The complete guide
How To Choose And Use A Long Drain Cleaning Brush
The slow drain that is not really blocked
There is a kind of drain problem that never becomes an emergency. The basin empties, but slowly. The shower tray holds a centimetre of water until you have finished. And there is a smell near the plughole that no amount of bleach on the surface seems to shift.
Nothing is stuck in the pipe. The pipe is dirty. Every day it carries soap, toothpaste, shaving foam, skin, hair product and, in the kitchen, fat. A little of that stays behind on the wall each time. Over months it becomes a soft grey layer. It narrows the pipe, it catches hair, and it is where the smell lives.
A plunger does nothing to a layer like that. Pressure passes straight through the open middle of the pipe. Pouring products down the drain is not something we recommend either. What works is the same thing that works on a dirty bottle. You put a brush inside and scrub.
What a drain brush does that a snake does not
People often mix up drain brushes and drain snakes. They look alike, with a long bendy shaft and something on the end, but they do different jobs.
A drain snake is for blockages. It has a coil or hook that bites into a plug of hair and drags it out. It leaves the pipe wall more or less as it found it.
A drain brush is for cleaning. Its bristles spread out to touch the wall of the pipe and wipe it as the brush moves. It does not grip a blockage and will not pull one out. If your pipe is fully blocked, clear it with a plunger or a snake first, then follow with the brush to remove what is left.
Used together, the two give you a pipe that is both open and clean. Used on its own, a brush is a maintenance tool. A few minutes every month or two stops the layer building up in the first place.
How this one is built
The brush is 170cm long. That is the full length from one tip to the other.
The shaft is a spring. The maker says the brush is built with stainless steel and describes this as an extra thick, stronger spring version. A spring shaft bends where a solid rod would not, and it carries a push along its length without folding over on itself, as long as you do not force it.
At each end there is a head of nylon bristles. Nylon is a sensible choice for pipe work. It is stiff enough to scrub off soft residue and much kinder to plastic and chrome than wire bristles would be.
The whole thing weighs 0.09 kg, or 90 grams. The maker lists the colour as black, without saying which part that describes.
One detail is missing. The maker does not state the diameter of the bristle heads. That matters if you have a particular narrow tube in mind, and it means we cannot promise a fit for any one pipe size. The maker describes the brush for pipes, hoses and household drains.
Bends, traps and where it will not go
The maker says the brush works in curved pipes and tubes with bends of less than 90 degrees. Read that carefully, because it sets the limits.
A gentle sweep is fine. So is an angled joint where the pipe turns partway. The spring will follow those.
A sharp right angle is at the edge of what the maker describes. A U-bend, the trap under a basin or sink, is tighter still. It turns the pipe back on itself. Do not expect the brush to pass through one, and do not try to make it. Forcing a spring into a turn it cannot make puts a kink in it, and a kinked spring never runs smoothly again.
The better way is to work around the trap. Put a basin under it, unscrew the two nuts by hand and lift it away. Wash the trap in a bucket of hot soapy water. That is where much of the muck sits anyway. Then use the brush in two directions, up into the waste from below and along the pipe that leads away from the trap.
If your trap is glued, corroded or will not come apart by hand, leave it alone. Altering fixed pipework is a job for a qualified plumber.
Where it earns its keep
Bathroom basins are the obvious place. The short stretch between the plughole and the trap collects more residue than any other part of the house plumbing, and it is the source of most basin smells. A long drain cleaning brush cleans it in a few strokes.
Showers and baths are next. Lift the grate or the pop-up waste if it comes out, and brush down into the pipe. You will bring up hair along with the slime, so have kitchen roll ready.
Then there are hoses. The maker lists them among the uses, and a 170cm brush will run a fair distance along a length of flexible hose once it is disconnected and laid out reasonably straight. Check the head against the hose bore before you push it in. For any appliance hose, switch off at the socket first and expect water to come out of the hose when you unhook it.
It is not for toilets, and it is not for outside drains. Both are far wider than the brush heads, so the bristles would not touch the walls.
Using it step by step
Start by running hot water down the drain for a minute. Warm residue comes away more easily than cold. Add a squirt of washing-up liquid at the plughole.
Put on rubber gloves. Feed one head into the opening and push it in about a hand's length. Pull it back. Push again, a little further. Work in short strokes and add depth gradually. A slow twist of the shaft as you go helps the bristles reach right round the wall.
When the brush stops, do not lean on it. Draw it back a few centimetres, turn it slightly and try once more. If it stops at the same point, you have reached a bend it will not take. That is as far as it goes from this side.
Pull the brush out now and then and rinse the head under the tap. What comes off it will tell you whether the job was needed. When the head comes back clean, you are finished. Run hot water for another minute to carry the loosened residue away.
If the first head gets too clogged to rinse quickly, turn the brush round and use the other.
Cleaning and storing the brush
Wash the brush as soon as you are done. Hold each head under hot running water and rub the bristles with a gloved hand until the water runs clear. A drop of washing-up liquid helps with grease. Wipe down the shaft.
Shake it off and let it dry in the air. Hanging it from a hook is the easiest way. Stainless steel resists rust well, but any tool put away wet and dirty will smell the next time you pick it up.
For storage, coil it loosely or leave it hanging. Do not fold it or wind it into a tight loop.
Choosing a drain brush
A few points separate a useful drain brush from one that sits in a drawer.
Length comes first. A short brush only cleans the part of the pipe you can nearly reach with a finger. At 170cm, this one covers the waste, the pipe beyond the trap and a good run of hose.
Then the shaft. A thin wire shaft buckles when you push it. A spring shaft carries the push further. The maker of this brush describes its spring as the thicker, stronger version.
Bristle material matters too. Nylon suits household pipework, which is mostly plastic.
Finally, think about bends. If you are looking for the best flexible drain brush for a run with gentle curves, the maker's figure of bends under 90 degrees is the one to hold your pipework up against. Tight traps will always need to come off.
The short version
Slow, smelly drains are often coated and not blocked. A brush removes the coating where a plunger and a snake do not.
This one is 170cm long, with a stainless steel spring shaft and a nylon bristle head at each end. It weighs 0.09 kg. The maker says it suits bends of less than 90 degrees and lists pipes, hoses and drains as its uses. The head diameter is not stated by the maker.
Use it with hot water and washing-up liquid, in short strokes, without forcing it. Take the trap off and clean that by hand. Rinse the brush, dry it and hang it up.