The Highly-Rated Electric Drain Cleaner Harbor Freight Shoppers Are Loving

Sooner or later, pretty much everyone will have to deal with a blocked sink, toilet, or drain. Although there are a bunch of genius tips to unclog sinks that can be very effective, a stubborn obstruction can resist the best DIY approach. Even strong commercial chemicals may fail. The tool professional plumbers often turn to is called a drain snake or drain auger. These can be either manual or electric. They drive a flexible steel cable into the blockage to break it up.

Harbor Freight offers several models for the DIY user. Their most popular, judging by customer feedback, is the Bauer 23 ft. Automatic-Feed Handheld Electric Drain Cleaner. It resembles a hammer drill, with a double-handed grip and a variable-speed trigger. Twenty-three feet of ¼-inch kink-resistant cable are enclosed in a drum, which protects the operator from unpleasant splashes. There's a drain port at the back so excess dirty water can be emptied from inside and an LED work light for when it's necessary to work in poor light.

Calling a plumber to snake a drain will cost at least $100 each time, so at $99.99, Harbor Freight's electric drain cleaner could actually save money and would be a great addition to those must-have power tools for homeowners. It is highly rated by customers, with almost 2,000 of them giving it an average of 4.5 stars. 

Feedback from buyers focuses on both the performance and the potential savings the Harbor Freight drain snake delivers. One owner had a blockage from their tub that was 15 feet along the pipe. After working on it for six hours, Harbor Freight's electric drain cleaner cleared it in five minutes. The reviewer estimated a plumber would have cost $300.

That kind of comment is typical, with others praising the light weight of the tool and the automatic feed. This is particularly useful in tight areas, because there's no need for a lot of arm movement. There aren't many complaints, although around five percent of users report faults with the drive or cable breakages. Harbor Freight offers a 90-day warranty, but some fell outside this, to the obvious disappointment of those who had bought them. Nevertheless, the majority of reviews are positive, and 92 percent of owners would recommend it.

While prevention is always better than cure, and it's important to know how often you should clean your drains, occasional clogs are almost inevitable. When that happens, Harbor Freight's electric drain cleaner should have the power to punch through blockages effortlessly. If you consider what a plumber would charge, it can also be great value for money.