# Battery Operated Drain Cleaners



## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

I see there is a lot of postings about battery operated drain cleaning machines. This is nothing new, they have been around for years now. 

Milwaukee is coming out with a new model, but they did one on a standard pistol rod platform years ago. Here is a PDF of the parts break down. https://documents.milwaukeetool.com/54-05-0141.pdf I owned one, was unimpressed, it ran slow, the batteries wouldn't last, and eventually stopped taking a charge.










Then Ridgid came out with one. The K40-B I own it and still would be using it if I never had my RP100B Propress stolen. It shared batteries with both. I can buy new batteries from Makita since that is the battery Ridgid used with the K40-B and the Propress. The guide hose with the autofeed works good, but I prefer pulling the cable out and feeding it in by hand. Nice thing is it uses the same drum set up as the pistol rods but it stands alone with a foot switch so need to hold it. I like the ability to open the drum and switch inner drums for different sized cables.










Trojan Tools came out with full sized drain cleaners that ran on the battery. I own their Trojan Colt (_Spartan 100 model_), one of the first ones they came out with, back when their colors were red and black. It is an amazing machine. First job I used it on was a highrise in Chicago. Rodded over 60 units kitchen sink lines before I had to change batteries. For years they claimed to have a Spartan 300 and 1065 model that ran on a battery, but I never seen one and now it seems like they gave up on the idea.










I just wanted to let those know that hasn't been around the drain cleaning end of the business long that the new battery drain cleaners is not a new idea and has been around a while.


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## MACPLUMB777 (Jun 18, 2008)

SewerRatz said:


> I see there is a lot of postings about battery operated drain cleaning machines. This is nothing new, they have been around for years now.
> 
> Milwaukee is coming out with a new model, but they did one on a standard pistol rod platform years ago. Here is a PDF of the parts break down. https://documents.milwaukeetool.com/54-05-0141.pdf I owned one, was unimpressed, it ran slow, the batteries wouldn't last, and eventually stopped taking a charge.
> 
> ...


 
Trojan will make a Battery operated Stallion {1065} but no one is ordering one they only want the A/C powered machines :thumbsup:


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

JERRYMAC said:


> Trojan will make a Battery operated Stallion {1065} but no one is ordering one they only want the A/C powered machines :thumbsup:


Thing is they do not advertise the fact. They need to show pictures and a video of the battery operated Stallion. Then they may get more interest in the machine.


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## Drain Pro (Nov 3, 2013)

Trojan is garbage, equipment and customer service. Buyer beware. 


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

The Trojan Colt I own works great and is holding up very well. It is defiantly over 10 years old. I couldn't tell you about customer service since I never had to deal with them since.


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## gear junkie (Jun 20, 2008)

Wasn't Spartan made in the US 10 years ago?


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## Drain Pro (Nov 3, 2013)

gear junkie said:


> Wasn't Spartan made in the US 10 years ago?




Might be a little longer than that but I think you're in the ballpark. I'm thinking like 12-15 years ago.

Trojan was great when they first came out when the machines were red and black.


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## gear junkie (Jun 20, 2008)

Drain Pro said:


> Might be a little longer than that but I think you're in the ballpark. I'm thinking like 12-15 years ago.
> 
> Trojan was great when they first came out when the machines were red and black.


That's the point. No one cares what WAS a great product. I want a great product now.


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## Drain Pro (Nov 3, 2013)

gear junkie said:


> That's the point. No one cares what WAS a great product. I want a great product now.




Well said.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

gear junkie said:


> That's the point. No one cares what WAS a great product. I want a great product now.


Other than color change I haven't seen what the difference in their product is. All manufactures have a few issues with their products. But I only heard of a very few from Trojan and Spartan Tool. Yet I have heard and seen lots of issues with Ridgid, Eel, General, and other brands.

I can tell you my K1500 from 20+ years ago is a better built machine than the K1500 offered today, but todays K1500 is still a great machine and has less issues than a K60. 

I am not saying Ridgid, Eel or any of the other manufactures are making inferior products, just pointing out they all have had their issues along the line. 

What I am not a fan of Trojan is the lack of local customer support, but I guess being in a major metropolitan area has spoiled me. The only reason I purchased the Trojan Colt battery machine was when I seen it at the Nashville Waste Hauler and Pumper Show, I thought it was the greatest idea ever. So I bought one on the spot. 

I told the owner then that he may have a hard time selling the units cause he is basically telling Spartan 100 owners to garage a perfectly good machine for his battery version. I told him if he wants to meet his sales quota for the battery purchases he needed to make is to sell a conversion kit for the Spartan 100 and the Ridgid 3800. I don't know if he took my advice or not. I have not seen or heard from them in a while, and I have not been to the show since they took it out of Nashville.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

By the way, the purpose of this post was not about one tool manufacture, it is about battery operated drain cleaners. Of the ones I talked about in the original post, I can give a review of each of them since I own them.


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## wyrickmech (Mar 16, 2013)

I picked up one of the riobi cordless drain cleaners. It works easily on what it is designed for. Tub drains or sink drains without dragging a corded machine into a house is nice. It has a hi drum speed and the auto feed is nice. I know now when Milwaukee comes out with the same kind this summer I will probably put one on every truck.


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

I just purchased the Milwaukee tool only from acetoolonline.com $219 +shipping yesterday, got an email from them stating shipping will happen in 7-10 days 

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## Drain Pro (Nov 3, 2013)

GREENPLUM said:


> I just purchased the Milwaukee tool only from acetoolonline.com $219 +shipping yesterday, got an email from them stating shipping will happen in 7-10 days
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk




I'm interested in your thoughts after you use it. Please keep us updated.


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

I picked up the Ryobi drain cleaner when I was first setting up my new truck. I was out on a job and only had the Spartan 100 with the 1/2" cable and a 1065 on the truck at the time. The blocked drain was a melt off drain for an ice well. It is a 1" copper drain with multiple turns. 

So I went next door to the home cheapo and saw they had the Ryobi machine, also had a sale on the high capacity batteries. Got two of them for 80 bucks along with a 12V charger. The cable put up little fight going through the 1" 90 degree turns. I have used it over a dozen times since then and it is still going strong. 

Ryobi has did a impressive job designing this little machine. I will keep this guy on the truck.


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## GREENPLUM (Jul 27, 2008)

[No message]


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