Okay, let me tell you about this drain cleaner attachment I got for my pressure washer. My kitchen sink drain was backing up again, real slow this time. Tried the plunger, tried that baking soda and vinegar trick, even poured some nasty chemical stuff down there. Nothing really worked for long.

I was getting pretty fed up, almost ready to call a plumber, which I hate doing because, you know, the cost. Then I remembered seeing these hose attachments for pressure washers specifically for cleaning out drains. Figured, what the heck, I already own the pressure washer, maybe this gizmo could save me some bucks.

So, I picked one up. Looked simple enough, just a long skinny flexible hose with a special nozzle on the end. One end screws onto the pressure washer gun, the other end has jets that spray backward (mostly) to pull the hose down the pipe and blast the gunk away.

Getting it Ready

First thing, I unhooked the regular wand from my pressure washer gun. Then I screwed the drain cleaner hose onto the gun. Made sure it was tight, didn't want water spraying everywhere later.

Before I stuck it down the drain, I did a couple of things:

• Put on some safety glasses. Probably should have worn gloves too, thinking back on it.
• Ran the pressure washer for a second with the hose pointing somewhere safe, just to make sure water was coming out the nozzle end correctly. The jets mostly pointed backward, which is key – that’s what pulls it into the pipe. One jet usually points forward to poke through the blockage.

Down the Drain We Go

Alright, the moment of truth. I went to the outside cleanout access for the kitchen line, unscrewed the cap. Carefully, I started feeding the nozzle end of the hose into the pipe. Just pushed it in maybe a foot or so to get it started.

Then, holding the hose firmly, I squeezed the trigger on the pressure washer gun. You gotta hold on, because those backward jets really want to pull the hose forward. It started feeding itself into the pipe pretty easily. I just sort of guided it, letting it pull itself along.

After feeding maybe 15-20 feet of hose in, I felt it hit something solid. The blockage. I stopped letting the hose feed in and just held it there for a bit, letting the water jets blast away. I pulled it back a foot or two, then let it feed forward again, sort of working it back and forth against the clog.

This is the important part: You don't just jam it in. You let the water do the work. Pulsing the trigger sometimes helps too, giving it little bursts of pressure.

Success!

After maybe a minute or two of working it back and forth at the blockage point, I felt it give way. Suddenly the hose wanted to feed forward much easier. I kept the water running and fed another few feet of hose in just to be sure, then slowly pulled the entire hose back out while the water was still spraying. This helps flush all the loose crud back out of the pipe.

When I pulled the hose all the way out, I shut off the pressure washer. Then I ran water down the kitchen sink inside. Success! Draining perfectly fast, like it was brand new. Cleaned up the mess around the cleanout, put the cap back on, done deal.

Honestly, it worked way better than I expected. Took maybe 30 minutes start to finish. Definitely beats waiting for and paying for a plumber for a simple clog like this. Pretty happy with this little attachment.