Hydro Jetting in Phoenix & Scottsdale, priced before we start.
A drain cable is a spinning steel snake. It punches through an obstruction and drags some of it out. What it leaves behind is a passage roughly the width of the cable through a pipe that may still be three-quarters coated in grease and scale.
A jetter is different. It runs water through a nozzle at up to four thousand pounds per square inch, aimed backwards at the pipe wall, and drags itself upstream cutting everything off the sides as it goes. The pipe comes back to its original bore. Material gets flushed forward rather than left in place.
The honest caveat: jetting costs two to four times what cabling costs, and perhaps two thirds of the drains we are called to do not need it. We tell you which yours is after we have looked, not before.
When jetting is the right tool
Grease lines under any real load
Kitchen branches in a busy household, and every restaurant line without exception. Grease coats; it does not clog in one spot, so there is nothing for a cable to hook.
Roots that keep coming back
A cable cuts roots off at the pipe wall. A jetter with a root nozzle takes them back to the entry point, which buys considerably more time before the next one.
Scale in older cast iron
Decades of buildup narrows the bore until any solid catches. Cabling drills a channel through it. Jetting takes the scale off.
A line that clogs on a schedule
If you can predict roughly when the next backup is due, the pipe wall is the problem and cabling is only buying intervals.
How the visit goes
- 01
Camera first, always
Jetting a pipe that is cracked or badly offset can make a bad situation considerably worse. We look before we run pressure through anything.
- 02
Nozzle chosen to the material
Grease, roots and scale each want a different head and a different pressure. Using one nozzle for everything is how pipes get damaged.
- 03
Upstream cutting pass
The jetter works away from the cleanout and pulls debris back toward it, so material leaves the system rather than being pushed further down the line.
- 04
Camera again, afterwards
You see the same pipe before and after. If it does not look meaningfully different, say so — we would rather redo it than argue about it.
What it typically runs
$350 – $900
Residential lines with a good cleanout sit low in the range. Long runs, roof access, or a line needing two passes move it up. Camera work is included, not billed separately as an extra.
Financing is available on larger jobsThe right question is never "cable or jet". It is "what does the camera show", and everything else follows from the answer.
Hydro Jetting: questions we get asked
Straight answers, the same ones we give on the phone.