Every plumber on earth has a few go-to tools they reach for before anything more serious gets involved. It’s the stuff that absolutely lives in the ute and gets used not just once but multiple times per day. We asked around our plumbing network for their actual favourites – not the fancy gear, just the honest, reliable drain cleaning tools that can also get the job done at home, by you.
Here’s the list.
1. A decent plunger (Not the cheap shop one)
Start simple. A good plunger is still the single most underrated tool in any household’s drain-fighting arsenal – but there’s a real difference between a proper bellows-style plunger and the flimsy rubber cup that came free with a toilet brush set.
As far as sink drain cleaning tools go, a smaller cup plunger does the trick. But for toilets, you want a flange plunger – the one with the extra rubber lip that actually seals around the bowl outlet.
But here’s the trick most people miss: fill the bowl or sink with enough water to cover the plunger head, then push down slowly first to expel air, before going hard. Because most plungers fail not because they’re useless, but because they’re being used wrong.
2. A drain snake (The easy hand-crank kind)
Everyone uses a plunger – and it doesn’t really make you feel like a plumber, does it? But this next drain cleaning tool really does make you feel just a little bit more like a ‘real plumber’ as opposed to ‘the thing under the sink that we use all the time’.
A hand-crank drain snake – sometimes called a plumber’s auger – is genuinely one of the best blocked drain cleaning tools for anything a plunger can’t shift. It’s a flexible coiled cable you feed into the drain, crank to break through the clog, then wind back out.
The cool thing is that these come in various different lengths and thicknesses depending on whether you’re in a bathroom drain cleaning tools situation (a smaller, shorter snake) or something heavier duty further down the line. For most household jobs, a 3-5 metre hand snake pretty well covers it.
3. A drain cleaning tool with a drill attachment
For the slightly more committed homeowner, a powered drain auger that attaches to a regular drill turns hand-cranking into a quick trigger-pull. It’s a category of DIY drain line cleaning tools for the brave!
These powered drain cleaning tools chew through stubborn hair clogs and dense soap and general gunk buildup faster than doing it manually – particularly handy for shower drain cleaning tools jobs, where hair buildup is basically a guarantee rather than a possibility.
But our plumber’s advice on this one: don’t go in on full power straight away. Ease into it. These things can be surprisingly aggressive, and an overly enthusiastic drill attachment has scratched (and ruined) more than one porcelain bowl in its time.
4. A flexible drain cleaning stick (The barbed plastic kind)
These cheap, slightly ridiculous-looking plastic sticks with the barbed edges are, somehow, brilliant. You push them into the drain, twist, pull out, and watch in mild horror at what comes with it.
They’re one of the best tools for cleaning drain pipe situations involving hair and surface-level gunk – particularly bathroom sinks and showers – and they cost next to nothing.
They won’t touch a serious blockage further down the line, but for routine maintenance, they’re hard to beat for the price.
5. Enzyme-based drain cleaner (Not the caustic stuff)
A quick but important distinction here: there’s a real difference between harsh chemical drain cleaners – which plumbers generally don’t love, since they can damage older pipes and don’t address the actual blockage – and enzyme-based cleaners. The latter use bacteria to break down organic buildup like hair, soap, and grease over time.
Now, these plumbers drain cleaning tools aren’t a fix for an existing blockage, but used regularly as maintenance, they genuinely help keep things flowing and reduce how often you need to reach for the snake.
6. A good sink plunger combo kit
If you want one purchase that covers most bases, grab a combo kit:
- A flange plunger
- A small hand snake
- A few sizes of the barbed plastic sticks.
If you can find that as a package, and you can in certain hardware stores, it’s genuinely good value. It covers all your needs for sink drain cleaning tools, your shower drain needs, and can also handle minor toilet blockages without needing three separate purchases.
Most hardware stores stock a version of this for well under the cost of a single plumber callout.
What the big boys & girls use
Once you’ve exhausted the home toolkit and the blockage is still laughing at you, this is where licensed plumbers bring out the gear that homeowners generally don’t own – and honestly, shouldn’t need to.
CCTV drain cameras
Rather than guessing where a blockage is, plumbers feed a small waterproof drain camera directly into the line and watch the footage live. It’s the single biggest difference between professional and DIY drain work – no digging, no guessing, just a clear picture of exactly what’s going on and where.
High-pressure water jetters
This is the proper version of what that little plastic barbed stick was attempting on a much smaller scale. A jetter blasts a high-pressure stream of water through the pipe, stripping grease, roots, and built-up gunk from the pipe walls entirely – not just punching a hole through the blockage and calling it a day.
It’s one of the most effective underground drain cleaning tools available, and it’s also why a lot of recurring blockages stop recurring once a proper jetting job is done.
Powered drum machines
For heavier-duty plumbing drain cleaning tools work – tree roots, serious sewer line blockages, decades of buildup – plumbers use larger, motor-driven drum machines with thicker, more aggressive cutting heads than anything you’d attach to a household drill.
These aren’t available at your local hardware store for good reason – they’re powerful enough to damage pipework in inexperienced hands.
Hydro excavation & pipe relining equipment
For genuinely serious cases – things like collapsed pipes, severe root intrusion, and structural damage – plumbers move beyond cleaning entirely and into repair territory, using equipment that can reline a damaged pipe from the inside without digging up the yard.
When your home toolkit hits its limit
Most household blockages respond to one of the DIY tools we’ve mentioned today. But if you’ve tried the plunger, the snake, and the slightly unsettling plastic stick, and the drain is still not cooperating, that’s the universal signal to stop DIY-ing and call in the professionals.
Tradie Near Me connects you with real licensed local plumbers who carry all the gear above – cameras, jetters, the works – and can sort out whatever your home toolkit couldn’t.
Get an obligation-free quote today.
