It’s said that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Bill Teeter, co-owner of Drain Mob in San Diego, has no such concerns. His game plan is simple: Invest heavily in advanced technology so he can resolve whatever problems customers throw at him, and do it quickly and efficiently to maximize productivity and profitability.

A good example is the trailer-mounted Defender, a compact, combination jet/vac sewer machine made by Spartan Tool, purchased by the company in February 2023. Mounted on a 14-foot trailer, the unit is essentially a small version of a combination sewer vacuum truck, designed to work easily in congested urban areas and on job sites with limited access.

“It has been a really good machine for us,” says Teeter, who established Drain Mob in 2017 and co-owns the company with Jacob Kemble. “We use the hell out of it and we can charge a lot to use it.”

The dual jetting and vacuuming capability is particularly handy when Drain Mob employees encounter broken sewer lines, Teeter says.

“If we have to cut a pipe under pressure, sewage will shoot out,” he explains. “But now we can suck up all the nasty stuff before our guys start cleaning the pipe. It’s a very versatile machine.”

Power and Versatility

On one job, a Drain Mob crew had to repair a broken sewer line that was filled with rocks. Typically, that would’ve required hiring a subcontractor with a vacuum truck to remove the debris.

“But we were able to go down 30 feet and remove the rocks through a hole in the top of the pipe, then clean and line the pipe,” Teeter says.

In other instances, the Defender enables crews to jet out drainlines inside large commercial buildings without adding more water to the building’s system, thanks to the vacuuming capability. They can also clean storm or sewer drains and prevent sewage or stormwater from flowing onto a street and entering another storm sewer.

“With this machine, nothing hits the street — period,” Teeter says.

Kemble also praises the unit’s dual capabilities. Before, the company would have to hire a subcontractor to do vacuuming work, which often meant long job delays while waiting for the contractor to arrive — and unhappy customers.

“But this machine does it all,” he says. “Now we can jet and suck at the same time, which is very beneficial because a lot of [vac truck] contractors won’t come out for smaller jobs.”

Moreover, the Defender can also be used to clean grease traps and for hydroexcavating, he adds.

At one particular job, where a sewer ejection pump went out, resulting in a fully clogged sewer line, Kemble used the Defender to vacuum water from the line, then used the jetter to clear the stoppage.

“It only took us about two hours because we could do two tasks with just one machine,” he says. “Without the Defender, we would’ve needed a vac truck to pump it out, then jet the line. But this machine makes us a one-stop-shop kind of deal.” 

Made to Work

The Defender is designed to clean pipes up to 13 inches in diameter. It’s equipped with a 396-gallon tank (264 gallons for waste and 132 gallon for freshwater); a Gardner Denver vacuum pump (with suction power of about 1,900 cfm); a water pump that generates pressure of 3,000 psi and flow up to 10 gpm; 260 feet of 1/2-inch-diameter jetting hose; a pivoting hose reel; 115 feet of filling hose; 82 feet of 2-inch-diameter suction hose; a digital display panel; and a Kubota 24 hp diesel engine.

The unit measures 125 inches long by 81 inches wide and 60 inches tall and weighs 3,600 pounds while empty with a wet weight of 6,400 pounds. With a trailer, the unit is 160 inches long, 101 inches wide and 82 inches tall.

One of Kemble’s favorite features is a nine-channel remote control.

“If you’re by yourself, it’s much easier to run because there’s no running back and forth to the trailer,” he says.

More Jobs, More Money

How does the Defender help Drain Mob make more money? For starters, it can take care of jobs that other drain cleaners can’t get to right away. And it gets pipes flowing again quicker, which means the company can do more jobs than it otherwise could, Kemble says.

In addition, its compact size allows the company to perform work it couldn’t do before because of limited access.

Teeter says they paid about $100,000 for the Defender. But so far, he says it’s been worth every penny.

“We don’t use it every day, but when we do, it allows us to command a good hourly rate,” he says. “So our return on investment has been great. We’ve definitely made our money back.”