[3KP]

Have you ever heard or used one of these? I got a book in the mail that had this on the inside cover talking about it. Kinda caught my eye.

 

[422 plumber]

Yes,
they work great on restaurant/bar floor sinks that are blocked with drink straws and broom straws. 80 psi, boom, done. I use it at home on the bathtub drain. My wife buys bath sponges for the kids, and they crumble a little bit every time you use it. The crumbs end up blocking the trap. 40 psi, boom, done.

 

[Plumberman]

Now im curious... links?

 

[3KP]

www.waterram.com is the web page for it.

 

[Redwood]

Save your money...:whistling2:

One of our guys "Invested" in one of these...
I made a killing off his callbacks...:laughing:

The boss eventually made him take it off his truck...:yes:
Seems he was charging like he snaked the line and it didn't go over well with the customers...

 

[422 plumber]

It isn't supposed to take the place of snaking, it really works great on blocked traps.

 

[ROCKSTARPLUMBER]

Ive seen them for a a while now, but have never used one.

 

[3KP]

One reason it caught my eye was because I have an 36 unit building I need to clear all drains and 90% of the tub drains are bottle traps. (I'm new to the snake thing but I'm pretty positve it won't go through the bottle trap?)

 

[Plumber Jim]

If it is best for traps then a good 'ol plunger is all you need. I would think this thing will just pop a small hole in a glog to release the pressure.

 

[Phat Cat]

We checked into this a while back. One of the drawbacks was that it had limited uses. If memory serves me, there was a possibility that you could blow another trap down the line or cause a mess when you had back to back fixtures. Something along those lines. This was only determined after talking to the manufacturer and specifically asking the question. For us, the risk wasn't worth the reward when we already have all the tools that will do the job.

- On second thought - sounds like an excellent tool for the handyman.

Reminds me of the old Mikey commercials for Life Cereal. "Let's get the handyman to try it, he'll try anything." :laughing:

 

[Ron]

To me it seems worthless most of the time, the energy will take the least path of resistance, here each fixture get a vent within said amount of distance, so the energy this produces will follow the line to the vent entrance, at that point all the energy will be expelled out through the vent, this losing it's power, and will have no effect on anything beyond the vent.

 

[422 plumber]

The air moves so fast, it blows right past the vent and hits the blockage full force. Don't buy it if you don't like it, but don't knock it if you haven't used it. It has limited application, but works extremely well in those applications.

 

[Ron]

If the vent tee is on the vertical, how do you see it blowing past the vent. It hits the tee and the energy is divided at that point, so how could that be? You will loose a good percentage of the energy at the vent. :whistling2:

 

[Phat Cat]

The air moves so fast, it blows right past the vent and hits the blockage full force. Don't buy it if you don't like it, but don't knock it if you haven't used it. It has limited application, but works extremely well in those applications.

Venting - the manu. told us the same thing.

In certain applications, we can see it working but having another piece of equipment in an already crowded truck wasn't worth it.

However, if you are one of those who likes all kind of 'toys' (tools), it does work. Direct from the mouth of our local suppy house.

My joke about handymen was referring to them not knowing the right application.

 

[UnclogNH]

I have one of those air ram works great but for limited use.
Tub with a drum trap if I can't jump it with my 1/4 inch cable. They can be messy blow water and muck every where its a skill that has to be mastered in the hands of an inexperienced person can be a nightmare
Blow traps out big messes. I love it don't use it much just be careful with it.

 

[stillaround]

Same as others have said. I have one, used for years, works well in limited application, can blow a trap and be messy, watch out for back to back, and the finale--pumped one up ( in the younger years mind you) put a wet rag over the overflow hole and cracked the china lav from the pressure.

 

[Bollinger plumber]

when I was doing pipe lining we would shoot the liner in from the outside into the house. If we didn't plug all the drains in the house we would have one hell of a mess. No thanks is my vote i will stick to my snakes and jetters.

 

[422 plumber]

Did you use a Ram to clean out drains or blow liners into the house? Have you used a Ram to cleanout traps? They work great for specific applications.

 

[A Good Plumber]

The air moves so fast, it blows right past the vent and hits the blockage full force. Don't buy it if you don't like it, but don't knock it if you haven't used it. It has limited application, but works extremely well in those applications.

I agree with ya jjbex, we have one and it has it's place, but you better be carefull.

The best use we've found is for floor drains or floor sinks. You need to tighten the single test plug into the drain and blast away. Toilets are a mess and lavy's are a little tricky (cover the overflow).

It's important to know that it olny works if the piping is backed up to the trap your clearing. It's a kinetic shock wave through the water that clears (most of the time) the blockage.

 

[422 plumber]

Yes, floor drains and floor sinks in restaurants/bars are about the only place I use it.