Fats, oils, grease and food scraps are a recipe for drain blockages. Sometimes it gets tricky. 

Keeping pipes clear in commercial kitchens can require more consistent maintenance. Persistent problems can test both a restaurant owner’s patience and a contractor’s resourcefulness.

With its headquarters in Huntsville, DrainGo Plumbing & Septic Services of Alabama was founded in 2011. In 2014, it expanded with a second location in Pelham serving the greater Birmingham area. 

With about 30 employees — office staff, 12 plumbers and 10 apprentices — DrainGo follows the motto “God, family, work,” says JT Odom, the branch manager in Pelham.

The company’s priority is getting jobs done right the first time. Meeting challenges head on boils down to customer service and the right tools. Sometimes, though, it takes more than a single call.

GREASE MEETS GRIT

A floor drain at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Pelham had been acting up for about two years. Over three months, the contractor made several attempts with a standard cable auger to clear it. 

They could establish flow but were having difficulty maintaining it. The pressure to handle the situation, and make sure it could stay handled, quickly, was high. 

FULL-SCALE PLUMBER

DrainGo’s bread and butter is “full-scale” residential plumbing and drain cleaning as well as commercial jobs for local restaurants and businesses. They handle everything from waterline repairs and replacements to septic system installations, service and maintenance. 

“Anything from water, drains, gas — we make sure to take care of it,” Odom notes. Crews are supported by 16 service vehicles, mostly service vans, a pump truck and a couple of pickups to pull around equipment. 

The company uses multiple cameras including Spartan Tool’s Traveler Lite self-leveling sewer inspection camera and Emerson Electric’s RIDGID Tools SeeSnake system — with a CS12x monitor and rM200B camera reel. 

The Pelham location recently acquired a new Spartan Model 738 jetter trailer. The branch likes tools that simplify workflows, improve communication on job sites and help enlighten customers with devices that stream directly to technicians’ smartphones. 

They are drawn to reliably supported machines at price points that enable sending out more cameras with trucks. 

Odom says it’s making a difference.

A BREAK THROUGH

The Model 738, with a 150-gallon tank, automatic low-water shut-off and a twin-cylinder electric start engine, delivers 2,000 psi at 12 gpm. The unit has a 5-position nozzle and handles pipes 3- to 12-inch in diameter, making the unit a versatile addition with 250 feet of 3/8-inch high-pressure cleaning hose and 100 feet of 5/8-inch rubber supply hose. 

Deployment is improving logistics, speeding response times and adding capabilities business that customers appreciate, without draining the bank. “The other thing about this is it’s got all kinds of varying attachments,” Odom says. 

Crews have been using it mostly in commercial applications for dealing with tough roots like those found in wood berm drains and in restaurants where floor drains are commonly stopped up or “greased down.” 

For their KFC customer, when standard cabling wouldn’t cut it, the fix involved using a 1/4-inch stainless braided hose that attaches to the main hose. This allows for making turns in a trap of the floor drain and helped facilitate a breakthrough as they flushed out the line. 

Logan McGee, DrainGo’s lead technician in Pelham, headed the team that essentially pressure-washed the inside of that 3-inch diameter pipe, cleaning it to appear in near-new condition. “We used two people on that one,” Odom adds. “We found an access point, jetted the line and used a camera to ensure we cleared all the grease.” 

BETTER WITH JETTER

Odom says the Model 738’s power, performance and mobility are a good fit for the contractor’s needs, well-suited to their approach and style. The compact unit with rear-mounted controls is easy to maneuver and parks easily without taking up too much space in their garage. 

Electric start and automatic low-water shut-off functions, as well as remote hose reels as an option, support ease of single-person operation. Technicians can concentrate on the task at hand without constantly shouting back and forth or having to rely on their phones all the time, Odom explains. 

All’s well that ends well. Odom credits a successful resolution at KFC to accessing affordable technology and crew resilience. He pointed to makers including Spartan while drawing attention to what’s important for companies like DrainGo. 

A SERVICE INDUSTRY

Being in the “customer service industry,” the significance of quick response times and value of effective communication is understood, says Odom. Striving toward that, this mentality flows into all projects, residential and commercial, as well as supplier relationships. 

“If there’s a problem, we can call [Spartan Tool]. If they need to do the work, they do it. We can drop equipment off at their location outside Nashville. If we can’t solve an issue over the phone, they’ll walk us through troubleshooting.” He says turnaround times on parts is “normally a week out at most.” 

What works best for DrainGo is that their needs are taken care of so they can take care of their customers, and business. 

“We haven’t been back out to that job in the last six months,” Odom continues. “So I guess the work we did took care of the problem. We saved the relationship with a longtime customer we’ve served for years and do a bunch of work for.”