A good but DIY useless friend called last weekend to ask if I could unblock his kitchen waste trap. My snake would not go around the bend from either direction and my plunger burst of air did not shift it. The only solution was to access the trap and clean it out.

Easy peasy! But he and his wife do live in what can only be described as a complete and utter chaotic mess (think those house clean TV shows!) and there was not way I was going to empty the under sink cupboard with the very limited space they have. They can do that.

He called his friendly plumber and later reported to me that is was a fat-ball in the trap. But he also told me that the plumber told him that there is now a kinda fat-ball vacuum that plumbers use to clear kitchen traps without having to access the trap

Purely out of interest, what is this tool? Surely it cannot be as efficient as dismantling the trap and giving it a through clean?

But what do I know?

Surely that can not really clear a blocked trap? When I clean mine, although not blocked, the pipe diameter is considerably reduced by the growth of god know what black slime covering everything. That would certainly not clear with either a plunger or vac.