Einhell Power X-Change 18V Cordless Drain Cleaner - 7.6m Cleaning Spiral, Forward/Reverse, LED, Water Inlet/Outlet - TE-DA 18/760 Li Solo Drain and Pipe Cleaner (Battery Not Included)

It cleared a stubborn blockage that chemical 'unblockers' had failed to touch, in under 5 minutes. I've read reviews criticising its build quality, but it doesn't claim to be a 'professional' user's tool; in fact the instructions specifically say it is not for professional use. However, I felt it maintained the quality I've come to expect from Einhell tools. I have numerous other Einhell Power X-Change tools and batteries, so the fact that it's supplied as a bare tool isn't a problem as far as I'm concerned. I'd ignore any reviews marking this tool down for not being supplied with a battery or charger, the reviewer(s) should have paid a little more attention to the description and if necessary, ordered a battery and charge separately.

This tool sits exactly between manual snakes and professional ones, and it shows in a good and in a bad way. For easy work it's great, if you've used a manual snake before, put it in the bin and buy this. Using it is completely effortless, you don't even need to remove your trap and work under the sink, just remove the metal waste and go in via the sink. The spiral is also very good quality, it holds very well and goes straight through like a ram where a cheap, manual snake would keep curling up. The device is rubberised on the outside and very rugged and is an absolute pleasure to use, it has good amount of rpm and what would take you half an hour of sweat with a manual snake, will take you five minutes of holding the trigger. You don't even need to hold the device, you can just rest it on something - and it is quite heavy to hold for an extended period of time. The "bad" side, which is pure artificial market segmentation if you ask me, meaning keeping professionals employed and maintaining a price gap, is that its features are limited to exclude what an "industrial", several hundred pounds' worth drain snake has: no interchangeable tips / augers and limited reach. The spiral actually has a joint at the end and looks removable, and looking at Einhell's spares catalogue, it looks like an 'extender' spiral exists, with the same joint on both ends, so in theory you could merge two or more together. In theory - the drum probably only holds the 7.5m. My case was a bit more complex where our kitchen drain was clogged deep into the pipe and not with hair or something the auger can push or drill into and grab, but grease or something similar that's thick and sticky, so a regular auger running through this, is like poking your finger through it - it will go through, but the grease will seal itself up again after a while and you're back to square one. I had to "hack" the tool slightly by bending the end a little so the auger whacks around the pipe, and I attached about 20 small cable ties to the end of the spiral to stick out radially like a brush, and that plus plenty of water and a plunger did the job, where otherwise we were doomed to the mess of having the kitchen sink jetted. If you decide to use the cable tie trick, remember to only turn the device clockwise, both when inserting and when pulling out - otherwise the ties will slide off and stay in your drain! Unless you bend the very end of the auger, but then you lose the "drilling" capability. Buy this great piece of kit today and it is great, but it won't replace a big, professional drain cleaner if you have a really bad clog.

Working perfectly but the snake is not as big as I thought. Better than the one I got before. Is the snake replaceable?

Great bit of kit and a lot cheaper than a call out. I have a good number of these battery operated items and they have never let me down!

Cleared a stubbornly blocked kitchen drain pipe, with ease of use of the machine. Very well designed. Blockage was some 6 metres from the kitchen sink. A recent drain specialist at £100 cost had not cleared the blockage properly.

Used it a few times and never had any issues

Broke during first use. Prevented from making any further comments.

Had a blocked 40mm waste pipe. Plunging and chemicals didn’t work. This worked a treat. Cleared within minutes.