Drain Cleaning Cable Ends and Their Uses

Spartan Tool offers four styles of ends for our drain cables, depending on the cable size and use.

Drop Head Ends are commonly found on smaller cables used for clearing sinks and tubs. The purpose of a drop head cable is to ensure that the cable moves downward at every junction where pipes intersect. The hinged action of a drop head allows gravity to take over when the snake enters a void, always sending the cable on a downward trajectory. It’s important to know where your cable goes! The working end of a drop head cable is formed into a miniature spiral, much like its bigger cousin, the Open Hook End.

Open Hook Ends occur when we wind the cable into a spiral with a snagging hook on its business end. As the cable machine is running, the cable spins down the line, snagging and entangling in clogs. This end is especially effective for hair, paper products or other soft domestic items sent down the drains, only to result in clogging.

Number 6 Ends consist of special plugs in the end of the cable that accepts our blades. With a number 6 end, you do not need to use any blade holder to attach the blade – it fits directly onto the cable end. Also, when you buy a Spartan Tool cable
with a number six end, you always receive a #6 bag of parts – a cloth bag holding a variety of small blades, attachment hardware and tools to change blades – included in the price of your cable. These blades work very well in smaller lines to tear and cut drain obstacles clogging the line.

Number 8 Ends are similar to our number 6 ends, but these ends also can have drop heads attached to the end of the cable (see drop head discussion above). These Number 8 cables also come with a special bag of parts including blades,
installation hardware and the drop head itself. Because of the additional drop head included with the cable and a different attachment end, number 8 cables are a little more expensive than number 6 cables, but well worth the money if you need to use a drop head. Plus, no blade holder is needed.

Number 4 Ends are used primarily on our larger cable sizes, including .55 and .66 Magnum cables. A number 4 end allows you to attach to another cable of some type – either another piece of the cable you are using, or possibly a leader cable –
or connect to a blade holder capable of housing our larger and specialty blades for heavier duty work, like in roots or other badly clogged sewers. All of our larger cables come with number 4 ends installed.

Number 0 Ends are used when the operator simply wishes to use a "whip" like effect in the line.