foaming root killer

shop deals on amazon
Support your community
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
D

Doug Lassiter

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2019
Messages
50
Reaction score
9
Location
New York, NY
I use copper sulfate occasionally, but I think I need to upgrade to a foaming root killer. Roebic FRK is such a product, but I also see Green Gobbler. The latter is VASTLY cheaper than the former. Does anyone have experience with that allow comparison? Does one work as well as the other?
 
You can rent drain cleaning machines with the proper cutting heads,and keep up with cleaning the drain,or hire a professional drain cleaning co, to do the same thing, and the only way to know if you got it all is to camera the drain ,
 
Doug Lassiter said:
That's pretty hard without removing your toilet. I'm talking about a root clog under the toilet.
Click to expand...

Sure, all of that root killer stuff works great. Just follow the directions and it’ll solve your problems.

Let us know how it goes. You’re the tip of the spear
 
I believe what is being conveyed is to say, "Don't treat the symptoms, treat the disease."

My first house had a partially broken clay sewer pipe. A plumber, like clockwork, was there every 6 months to cut the roots. After the 6 or 7th root cutting, he said if I hand trenched the sewer line, he would come out at no charge, and properly fix that portion of sewer pipe.
I did what he said, gave him a call, he came out and repaired the section. We then shared a 12 pack of beer. A great guy!
 
For me, copper sulfate crystals once every six weeks works & has worked for 30 years. If I was working on the road and skipped copper sulfate for a few months, then I have to snake the roots out.

The plumbers at work once tried the foaming stuff from 3 brands in jars with hair line roots in them. Nothing at all dissolved, even after a week. The bigger problem was that if it did not work and someone had to cable the line or handle the water, the water would burn the skin and eyes. It's almost as thoughtless a using Draino then calling a plumber.

For us, treating the disease (repairing the problem) will require about 400 square feet of 6" concrete drive to be removed, so we treat the symptoms.

We bought sewer line insurance and will let them pay when the pipe fails completely. Meanwhile, they snake for free. $60/year peace of mind & I can sell my trusty & reliable Speedroter 90 to someone who will appreciate it.
 
Last edited:
Bird Doo Head said:
For me, copper sulfate crystals once every six weeks works & has worked for 30 years. If I was working on the road and skipped copper sulfate for a few months, then I have to snake the roots out.

The plumbers at work once tried the foaming stuff from 3 brands in jars with hair line roots in them. Nothing at all dissolved, even after a week. The bigger problem was that if it did not work and someone had to cable the line or handle the water, the water would burn the skin and eyes. It's almost as thoughtless a using Draino then calling a plumber.

For us, treating the disease (repairing the problem) will require about 400 square feet of 6" concrete drive to be removed, so we treat the symptoms.

We bought sewer line insurance and will let them pay when the pipe fails completely. Meanwhile, they snake for free. $60/year peace of mind & I can sell my trusty & reliable Speedroter 90 to someone who will appreciate it.
Click to expand...
I had to have the clay tile line cleared not long after I bought my house, then decided that if I needed it again, I would just rent the machine from Home Depot if it happened again, which it did. Twice. Then, I decided to use Copper Sulphate and that worked. A couple of years later, the city had the sewer laterals relined with a steam heat-activated polystyrene sleeve and I don't need to worry about it anymore.

Directly above my sewer lateral was a Norway Maple tree, planted by the city. I know Maple trees have a tap root and even though they're said to not go much deeper than about 4', the wad of roots I pulled out tells me the tree was the cause of the problems. That tree was cut down last year, so it will never bother anyone, again.
 
Dig up the main outside or locate in basement.

Insert sewer plug to close off and seal the main sewer.

Mix a root killing solution of copper sulfate stuff in garbage cans.

Pump solution into sewer until the pipes fill completely up.

Keep topping it off for hours.

This will find cracks and breaks in the sewer and saturate the soil where it leaks out.

This might help better than pouring chemical down the sewer only to have it go straight past the problem.


If you have a septic tank I wouldn’t do this. Personally I wouldn’t use chemicals at all but if I did, above is how I would use it.
 
Bird Doo Head said:
For us, treating the disease (repairing the problem) will require about 400 square feet of 6" concrete drive to be removed, so we treat the symptoms.

We bought sewer line insurance and will let them pay when the pipe fails completely. Meanwhile, they snake for free. $60/year peace of mind & I can sell my trusty & reliable Speedroter 90 to someone who will appreciate it.
Click to expand...
It's been discussed here before, and I've seen reputable videos on the process of sleeving the affected pipe with an epoxy soaked cloth liner. They cut the roots, clean the pipe, and install the liner, inflate a ballon inside to expand the liner, and let it cure. The process seems sound, the product robust--but I'm not certain whether or not this is any less costly than replacing concrete in many applications. It would have to depend on the local market. Epoxy isn't cheap in any application, much less one where you need to buy it by the gallon. The pipe sleeve cannot be cheap either, certainly compared to new PVC of any kind. Most important it seems you need a specially trained and experienced contractor familiar with pipe sleeving and have the specialized equipment needed. This may be a tall order in some places, whereas you can generally find reputable plumbers that can cut concrete and dig a trench to replace pipe pretty much anywhere there are homes.

I'm thankful that my own sewer line is pretty short, and even if I had to replace the entire line, little would be disturbed.
 
The question was whether foaming root killer is better than copper sulfate. I am NOT going to rip out pipes and do major pumping or relining. Root killer, applied occasionally is lots cheaper and easier. But maybe no one here has the answer to my question. I'll go elsewhere.
 
Doug Lassiter said:
The question was whether foaming root killer is better than copper sulfate. I am NOT going to rip out pipes and do major pumping or relining. Root killer, applied occasionally is lots cheaper and easier. But maybe no one here has the answer to my question. I'll go elsewhere.
Click to expand...

You’re going to post on forums until someone who you think knows what they’re talking about agrees with you or swears they’ve found the best cure in a bottle.

It’s kinda ridiculous and the stuff doesn’t work.
 
That's a good idea, TwoWaxHack, about using a sewer plug and filling the line. It's one to remember. I'll bet on a dry summer day, the mix really spreads far & quickly gets sucked up by the roots. Thanks for sharing it with us all. Maybe this will work for the original poster of the question.

About the liners that GymBag and Mitchell mentioned, we've used three different kinds (Epoxy, Inflatable cure-in-place sleeve and a heat activated spray) many, many times at work for electrical vaults, concrete ducts and power line tunnels underground. They all work perfectly to seal water out and to prevent sections from frost shifting- round and square. (Bonus: No one complains about working in a dry tunnel.)

A neighbor had his sewer done with the heat activated liner & is happy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top