Again you don't have to push too too hard but with a little force. Now you loosen the screw again and pull out another 6 inches of auger. Tighten the screw and again while pushing forward you turn the knob clockwise until you get to the overflow. If the auger doesn't move very well, pull out a few inches of the auger from the pipe and try again with turning the knob and pushing forward. You repeat this process until the water drains. It literally took me less than 10 minutes. I was very impressed! Once the clog is cleared, you loosen the screw and slowly pull the auger back into the barrel. It goes back in very easily. As you can see from my last photo, there was A LOT of hair in the pipe. 😊 that is 5 years of accumulation. I also bought the TubShroom hair catcher specifically for bathtub drains which is available on Amazon. It's meant for 1.5 inch diameter pipes. I am going to use that to see how well it will catch future hair. Just FYI...I am a female with some experience in home improvement. But i haven't dealt with plumbing issues.

I bought this for my bathtub because I had an issue with standing water/slow drain. It is super easy to use. I think there are instructions included, but since I youtubed how to do it, I guess I didn't find them that helpful. It's really simple to use tho. The snake is really long and I imagine will work for most people for most projects. The material is substantial. It doesn't seem filmsy at all: it's both flexible and stiff at the same time if that makes sense. It's flexible enough to work it's way down the pipe but not so much that it'll just fold in on itself like other drain thingies. Does that make sense? Anyway, turns out that I had a problem with the lever thingie that open/closes the hole to the pipe in my tub. There's this weight thingie that attaches to a metal lever that raises and lowers when you open/close the drain. Turns out that this weight was always half closed which accounted for the slow draining. Once I adjusted the length of the lever & weight thingie, my slow drain problem was solved. But, I did stick the snake through the tubes and it seemed to work well enough.

So I am giving it three stars because it does work. I bought this auger thinking I would keep it and use it any time a drain was blocked. I ordered this on October 8 and just now opened the box to use it on November 26. I should have used it within the return window. After I used it one time (instructions and explanations are sorely lacking) it is completely rusted by the next morning. You would think that something that is guaranteed to get wet with use and nearly impossible to properly dry would be coated with something to keep it from rusting. Not so. Anyway, in my particular case, I had to use it over and over and over to get the kitchen sink drain unclogged. The first day I used it it blocked the sink up worse. I tried it again the next day, this time using it differently, and it went in further and accomplished something. The other thing that I was not pleased with is that the coil is not attached to the inside anywhere. Was it originally? I don't know. But as you are using it in the drain the entire coil come completely out. It isn't easy to get it back in and it can flip out and hit you. I don't know enough about plumbing, maybe a 25 foot coil is as long as it gets for plumbing reasons, but I think a coil that was maybe 5 foot longer would have been more helpful. The best thing about this drain auger (and also, paradoxically, the reason it rusts within hours of first use) is that the water from the coil collects inside the auger itself. It is less messy that way. But then it is impossible to clean AND dry the inside of it out, hence the rust.

I love a product that does exactly what it promises. This is American made with a sturdy metal drum and a good quality cable and spring. We had one of our kitchen sinks with a clog at least 15 feet down the drain pipe. I tried chemical drain cleaners (which I hate to do), boiling water, vinegar and baking soda. You name it, I tried it. This arrived today and within 15 minutes the clog was gone and the water flowing smoothly down the drain. Just loosen the clamp, feed the cable down the drain and turn the handle when you meet resistance. Simple and effective. Just a hint for those who were dumb like me - don't throw coffee grounds down the drain. A few years of doing that and you will need one these Pipe Cleaners.

Really solid. This is my first time using a mechanical drain snake... I'm glad I didn't use a motorized one, that seems like asking for chaos. This little guy you can control. The snake is not tiny, barely fit in my drain (between the crosshairs at the top of the bathtub drain). A couple notes for the newbie like me: If it's a tight fit in to the drain, you can screw it in, gently turning the wheel clockwise (just like you'd put a set of keys on a ring). You can also remove the bathtub overflow plate and go down that way-- though, at least on mine, there's a little valve down there that you have to coax into passing. Navigating around the joint can be disheartening. For my tub, feeding the snake in, it got stuck at about 3 ft, then again at about 6 ft, and then again at about 10 ft. Each time I had to gently push, and then turn the wheel clockwise, then push again. The final turn was very hard to make (but my clog was below it!)... I put dish detergent in the water to make thing slippery and then kept coaxing it... then the snake fed in all the way to 25ft. Lastly, be aware the snake is not attached to the body! I almost dropped the whole 25ft. down the drain! It is easily fed back in to the wheel, though, and the process of removal is the same thing, but in reverse (counterclockwise when you get stuck), and goes much faster. It worked on a very stubborn clog!

Indeed Unfortunate to be the “First” one to review this product. I will try to be as objective as possible on this review. I will rate this product with (2) stars only. First, had the impression, that this auger will have a “metal wire” installed within the outer spring, which turned to be not the case. Secondly, the wire is “Not” flexible enough to reach narrow curves and clefts. The “Thumbscrew case made out of Plastic, which will not lock properly on the cable, and eventually, will end-up been fragmented. The drum weight is quite heavy, which means the designer did not pay enough attention to the fact that this apparatus is manually operated, and will be carried constantly! Not to mentioned the “Rusted” drum, which I don’t think it’s an issue Worn-out from always returning items to “Amazon, and the long procedures, so will just consider my money went down the drain, and will discard this tool.

The wonders of the internet. My lawn drain clogged up in the last storm and my backyard flooded. I had to find fix it before the next storm. It's raining this Sunday. Google introduced me to the drain auger, so I bought this one. What a good choice. It's manual. I don't have to use any machinery, and it's oh so easy. Just put it down the drain, tighten a screw, and turn the wheel. Viola! I was able to dig out a bunch of roots. If only it were longer than 25 feet, I know I could remove so much more. Still, the drain runs much better now. I noticed some people complaining that the coil comes out at the end of the line. Yes it does. I just pushed it back in. That's not hard, folks. No muscle needed. It's a good thing it comes all the way out. I took it out, sprayed it clean with a garden hose, and let it dry before putting it back together.