Roto Rooter

Roto-Rooter is a company based in United States which specializes in clearing tree roots and other obstructions from sewer lines. Roto-Rooter was started by Samuel Oscar Blanc in the late 1920s. A clogged drain in his son’s apartment being the motivation.

The father-son duo of Samuel & Milton Blanc had already made sewer-cleaning machine from roller skate wheels, washing machine motor and steel cable, by the year 1933. The machine helped eliminate the expensive and tedious need to dig and clean, by rotating the sharp blades using the cable to cut tree roots from the clogged sewer lines. The name "Roto-Rooter" was suggested by Blanc's wife 'Lettie', she called it a heavy-duty plumber snake.

Blanc sold “Roto-Rooter” machines for around $250 in the mid-30s. Many started their own Roto-Rooter businesses throughout the Great Plains, the Northeast and upper Midwest.

In 1980, Roto-Rooter Corporation was sold to Cincinnati-based Chemed Corporation.

The Roto-Rooter has one of the best-remembered and longest-running musical jingles:

“Call Roto-Rooter, that’s the name, and away go troubles down the drain.”

Even today, servicemen from Roto-Rooter use same kind of machine.

Around-the-clock service was being provided by some Roto-Rooter franchises, in the 1980s. Along with it, they also provided general plumbing repair for commercial as well as residential customers. Today, sewer and drain-cleaning work represents half of the company’s business & plumbing serviceforms the other half.

Roto-Rooter Corporation, has a manufacturing plant, at West Des Moines, Iowa for producing machinery for the plumbing and Roto-Rooter tools.

The company celebrated it's 70th anniversary in 2005.

Roto-Rooter Employees are mostly non-union. Spencer Lee is Roto-Rooter Group's CEO. Kevin J. McNamara, is CEO of Chemed Corporation. The President of Roto-Rooter Corporation in West Des Moines is Charles Scavo, while Rick Arquilla serves as President and COO of the Company, based in Cincinnati.