90mm Crown Root Cutter for use with Lockfast Rods

Does the job well, but the handle is needed to get sufficient torque to rotate the cutter. Otherwise, it may be sufficient just to repeatedly push the cutter into the blockage.

Great little product it did the job better than I expected. I used this cutter with a rotating handle and the trick is to go slow and do not eam this product at force but with the handle attachment I could go steady and slow and we cleared 2 metres of roots within a hour...

Initially when I recieved this, I thought it was too wide and heavy to go into our land drain pipe. I recommend that you use a good pair of rubber gloves the turn the rods whilst pushing the cutter through the pipe. Luckily our pipe is a straight section and about 50ft to the next inspection cover. It seemed to clear a short section of roots with a bit of turning ang pushing back and forth. I must admit i've not rodded the drain for a few years so was glad I got it cleared. Now that i've rebuilt my patio, I shall be using this too at least once a year to stop any groundwater backing up.

Used in combination with the handle and the twisted prong I was able to remove about 3 feet of massed roots and the drain now works perfectly.

A difficult product to rate, it does work and was tough enough, and successful, for the one-off housholder (amateur) job that I bought it for, but the design has some limitations. The main body and extended rod coupler at the rear are too long to enable it to navigate anything other than very gentle bends in 4" clay pipe. I found it would easily deal with roots in the straight pipe sections that I could access from either end but no way would it pass 30 degree bends and would jam fast very easily. I decided to err to caution and did not try to force the tool any further around the curved sections of pipe. If I were designing a tool for this task I would have a much shorter body with the rod coupler mostly contained within the body, teeth on the leading edge only and with a reducing cone shape at the rear so that it would not catch on retraction. For our problem it was useful and helped clear out the root intrusion but maybe needs a slight redesign to enable it to access curved bends without jamming, or possibly a new product for Wardsflex to offer that more easily coped with tight radius bends. So only four stars because the design limits its usefulness but for accessible straight pipe sections it removed the intrusive roots with hardly any effort at all. I was impressed by the fast order despatch and next-day delivery that Wardsflex provided during the difficult Covid-19 lockdown and that enabled me to solve the drain problem myself and make a saving against the quotes we were given by the major drain service providers.

i had very high hopes for this tool. it cuts very well but is just flimsy the teeth get bent very easily. i was forest to throw it it the bin after the third use as it was so battered. the outer cutting ring needs to be made of thicker/stronger steel. the idea is perfect but sorry more a toy than a tool