Cutting Through

A trailer hydrojetter boosts an Arizona drain cleaner’s productivity and profits, pleases customers and helps open new markets.
Cutting Through

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For technicians at Diamondback Plumbing Services Inc. in Phoenix, Ariz., using underpowered equipment to break up heavy grease clogs in restaurant drain lines was like using a dull handsaw to cut down a tree.

Now they relish the challenge. The company uses a trailer jetter that delivers 4,000 psi/18 gpm. President Steve Herzog estimates the machine increased drain-cleaning capacity by 35 to 40 percent.

“We had been relying on cable equipment, and if that didn’t work, we’d try a small jetter,” recalls Herzog. “But it didn’t work on really heavy grease. We have a lot of Mexican restaurants here, so there’s a lot of grease in lines, and the small jetter just wasn’t cutting it. So we looked at trailer jetters that could handle any line on the commercial end. We didn’t want anything to stop us from serving our customers.”

Two years ago, the company bought a 798 Sidewinder trailer jetter, made by Spartan Tool LLC (the manufacturer has since replaced that unit with their new Warrior model).

Same time, more jobs

Herzog finds that the jetter enables crews to perform more jobs in the same time, boosting profitability. The company generally charges a flat fee for drain cleaning but can charge more if a job with the trailer jetter takes longer than expected. “It’s hard to charge for additional time if you’re using sub-par equipment,” Herzog says.

The unit opens more business opportunities because Diamondback technicians now can tackle 6- to 8-inch drain lines, plus lateral lines in grease traps. Unclogging lines quickly and getting restaurants back in business boosts customer satisfaction, creating repeat business and referrals.

“Before, we might have had to hire an outside firm to jet a line we couldn’t handle,” Herzog says. “Now we can sell customers on a complete line of services. You have to have a hydrojetter to compete at all in this market. If it’s 10 p.m. and you can’t get a line open, that’s not good for business. You can’t just leave them hanging. Opening lines quickly impresses customers, and it saves them money, too.”

Work guaranteed

There’s another benefit, too: When technicians open a drain line with the jetter, Diamondback warrants the work for 60 days – twice the warranty for a line cleaned by a cable machine. If a line cleaned by the jetter clogs within 60 days, Diamondback will clean it again for free, unless technicians verify with a camera inspection that it was clogged through negligence or abuse.

Proper training, provided by the manufacturers, is key to maximizing the jetter’s capability. “There’s more to it than just owning a jetter,” Herzog says. “Knowing how, when and where to use it sets us apart from others.”

Herzog considers the jetter indispensable: “It would be very difficult for us to live without it. I don’t even want to think about it. It would be awful.”



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