Both clear a blocked drain. They do it differently, and using the wrong one either fails or wastes money.
Both tools clear a stopped-up drain, and both get called "snaking" by homeowners, but they are not interchangeable and picking the wrong one either fails to fix anything or spends more than the job needed.
A drain cable is a flexible steel line with a head on the end — straight, spear-point, or hooked — pushed through the pipe to break through or grab whatever is blocking it. It is fast, inexpensive, and very good at one thing: removing a discrete obstruction. Against a solid mat of hair or a single hard clog, it works in minutes.
A hydro jetter pushes water through a nozzle at high pressure through the entire length of a pipe run, scouring grease, scale and buildup off the pipe wall rather than just clearing a path through the middle of it. It treats the whole pipe, not just the blockage.
A single clogged fixture, a hair clog in a bathroom drain, a first-time clog with no history of recurrence — a cable is faster, cheaper, and does the job completely.
A kitchen line with grease built up along its length, a main line that keeps re-clogging within a short time after cabling, or any line where the problem is buildup coating the pipe rather than one thing stuck in it.
Full-pressure water is hard on pipe that is already compromised. Old clay or cast iron with cracks or separated joints can be damaged by jetting, which is why an unfamiliar or older main line usually gets a camera look first to confirm it can take the pressure.
Whether the same clog keeps returning, whether more than one fixture is affected, and how old the line is. Describe those three things and which tool is right becomes fairly obvious before anyone shows up.
Tell us which fixture and how bad, and we'll match you with someone who runs the right tool the first time.
Get a Drain ClearedTell us which drain and how bad — we'll follow up to figure out whether it needs a cable, a jetter, or a camera first.
