General Pipe Cleaners marks 80 years
McKees Rocks, Pa. — Customer satisfaction, product reliability and creative solutions have fueled General Pipe Cleaners success for 80 years.
Founded by Abe Silverman in 1930, General spearheaded key industry developments – including heavy-duty Flexicore® cable, power-driven and hand-held machines, and integrated visual and audio inspection technologies.
Keenly committed to innovative ideas and quality products, Silverman eventually developed the company’s first power-driven drain cleaner – Sewerooter™. Since then, General continued serving plumbing and drain cleaning professionals with “the toughest drain cleaning tools down the line”.
Generations of trust and service
The core, literally and figuratively, of General’s business remains its pioneering Flexicore® cable — a radical design first introduced in the 1940’s. By patenting a process of wrapping spring around a braided wire core, Abe Silverman’s invention easily outstripped many similar products — remaining an industry standard for drain cleaning “snakes” ever since.
“Product reliability and innovation have forged our reputation,” notes Lee Silverman, company president and son of the founder. “We’ve met the needs of two, three and – occasionally – four generations of customers.”
That’s because General performance and reliability help plumbing and drain cleaning professionals boost bottom lines. “Our customers count on General reliability to enhance profitability,” said national sales manager Andy Zelazny.
The hand-held Super-Vee™ certainly confirms that. Derived from General’s revolutionary Handylectric™ of the 1940s, the tough, dependable Super-Vee™ remains a weapon of choice for unclogging narrow-diameter lines in sinks, showers, toilets, and laundries.
“The only way one customer’s Super-Vee™ – originally purchased over 30 earlier – stopped working was when it was stolen!” Zelazny laughed.
Innovation cements leadership
In the mid-1960s, automatic cable feeds boosted the appeal of new General equipment. Shortly thereafter, the popular Super-Vee™ bolstered the company’s position with hand-held drain cleaners. And for two decades, General’s respected range of water jets – with Vibra-Pulse® for superior nozzle thrust around tight bends and down long lines – have armed plumbing and drain cleaning experts with vital weapons against grease, sediment, ice and other soft blockages.
From the late-1990s, General popularized new technologies to find and diagnose blockages – before actually clearing clogs. Available in a variety of models and sizes, Gen-Eye™ video inspection systems pioneered Digital Locators for instant depth-finding capability without cumbersome triangulation. And the advanced Gen-Ear™ acoustical leak detection device quickly and accurately pinpoints problems in a wide range of conduit, work, soil and surface conditions.
Today, General boasts a full line of advanced drain cleaning tools – including reliable cable drain cleaning machines, gas and electric powered water jets, video inspection and location systems, acoustical water leak location equipment, pipe freezers, thawing machines and accessories.
Abe Silverman’s legacy of product reliability and innovative solutions continues with nine descendents managing General. And over 40% of its work force remains multi-generational – with children often working shoulder-to-shoulder with their parents.
General remains a leader in innovative drain cleaning and inspection technologies. And the people of General continue working hard to serve even more generations to come with the “Toughest Tools Down The Line.”