Fats, oils, grease and food scraps are a recipe for disaster for drains. And sometimes dealing with a blockage gets tricky.
Keeping pipes clear in commercial kitchens can require more consistent maintenance. Persistent problems can test both a restaurant owner’s patience and a contractor’s resourcefulness. Alabama’s DrainGo Plumbing & Septic Services prides itself on being equipped to handle such challenges.
Founded in 2011, DrainGo Plumbing & Septic Services is headquartered in Huntsville. In 2014, it expanded with a second location in Pelham serving the greater Birmingham area.
With about 30 employees — office staff, 12 plumbers and 10 apprentices — DrainGo follows the motto “God, family, work,” says JT Odom, the branch manager in Pelham.
He says the company prioritizes getting jobs done right the first time.
Equipped for anything
DrainGo’s bread and butter is “full-scale” residential plumbing and drain cleaning as well as commercial jobs for local restaurants and businesses. It can handle everything from waterline repairs and replacements to septic system installations, service and maintenance.
“Anything from water, drains, gas — we make sure to take care of it,” Odom says.
Crews are supported by 16 service vehicles — mostly vans, as well as a pump truck and a couple of pickups to pull around equipment.
The company uses multiple inspection camera systems, including Spartan Tool’s Traveler Lite self-leveling camera and RIDGID’s SeeSnake system with a CS12x monitor and rM200B camera reel.
A new key acquisition at the Pelham location has been a Spartan Model 738 trailer jetter. Odom says it’s making a difference.
Jetter to the rescue
The Model 738, with a 150-gallon tank, automatic low-water shut-off and a twin-cylinder electric start engine, delivers 2,000 psi at 12 gpm. The unit has a five-position nozzle and handles pipes 3 to 12 inches in diameter, with 250 feet of 3/8-inch high-pressure cleaning hose and 100 feet of 5/8-inch rubber supply hose.
Odom says the jetter is improving logistics, speeding response times and adding capabilities that customers appreciate, all without draining the bank.
“The other thing about this is it’s got all kinds of varying attachments,” Odom says.
Crews have been using it mostly in commercial applications for dealing with tough roots like those found in wood berm drains and in restaurants where floor drains are commonly stopped up or “greased down.”
A good example is a floor drain at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Pelham that had been acting up for about two years. Over three months, DrainGo made several attempts with a standard cable auger to clear it. They could establish flow but were having difficulty maintaining it. The pressure to handle the situation, and make sure it stayed handled, was high.
When standard cabling wasn’t cutting it, the fix using the Spartan Model 738 jetter involved a 1/4-inch stainless steel braided hose that attached to the main hose. That allowed for making turns in a trap of the floor drain and helped facilitate a breakthrough as they flushed out the line. They essentially pressure-washed the inside of that 3-inch-diameter pipe, cleaning it to appear in near-new condition.
“We used two people on that one,” Odom says. “We found an access point, jetted the line and used a camera to ensure we cleared all the grease.”
A good fit
Odom says the Model 738’s power, performance and mobility are a good fit for the DrainGo’s needs and well-suited to their approach and style. The compact unit with rear-mounted controls is easy to maneuver and parks easily without taking up too much space in their garage.
Electric start and automatic low-water shut-off functions, as well as remote hose reels as an option, support easy, single-person operation. Technicians can concentrate on the task at hand without constantly shouting back and forth or having to rely on their phones all the time, Odom explains.
Supplier support
Being in a customer service industry, the significance of quick response times and value of effective communication is understood, Odom says. This mentality applies to all projects, residential and commercial, as well as supplier relationships.
“If there’s a problem, we can call [Spartan Tool]. If they need to do the work, they do it. We can drop equipment off at their location outside Nashville. If we can’t solve an issue over the phone, they’ll walk us through troubleshooting.”
He says turnaround times on parts is “normally a week out at most.”
What works well for DrainGo is that their needs are taken care of so they can in turn take care of their customers and business.
“We haven’t been back out to that [KFC] job in the last six months,” Odom says. “So I guess the work we did took care of the problem. We saved the relationship with a longtime customer.”
