Here, Enjoy this Drain Cleaning Bladder

If I have ever had high hopes for something that I bought at the hardware store, it's for this thing. That's because last night after I put some spaghetti down the disposal, the sink backed up. Instant vigorous plunging managed to draw a lot of water right into my dishwasher, but didn't do anything to clear up the clog.

"(Redacted)," I thought to myself, "not good." My first thought was that I had jammed the disposal (I should have been so lucky) but when reset and tested, it created a tiny whirlpool in the standing water. Plan B - figuring that there must be a clog just south of the disposal, I got under the sink and started taking apart the water outlet pipes.

Of course, they were totally clean, which meant that the clog is somewhere downstream. The good news, I guess, is that I was able to empty the disposal and the sink water into a bucket while the pipes were disconnected. Time to snake.

Not owning a pipe snake, and not wanting to pay $150 for someone to come over for something I can do myself*, I went to the hardware store today to get a 25-foot drain snake. While in the plumbing aise though, I noticed this:



It's a "Drain Cleaning Bladder," and it clears clogs by attaching to your garden hose and blasting the pipe clean with high pressure water (sweet!). Once you have it on the hose, you place it about 6" down the pipe, turn on the water until the bladder expands to seal the pipe, and then really crank on it to clear the clog. If everything goes well, you have a clean pipe. If it goes lousy, I guess I'm wearing old clothes for a reason, and I do still have that snake. Wish me luck.


*I hope.