Drain cleaning auger
Also known as: drain snake, rooter, plumber's snake
Long flexible cable with a cutting head used to clear clogs from drain lines. Hand-cranked (small drains) or motorized (mainline). Also called a 'snake' or 'rooter.'
An auger is the standard tool for clearing drain blockages. The cable feeds into the drain opening, advances through the pipe, and the cutting head at the tip breaks up or pulls out the obstruction.
Sizes range from small hand-crank augers (1/4-inch cable, 25 feet — for sink and lavatory drains) to large motorized rooters (3/4-inch cable, 100+ feet — for sewer mainlines). Specialty heads handle different obstructions: spear tips for grease, retrieval heads for pulled-out hair, root cutters for tree-root intrusion in sewer lines.
For service businesses, the auger inventory determines what jobs you can handle. Small-drain augers are inexpensive ($100-$500); commercial mainline augers are major capital investments ($3,000-$15,000+). Hydro-jetting equipment (water-pressure-based clearing, $8,000-$25,000) handles severe blockages that augers can't and is increasingly the gold standard for commercial drain service. The decision of which equipment to invest in depends on your service mix.
Related terms
P-trap
U-shaped pipe under sinks and fixtures that retains water to block sewer gas from entering the building. Required by plumbing code on every drain.
Fixture units (DFU)
Standardized measure of expected water demand from plumbing fixtures. Used to size drain and supply piping per the plumbing code.