Hi all,
I just dealt with a clogged drain (washing machine sludge + fatty deposits) by messing around with an auger for half an hour -- I had the devil of a time getting the thing past some rather sharp bends. And cleaning up afterwards also took half an hour.
This made me wonder if there is a way to do this with an ultrasonic device. I have an ultrasonic cleaning tank, and that works pretty well with all sorts of caked dirt and grease, similar to what blocked the drains. I'm thinking of a sort of high-power ultrasonic probe which more or less dissolves the mess when it gets near the blockade; even handier would be a type of ultrasonic transducer which could simply be firmly clamped on to a pipe from the outside. The pipe of course would need to be filled with water for this to work -- but having a pipe filled with water is exactly the problem with a blocked drain ;-)
Are things like this available? And if not, would the principle work? And would any risk be involved with high-power ultrasonic vibrations in a less-controlled environment than a special ultrasonic tank?
Any ideas are appreciated.
Richard Rasker