What a cable machine does
A drain snake is a steel cable that spins inside the pipe. A small head on the end either breaks the clog apart or hooks it so it can be pulled back out. Sink and tub lines take a thin cable fed from a drum machine. The cable goes in through the trap opening under the sink or the tub's overflow, not down the drain itself, so it can get past the bends.
A professional machine matters for reach and for torque. The cable on a hardware-store rental tends to stop a few feet in or kink at the first tight bend. A clog 20 feet down a kitchen line needs a machine that can push that far and keep turning.
Kitchen sinks
Kitchen lines clog with grease. It goes down warm, cools on the pipe wall, and catches food and coffee grounds until the pipe closes. In older St. Louis homes the kitchen line is often galvanized steel or cast iron, which is rough inside and builds up faster than plastic. Apartment buildings have it worst, because one line carries every kitchen above it. The Central West End is full of buildings like that.
Newer pipe doesn't escape it. In a town built mostly since 1990, such as O'Fallon, the kitchen line is plastic, and grease coats plastic the same way.
If a kitchen line clogs again a few weeks after it was cabled, the cable punched a hole through the grease without removing it. That line is a candidate for hydro jetting.
Bathroom sinks, tubs and showers
Hair and soap. Hair wraps around the stopper and the trap, and soap scum binds it into a plug. The cable pulls most of it back out in one piece.
A tub that drains slowly and gurgles when the toilet flushes is a different problem. The two share a line, and the blockage is farther down.
Toilets
A toilet that clogs once is usually paper, or something that shouldn't have been flushed. A closet auger, a short cable made for toilets, clears it without scratching the bowl.
A toilet that clogs every week is telling you the blockage is past the toilet. If the tub or the floor drain backs up when you flush, read about main sewer line cleaning.
When snaking is not enough
Cabling opens the line. It doesn't tell you why the line closed. If the drain stays clear afterward, it was a one-off. If the same drain is back within a few months, a camera inspection is the better next step than cabling it a third time.
Common questions
How much does it cost to unclog a sink, tub or toilet?
Service work is $240 an hour, so the bill follows how long the clog takes to clear. If a camera is used during the visit, add $60.
Can I clear a clogged drain myself?
Often, yes. A plunger, or pulling the hair out of a tub stopper, fixes a lot of single-fixture clogs and is worth trying first. Stop if more than one fixture is slow, or if water comes up somewhere else when you plunge. Both mean the blockage is farther down the line than hand tools reach.
Will a drain snake damage my pipes?
A cable sized to the pipe won't hurt sound pipe. Old galvanized steel or cast iron that has rusted thin is different: a cable can break through a wall that was already close to failing. That pipe needed replacing either way, but mention the age of the house when you call.
Is a slow drain an emergency?
One slow sink or tub can wait for a normal visit. Treat it as urgent when water is coming up a floor drain, or when more than one fixture has stopped. Those point to the main line, and anything you run upstairs will come back up downstairs.