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Looking to get into using flex shaft?

10K views 23 replies 8 participants last post by  dhal22 
#1 ·
 
#23 ·
My previous place of employment bought few Ridgid FlexShaft contraptions and I have mixed feelings about it. It’s light and easy to use, but it has limited application from my experience. It’s great on PVC with soft clogs, but when it comes to cast iron and anything more serious than a soft clog it’s a struggle. I ended up taking it off my truck and going back with Ridgid K-60 sewer machine. It’s heavy and it takes time to set up but it works every time.
 
#3 ·
I can talk about this here before other places but I'll be offering a class on how to clean drains by using new techniques. Just as an example, my k50, k60, clog dog are off the van and I'm now using my own custom designed equipment....cables and flex shaft, jetter, camera etc. Instead of selling the equipment, I'll just offer the class and you can make your own and if you still want to buy a commercially produced product, then at least you know what features are important.
 
#4 ·
Around here no one cares about drain cleaning they just want it unclogged and don't want to pay extra just to see a video of their sewer. The closest we come to a specialised drain cleaning company is RR that does both drain cleaning and emptying septic tanks plus service plumbing. They only come close to a drain specialist because they have a jetter but they are not really experts at it.

We have a ****ty montana camera at the shop that we really only use maybe 2 times a year.

I would love something like a flex shaft for the lighter weight and cleanliness but I don't think it would be able to do what a drum machine can when it comes to simple uncloging a line and to fully use it to get that good cleaning you would also need an expensive camera so I'm thinking it has its uses for certain things but it's really not fully getting used unless it

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#7 ·
When I went to the ridgid road show I spent 2 hours at the booth and not a single person checked out the cameras, locators or flex shaft other than me. I think that tells us something about the subject.

One rep was upset when I told him a ridgid camera didn't make any sense here and I had purchased a chinese cam.
 
#9 ·
I love my ridgid camera and pipe finder. They have done a ton of good for me. That said 3k$ and 6k$ are ridiculous prices. I have to assume they wanted to make sure that their customers would take care of them so they wouldn't have a ton of warranty issues and if they did at least they would have the extra cash to fix them for free.


Ridgid stuff does have that guarantee and even the few items that technically don't we still expect ridgid to jump through hoops to fix. They make up for that cost later by charging a lot now.


We charge 250$ just for use of the camera. Not all customers are ok with that so they don't get the camera service. There are occasions I don't charge for it, almost always it's a lifelong customer who has given us all their business or a repeat customer I snake once or twice a year.








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#16 ·
I love my ridgid camera and pipe finder. They have done a ton of good for me. That said 3k$ and 6k$ are ridiculous prices. I have to assume they wanted to make sure that their customers would take care of them so they wouldn't have a ton of warranty issues and if they did at least they would have the extra cash to fix them for free.

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The reason they cost so much is because ridgid cameras use alot of propiretary equipment and make hundreds of a part at a time instead of thousands. I went to have a simple part machined and the cost was 700.....If I had 30 made, the cost was only 1000.
 
#14 ·
Like skoronesa said if you are pulling toilet or having issues draining lines first or something like that then it can run all the way up to 4 hours but most the time we can just wheel the machine and drum down the basement and then put it together and clean out from the clean out with out much trouble. So standard is 2 hours but yeah they can take longer. Sometimes we also have to put a second drum on because our cable is only 75'

I have never pulled back a really big root ball but I do normally get a couple hand full of roots back.

Tell me I can run out 100' of flex shaft in a 4" line, blind with no camera and clear a normal root blockage and I would happily buy that machine to not break my back hauling in a heavy drum machine and to not have as much of a mess. But it seems what I'm hearing is that that is not what it's strong side is so a drum machine would be better.

Maybe for smaller drain lines inside the house, but I'm being told that it can be hard to navigate a few fittings and a longer run so maybe I'll stick to the Ridgid k3800 I was planing on getting.

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