With 43 years of industry experience, A1 Quality Rooter owner John Rees has used a lot of drain cleaning machines over the decades and speaks highly about many of them. But one brand still tops his list of favorites: Harben (a subsidiary of Flowplant Group) water jetters.
Rees was already familiar with Harben jetters when he established his company in 1990 in Meriden, Connecticut, because he worked with one at his first job at a national drain cleaning company. And even before he struck out on his own, he bought a Harben jetter, mounted it in a van he owned (technicians at the company had to buy their one service vehicle and equipment) and used it to clean drains on the side.
“I bought it used for about $17,000 in 1990 and have stuck with Harben ever since,” Rees says, noting he owns three trailer-mounted Harben jetters — 4018 GPT models equipped with 300-gallon water tanks and Harben diaphragm radial water pumps. One pump generates 4,000 psi at 18 to 22 gpm and one produces 4,000 psi at 12 to 15 gpm. And another self-fabricated jetter that’s skid-mounted in a truck features a Harben water pump.
“They’re virtually maintenance free,” Rees says. “They just run and run all the time. The eight-cylinder diaphragm radial pump has truly proven itself over time. They haven’t changed its design because it works too well.”
Rees also likes the pumps because they’re easy to rebuild.
“I can rebuild one in my sleep,” he says. “The parts are always readily available.”
In terms of performance, Rees says the Harben pumps are “untouchable.”
“They’re the reason why I own four Harben jetters,” he says.
The company’s technicians use the jetters every day to take out roots, remove debris and cut through grease clogs in sewer lines.
“They can handle just about any kind of clog,” Rees says. “We clean drain pipes all over southern New England, home to some of the oldest sewer infrastructure in the country. For us, it’s all about providing quality service, and Harbens help us do all that and more.”
Water jetters are a great investment, Rees says, because contractors can charge a higher hourly rate, while at the same time reducing time spent on jobs, which boosts productivity and profitability by enabling crews to do more jobs per day. Furthermore, jetters clean a pipe better than cable or sectional drain machines, which minimizes profit-killing callbacks.
“There’s a big difference between clearing a pipe and actually cleaning a pipe,” Rees explains. “A drain machine will clear pipes, but a jetter cleans them. And we’re in the drain cleaning business, not the drain clearing business. I don’t think you can run a decent drain cleaning business these days without a jetter.”
Read more about A1 Quality Rooter in the August 2024 issue of Cleaner magazine.
