Think about how many times you turn on a faucet in a single day. What about the number of times you use your dishwasher or washing machine in a week? It doesn’t take much thought to recognize just how much we need our drains to function properly. All of that use comes with the hidden cost of general wear and tear. It’s important to set your drains up for success, so you can continue to rely on them for the long-term.
As plumbing pros, we want to help you in a plumbing emergency, but also help you prevent those emergencies in the first place. In this blog, we’ll focus on the later as we go over some of the ways you can keep your drains healthy and ready when you need them.
The Don’ts
General wear and tear is unavoidable. Water causes iron to rust and it’s really tough to avoid limescale deposits in your pipes. These problems are common and your local pros can present simple solutions to overcome them. However, there are other types of pipe damage that is completely unnecessary and can be avoided.
Toxic Drain Cleaners
When that clog eventually forms, you need to respond in the right way. Don’t fall for the commercials you see on TV or the extraordinary claims on the brightly-colored packaging, retail drain cleaners are dangerous and ineffective.
There are a lot of reasons plumbers don’t use chemical reactions to dissolve clogs. These reactions are caustic and are not precise. They try to burn away everything they touch in an attempt to clear a clog. Unfortunately, this can cause damage to your pipes and even warping of modern, PVC plastic pipes.
When you add the colorful packaging often associated with these products, there is a big risk of poisoning or injury, especially among children. It may not seem possible, but it’s a sad reality for thousands of families every year whose children are poisoned by cleaning products.
Along those lines, we know these products are dangerous, and yet there is no way for sewage treatment plants to render them completely inert. Instead, the solution is to dillute. We do not fully know how the extreme chemicals in drain cleaners could impact water supplies in the future. If there’s one takeaway you get from us, it’s to avoid these products at all costs.
The Do’s: Preventative Drain Care
So, after focusing on the negative impacts of drain cleaners, let’s think about what we can do positively to help our drains. The number one most effective thing you can do to prevent future drain issues is to get a proper cleaning from your local pros. Plumbers these days use modern technology to do so much more than a simple plunger or auger. Using powerful techniques like hydrojetting can make your drains essentially brand-new.
By “brand-new”, we mean that it clears clogs while also ridding your drains of limescale and other chalky buildup. These mineral deposits are a natural result of the prevalence of hard water in almost all areas of the United States. Other solutions like an auger or drain snake only clear the clog, essentially kicking the can down the road. We want to set you up for future success and that starts with cleaning the entire drain.
Ultimately, things break down and problems rise up. Your drains are no different. Still, your pipes can last for decades and decades if properly maintained. Use good habits to avoid clogs such as being aware of garbage disposal trigger foods, never using flushable wipes and of course avoiding toxic drain cleaners. When a clog inevitably forms, it’s time to get a full drain clearing to make those great habits even more effective.
Essig Plumbing & Heating is here as an essential business for the community during this time. Feel free to give us a call at (610) 557-3302 or fill out an online contact form to set up an appointment for any of your plumbing or HVAC needs.
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