A plumber's snake can be an extremely useful thing to have in case you have a clogged toilet. However, like any other tool that has to do a hard job, a plumber's snake might break under pressure or after it's been used many times. Once this has happened, the job can become much more problematic than it already was.

Locate the Snake

A plumber's snake is a long, stiff wire that's inserted into a pipe and then cranked down that pipe until it finds a blockage. Then the snake pushes and pulls that blockage until it lets go. If the plumber's snake breaks though, then chances are that the wire has snapped somewhere down the pipe and not right at the crank where it would be convenient. If you can see the plumber's snake, then all you need to do is get a grip on it and pull it back out. A pair of long needle-nose pliers are often very effective for this kind of job. If the snake broke off too far away for you to see it, though, then you'll need a longer tool. There are tools similar to plumber's snakes that have a wire run through the middle of them with a gripping hand at the end. Hardware stores sell them under a variety of names, but one of these may be able to find a snake if there is a significant portion of it broken off in your pipes.

Call a Professional

If only a small piece of the plumber's snake, such as the hooked end, broke off, then you may as well leave it be. However, if a significant portion of the plumber's snake is stuck in your drain, that can cause serious problems over time. Professional plumbers will have heavier duty tools, such as snakes that have cameras on the end of them, and they will be able to get the snake out of your toilet as well as the blockage you were trying to remove, assuming it's still present. Without access to these kinds of tools a broken snake that's out of sight will require the pipes to be disassembled, which is even more costly than the services of a plumber.

Source:

Doityourself.com: Unclogging a Drain