Even if you always aim to keep your household plumbing pipes
and fixtures in great shape by caring for them meticulously, you may believe
some common plumbing myths that keep you from protecting your plumbing from
damage as well as you could. You may even perform some tasks that you thinks
help keep your plumbing in good shape that actually harm your home plumbing
system.
Read on to learn four plumbing myths and the truth behind
them, so you can stop accidentally damaging components of your home plumbing
system.
Myth #1: All Products Labeled as Flushable are Safe to
Flush
Many personal care products are labeled as flushable,
including wet toilet wipes and feminine hygiene products. You may flush these
products on a regular basis and think they cause no plumbing problems when they
do not immediately clog the toilet.
However, many personal care products with the flushable
label do not break down at all or break down minimally when exposed to water
and gradually accumulate in a home's plumbing system. This accumulation can
lead to a back-up in the home's main sewer line or elsewhere in the home
plumbing system.
To stay on the safe side, flush only toilet paper and human
waste down the toilet to avoid home plumbing system damage back-ups.
Myth #2: Caustic Drain Cleaning Products Do Not Harm Your
Plumbing
If you experience frequent drain clogs, then you may keep a
store-bought drain cleaning product around the house and use it to unclog
drains on a regular basis. Unfortunately, many drain-clearing products you can
buy at local stores contain caustic chemicals. Not only do these caustic drain
cleaners typically break down drain-clogging build-up poorly, but they can
actually damage your pipes as they unclog the drain.
Some of these drain cleaning products create heat as they
unclog the drain, and this heat can degrade older pipes and cause plastic pipes
to warp or melt. This pipe damage can lead to water leaks in your home. Professional
plumbers use drain snakes or augers that unclog drains mechanically to avoid
the pipe damage that caustic drain cleaners can cause.
Myth #3: Drop-in Toilet Cleaning Products Are Toilet-Safe
No one enjoys cleaning a dirty toilet, which is why there are
many toilet cleaning products on the market that claim to clean the toilet with
every flush after you place them in a toilet tank. While you may suspect that
these products are toilet-safe, they can actually damage many of your toilet's
components.
Many of these products contain highly alkaline toilet
cleaning agents that can damage a toilet's flush valve, flapper, gaskets,
washers, and other rubber and plastic parts in your toilet tank. Damage to
these components can lead to trouble flushing your toilet or a toilet that runs
continuously and wastes water.
To avoid this toilet damage, clean your toilet bowl manually
on a regular basis and never place these cleaning products in your toilet
tank.
Myth #4: Hot Cooking Grease Can Be Safely Flushed Down the
Toilet
You may know that you should not pour hot kitchen grease
down your kitchen sink; it can solidify in the sink pipes and then cause a
kitchen sink drain clog. To avoid this problem, you may instead flush this
grease down the toilet.
However, you should never pour hot cooking grease down your
toilet. While you may be able to flush it without creating an immediate toilet
clog, this grease will solidify somewhere in your home's plumbing pipe network.
As you flush more hot grease or other items down the toilet, they can all
accumulate at the site of the solidified grease and clog your home's main sewer
line, leading to a sewer-line back-up.
Instead of flushing this hot grease down the toilet or
pouring it down the drain, instead pour it into a heat-proof container, such as
a tin can, and then dispose of it in the garbage.
Now that you know the truth behind these five
plumbing myths, you can take additional steps to prevent damage to your home
plumbing system and fixtures. Contact the plumbing experts at AERO Plumbing to
schedule any necessary
plumbing
repairs
you need today.
