Customer Reviews

Turbo Snake - Plumber's Quality - 2 Units Included! - As Seen On Tv

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

this product worked very well to remove (what turned out to be) a huge hair clog from a shower drain. i had already tried chemical drain cleaning, which did not fix the problem. the drain was very sluggish, with water collecting to your ankles during a shower. this product really worked, and saved me from calling a plumber. After having this for a while, I will add to this review that it is still working well. I cleaned it using an old piece of velcro. Stick the old velcro to the end and it will rip the small hairs off- which are very hard to pick out. (like getting lint or pills off with tape).

I am skeptical by nature and especially about TV products. The marketing is often less than honest. Well, the turbo snake actually works just as seen on TV. Work it past the stopper and into the drain, give it a few turns of the wrist, and pull back a clog of hair. Fast, simple, and can be mounted under the sink on the cabinet door. Who could ask for more?

I found the tool removed larger clogs easily. Once the snake is inserted into the drain, I had trouble rotating the head. I'm not sure how thoroughly the pipe was cleared, but the drain was unclogged.

POOR CONSTRUCTION (it is basically a wire with velcro glued to the end). I stuck it in the bath tub drain twice, and when I pulled it out the second time, the velcro was gone. It is now stuck in the bottom of the drain, catching all the hair, and worsening the problem.

The head on this device fell off in the drain the first time I used it. I had to take the drain apart and fish it out with a real drain snake.

A friend of mine got the Turbo Snake to clear a sink clog and told me it had worked well. My bathroom sink was draining a little slowly, and since my wife has long hair I guessed (correctly) that a hair clog was the culprit.

The Turbo Snake arrived quickly and was well packaged as described. There are two 'snakes' in the box, as well as a small hook for hanging them on when not in use. I straightened the smaller of the two units, designed for sinks, and ran it down the drain then twisted as per the directions. When I pulled it back out, the head of the unit was no longer attached! It had literally broken off during the very first use. :-(

The larger of the two snakes seems to be a little better constructed, and I tugged on it a little to make sure it wasn't going to come apart. Chances are I got a defective unit, and perhaps my lemon isn't indicative of what you'll get if you order one. That said, I looked at the construction pretty carefully and there really just isn't much to it. When our shower drain was clogged (alas for my wife's long hair), I was able to clear the clog by removing the drain cover and forming a hook on the end of a wire hanger. Being honest, the wire hanger was a little more sophisticated than the Turbo Snake, and didn't cost me $6.00.

So bottom line: The Turbo Snake is not very well constructed, but it will clear a clog if it doesn't fall apart during normal use. Probably not worth the money, since you can either opt for a slightly more expensive "real" plumbing tool, or a do-it-yourself "coat-hanger" version, which worked just as well.

Hope this helps! :-)

Reading the other reviews here I cannot tell if the quality of construction suddenly plummeted or if the users who gave it one star expected more or didn't know how to use it. As correctly noted in another review, this is essentially a piece of heavy duty bendable wire that is coated in a kind of soft plastic and fitted with Velcro-like material at one end.I am also wary of AS SEEN ON TV products because half the time they tend to be junk sold by artful hucksters like the late great Billy Mays, who could shout you into buying almost anything, and most recently, the jut-jawed Jerseyite simply named Vince, who got America to buy Shamwows (SHAMwows, get it? Priceless!), a fine German made synthetic shammy that is almost certainly available in different packaging at 1/20th of the cost at your closest 99 cent store.(After a scandalous run-in with a tongue-biting prostitute, Vince soon returned to the tube with his trademark headset--even though there are obviously mics in the studio--and asked America " Do you like my nuts?" as he produced a small bowl of mixed nuts from below the counter and proudly displayed them next to his pants zipper while giving the audience a Groucho-esque grin complete with suggestively-raised eyebrows. With a few slaps of the chopper, Vince soon made mincemeat out of said nuts with the slap chop, which is the same old automatic chopper you've seen for decades, only this one opens to clean and is of decidedly inferior quality. I had to buy it, what with the "like my nuts?" bit, but it's only real use has been entertaining guests at cocktail parties with a bowl of nuts and a strategically placed Vienna sausage.

But back to the Turbo drain snake thing. First of all, don't expect to be snaking anything beyond a few feet-- which is fine for most bathroom sink traps. I bought the item on sale, came home and forgot about until my wife complained about her sink and shower. That's when I remembered this baby, and went to work pulling huge, disgusting clumps of hair and god-knows-what-else from both drains. I swear, it was so gross I almost divorced her!

Yet, where chemicals had failed, this thing shined. Now, I am not sure if I received an older model, but it does not appear that the head is replaceable, but since it does seem to be an extension of the wire itself, mine would be difficult to break off. You just have to rhe clean it, which is probably a gross thought for sensitive types, but I have merely wiped mine clean with a paper towel, plucked the more stubborn detritus with my fingers, and moved on.

I gave this 3 stars because of it's limited length and cheapo design, but it gets the job done, call it 3.5. Just try to find yours at a discount store since it it not worth the retail price. IF they made a 50 foot heavy duty model, I'd be all over it for the drain in my backyard. Pitched by the Limey who was Billy Mays partner, he doesn't have quite the he, uh, exuberant punch of his deceased partner, but it still works wonders and is backed by a limited warrantee. If you like pulling up wads of pipe-gunk the size of a baby's fist as much as I do, get this thing and discover for yourself how disgusting your plumbing truly is while telling the plumber where he can put his snake.

I bought this thing at a dollar store for a tough clog in my bathroom sink. I had tried Drano with little success, so I figured I'd give this thing a try since it was cheap. At first, I was amazed (and disgusted) when it started pulling out mass globs of hair and grayish black goo. However, after less than 5 minutes of use, the head came off and is now lodged in my sink! I tried using the back-up copy to retrieve the first head, and it immediately came off as well. Now I'm afraid this product will have made my problem much worse, as I have these non-biodegradable heads in my sink catching all the hair and gunk.

I bought the Turbo snake from a young door to door salesman and I think he was conned as much as we were. The so called wonder drain clearer came to bits the first morning I used it - what a waste of money!

I purchased this item for use in a bathtub drain. It was a coomplete waste of time and money. Wihtin 5 minutes of me using this, BOTH of these 'turbo snakes' had fallen apart. The end which is supposed to trap the hair and remove it is glued on with apparently elmer's glue. The first one broke off when I was removing hair, the second one dislodged in the drain making the problem much worse. DO NOT BUY THIS. You will regret it.