Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading both the positive and negative reviews about this product, I decided to spend the seven bucks and give it a shot. My showers were rapidly turning into unwanted baths, and after five minutes I'd be standing in ankle-deep water. I'd tried Liquid Plumr and Drano, and they seemed to help a bit, but I couldn't find anything that would clear the drain completely. After receiving the FlexiSnake, I was dubious. It is essentially a piece of flexible wire wrapped in hook velcro. It feels pretty flimsy, and I was worried that I'd made a bad purchase. I gave it a shot anyway, and fed it down the drain of the tub. I was amazed at what it pulled out! Gobs of hair from what was probably years ago, over and over again. I kept inserting it until just a little past when it stopped, and kept pulling out more and more gunk. When all was said and done, I had a clean, free flowing drain. A couple suggestions/notes: - If you have the ability to remove the drain cap to make the drain opening as unobstructed as possible, do it. This will make the job a lot less time consuming. - The FlexiSnake was only about 14" inches long. If the obstruction is deep inside the drain, you'd be better off disassembling the pipe at the J-Bend and getting at the clog from there. - I've used this on four separate occasions, and have had success with it each time. Clean it after each use by pulling off the hair from the FlexiSnake and rinse it under hot water. I see no reason that this can't be used over and over again, with proper cleaning. Again, it's just like hook velcro, so cleaning it is just like pulling stray hairs from that, just on a larger (and ickier) scale. I had no problem cleaning it after each use, so I'm not quite sure why other reviewers had such trouble. - You could certainly buy a professional drain auger for at least three times the price, and it would get the job done as well. However, if you don't know what you're doing with that, you have the potential to damage the bathroom fixtures or pipes. A hard metal snake can easily scratch and ding drain rings and sinks. An easy 5 star rating for me.