[Shop-talk] can I safely heat up a black iron clean out?

[Mark Andy]

Howdy,

So, it turns out the cleanout plug was fairly thin brass.

A 2' pipe wrench on it broke the hex off, so I used a sawzall / cold 
chisel / hammer to remove it.

However, the bigger issue was that even after running a sewer tape out 
through the pipe, I still have the problem. The sewer tape may not have 
been quite long enough to get to the septic tank however? IIRC it was a 
40' tape and the tank is probably 45 or perhaps 50' out there. Still, I 
thought I was home because the sewer tape definitely ran into some minor 
obstructions. I also ran a hose for a quite a while (a couple minutes?) 
down the line after I ran the sewer tape in there a few times and twisted 
it around and such and got nothing headed back towards me.

So, I dunno what's next. I'm pretty much ready to call someone that does 
this for a living, but it seems like either the problem is that I didn't 
snake the line enough (i.e. I should get a power snake and run it a long 
way out there) or that there's something wrong with the septic tank and/or 
pump, even though the pump monitor says its fine.

One worry I have with a power snake is that I know that under our patio 
they replaced a section of metal pipe with plastic with those rubber femco 
(??) connectors on either side... I dunno if power snakes are rough enough 
for that to be a problem.

Anyway. Yay being a homeowner.  We're off to a hotel.

Mark