Silverline 656602 Drain Cleaner, Grey

It took me a while, but I managed to unblock the outdoor drain from the kitchen with this great and cheap bit of kit. I used a combination of the silverline cleaner and a running hosepipe and after a couple of hours going at it again and again, I was able to feed the whole 10m length into the drain pipe and spin the crank without the unblocker twisting up. The result is that the water level in the drain trap is the lowest it's been since we moved in over three years ago - so it looks like the blockage had been there for a long time. I marked the cleaner with a marker pen at 1m intervals (1 stripe for 1m, 2 stripes for 2m etc) so I could see how far in I was. Kept hitting something at 7m but kept at it and finally got through. Very rewarding when you realise you've sorted it and saved a few hundred quid in the process!

Managed to clear waste pipe from kitchen sink - takes some time particularly to get round bends but it cleared blockage well. Quality is good for price. If you need to clear a large diameter drain this product may be too small of a diameter to shift significant blockages.

cleared the drains very well, reached right under the bathroom floor and through a couple of right angles. recommend.

Good for easy to unblock clogged pipes but if that’s something more sturdy this item is too weak

I was a bit worried about buying this, as several people seemed to have quite negative experiences. However i have been really impressed with this simple bit of kit, which allowed me to push through from my saniflow drain all the width of the house and identify the site of the blockage on an outside wall. so, no, it didn't save me the price of a plumber's callout (i don't fancy going up the ladder) but it did allow me to diagnose the problem and save plumber time and hassle. a few things to note: - it is quite big and heavy. 9mm diameter x 10 length is a lot of steel so don't expect it to come through the letterbox. there's a 3m snake on amazon which will. - because it's so long it's probably overkill for something no more than a couple of metres into your waste pipe....at that distance you can't really get any rotation by turning the handle cos you're turning 8m of cable around your bathroom like a skipping rope - it's very flexible and it does go round corners in standard 32mm diameter waste pipe, pretty easily - it seems pretty sturdy. you'd have to try pretty hard to put a kink in it - it probably wont go down a sink drain unless you pull the centre grid out first. try a narrower diameter snake if you can't get past that.

Cheap and simple to use as doesnt come with any instructions but doesnt take long to work out. Remember the rod needs cleaning at the end.

I do maintenance (as well as full-on building work) now and then for several properties - thankfully it's not my full time job but is something I'm probably quite good at and actually enjoy on a good day. I have about 35 years of practical semi-professional, and way-more than just DIY, practical experience with a wide range of trades and skills. I bought this "drain snake" to replace an excellent one I've used on and off with great success for quite a few years but that had got a little rusty eventually and also that hadn't been looked after properly by someone I'd lent it to (as an aside: NEVER lend tools, especially ones you like, to anyone even if you're friends to begin with and think they can be trusted to treat them with respect and look after them!).... Unfortunately this "Silverline" 10 m long drain spring is POOR QUALITY and not what it appears to be. The one I'd just bought failed on its first outing to a job - and as someone who knows what these springs are for and how they can and should be used that's very bad. I needed to unblock a fairly serious/solid blockage in pipework leading from a basin sink, that then went under a bathroom floor and passed a few bends before the blockage. Though not especially easy, it shouldn't have been that hard to do either. You need to grasp the drain snake about 10cm above the opening of the pipe (I always specify inspection points at floor level for all new bathroom and kitchen pipework, but if there isn't one you just need to detach pipework where you can or if really necessary just cut the pipe and later reconnect with a straight coupler) ) then give the snake a firm downward "shove", then repeat for the next 10 cm and so on, pushing more firmly as it reaches bends or obstructions, and twisting if required to get it to "jump" round 90 degree bends (that are more difficult than "slow" 45 degree bends). Eventually the snake should reach the blockage which you can push it through or perhaps twist round and round to wipe or scrape the inside of the pipe clean. It's also possible (normally) to pull it back out with lumps of hair or whatever.... ....well that's the theory anyhow, and what I've been doing with my previous drain snake. With this one I managed to get it all the way down the the pipe a few meters the first time, then pulled it back and as expected found a few lumps and hairs and things on it.... so far so good, except I noticed the end was already a bit bent... then I sent it back down again but this time it wouldn't go past the 2nd bend so I tried a little harder, I wasn't quite sure what was going on as it seemed to be continuing to move downwards but the "feel" was a little different. In exasperation I decided to pull it back out and give the matter further thought.... trying to pull it back out was surprisingly hard, with it getting stuck - presumably at the 1st bend for some reason when it should have been easy to pull out. Eventually I got it all out and looked at the sorry pathetic jumble of horribly bent and twisted metal that only 10 minutes before had been a brand new shiny 10 m long spring! This product seems to be made out of inferior low tensile metal that quickly deforms under pressure (trying to push it firmly round underground bends which is exactly what it is supposed to be able to do) and it quickly ends up looking more like a "slinky" (a children's toy) than drain snake! The only jobs I think it would be suitable for would be for pipes with only straight runs or slow bends, and for such a long spring I think you really need quality for it to be really practical. Another thing - the design of the handle for twisting/rotating the spring is terrible! It would be fine for a spring that's only 1.5 - 2 m long, perhaps up to 3 m long, but for anything longer (and this is 10 m let's not forget) it is ESSENTIAL to have a handle that can slide along the spring to where it's needed because it won't all be possible or sensible to get the whole 10 m down the pipe before you're ready to start cranking/twisting it. All in all I'd say forget this inferior product and go for quality. Your time and energy is worth far more than any saving from buying imitation tools like this! I only bought it because I needed it at short notice and it was available on "Amazon Prime" and it looked reasonably robust and up to the task, but turned out not to be.... you have been warned!

I must congratulate myself on the fantastic judgement I showed in buying this 10m x 9mm snake from Silverline. I bought it because SIlverline products are nomally up to the job and because one reviewer said if you keep going with this thing it always get shte blockage. So here is my story. The Kitchen sink blocks up about once a year and the last time we got expnsive plumbers who could not move it with a plunger but needed really long flexible poles. So I started with Mr Muscle, which helped a tiny bit, then tried Slam, which did nothing. Then I thought, no point in messing about. Take the U bend out and get a serious snake. I found the blockage about 3 metres down. So any snale less than 3m long would have been useless. Then the silverline snake would just bump into it and not get through it. So I started slamming the thing into the pipe using my hand to grab the snake about 6 inches before the pipe (any longer and it would buckle). That is when I realised that turning the thing ansd screwing the spinrg up more make it more rigid. But htat is hard to do when the end is 6 metres away and the thing should be more or less striaght. So I went off and srewed it tight and then stuck a suticase on the handle and went back to slamming the snake into the clog by gripping the more tightly would coil 6 inches from the start of the downlfow pipe. Eventullay after maybr 25 slams in went in a bit further. I thought WOW: Rhis is not going to be quick. So then I wnet into macho agressive mode and slammed and slammed the clot until when I was lcose to giving up it suddenly moved. That was not the end of the matter. I then pushed it all 10m of the snake down the drain and pulled the snake back and it came back to about 5m then stopped because the clog was still stuck on the end. So I back and forward it until it loosened and lushed the clog all 10 metres then withdrew the snake. Then I poured down a litre of MR muscle to stop anything coming back. The moral of the story is yes. I think a 10m x 9mm snake with get everything eventually and a 1.5m x 6mm snake will get nothing. BUT you need a good technique. You need to get really agressive just keep slamming until something happens.