How it works
A jetter pumps water through a hose to a nozzle with backward-facing jets. Those jets drive the hose up the pipe and blast the walls clean as it's drawn back, flushing the loosened waste down to the sewer.
Different heads do different jobs. Some spin to scour grease, some cut roots, and some punch through a packed blockage.
A drain machine, a cable with a cutter on the end, opens a hole through a blockage. A jetter cleans the full width of the pipe, which matters when the build-up coats the whole thing.
Where jetting helps
- Kitchen drains with years of fat and grease along them.
- Stormwater pipes full of silt, sand or leaves.
- Roots that need cutting back before a camera inspection or relining.
- Drains that block again soon after a drain machine has been through.
- Cleaning a pipe back to its walls before relining, so the liner bonds.
When jetting can do harm
High pressure in a cracked, broken or collapsing pipe can wash soil in or make the break worse. On an old or troubled line, a careful plumber will run a camera through before jetting, and stop if it shows a collapse.
What a plumber will do
Ask about the drain
Which fixtures are slow, how often it blocks, and what has been tried already.
Look first
On older lines, run a camera to check the pipe can take the pressure.
Jet from the right end
Set up at an inspection opening or the gully, with a nozzle chosen for what's in the pipe.
Check the result
Run water through, and often the camera again, to show you the clean pipe.
What changes the job
- How long the line is, and how many access points it has.
- What's in it: grease, silt and roots each call for a different head.
- Whether a camera inspection is needed before or after.
- Pipe size: stormwater and larger sewer lines need more water and a bigger machine.
- Getting the jetter close: some sit on trailers or trucks, others are portable.
Who pays for jetting
Jetting your own pipe is yours to pay for. If the blockage turns out to be in the water company's sewer, each company has its own rules, and jetting can affect them.
South East Water's list of cases where the owner pays includes "A high-pressure water jet cleaner was used". Before you assume a jetting bill will be repaid, read your own company's rules in our guide to who owns the sewer pipe.
What you can do, and what to leave
You can
- Keep fat, oil and food scraps out of the kitchen sink, so there's less for anyone to jet.
- Sweep leaves away from stormwater grates before heavy rain.
- Show the plumber where the inspection openings and gully are, so they can set up quickly.
- Leave drain jetting to the plumber rather than pushing a garden pressure cleaner down the pipe.
Leave to a licensed plumber
- All drain jetting.
- Root-cutting heads and camera checks.
- Deciding whether the pipe is strong enough to jet.
- Repairs to anything the jetting uncovers.
Licences and paperwork
Jetting is drain work, so the licence matters. In Tasmania, the Occupational Licensing Act says "A person must not carry on business as a contractor unless" licensed, and the plumbing regulations list drainage as one of the categories of plumbing work.
Jetting cleans a pipe without changing it. If it uncovers damage and the fix is new pipe or a liner, your state's compliance certificate rules apply to that repair. Our guide shows how to check a plumber's licence.
Questions to ask before jetting
- Have you looked at the pipe with a camera, and is it strong enough to jet?
- Which nozzle will you use, and why?
- Where will you jet from?
- Will you show me the pipe afterwards?
- If you find damage, will you stop and tell me before going on?
What we would do
Jetting earns its keep when the whole pipe is coated, as with kitchen grease or stormwater silt. On an old clay sewer that keeps blocking, get the camera through first: if the pipe is cracked, jetting buys time and relining fixes it. A drain specialist who carries both tools can tell you which you're looking at.