Plumbing problems can be annoying to deal with at the moment, specifically when they randomly occur. Whether you have a leaking pipe, hard water or running toilet, your water and repair bills will not be as heavy by preventing these problems beforehand.
Limiting Frozen Pipes:
When winter rolls around, a considerable temperature drop is inevitable. With this temperature drop, comes potential freezing pipes. Your water lines should be insulated to limit freezing. To do this, use a pipe insulator, a foam-rubber tube that will lessen the effects that the weather changes will have on your pipes. Pipe insulation will allow for heat retention in your pipes so that hot water can be more conveniently activated when needed. This will also protect your pipes from freezing due to temperature drops.
Preventing Running Toilet Water:
When the weather gets hot or after a hot shower, the toilet is susceptible to sweating. This may sound bizarre, but your toilet can indeed sweat. So what causes a toilet to sweat? When condensation occurs between cool water from the toilet tank and warm air that emerges around it. Condensation can cause a toilet to produce water drops from the tank and create puddles on the floor in serious cases. However, there is a counter to stop your toilet from sweating. That is to install an anti-sweat valve where hot and cold lines meet together. An anti-sweat valve will mix cold and hot water into deposit it into the tank. The valve will limit condensation even it is a small amount of hot water in the water tank.
Limiting a Leak Beforehand:
Leaks are bound to happen in any household over time, no matter how hard you try to stop them. However, if you can identify a leak in its early stages, you can limit pipe and structural damage. To do this, you can purchase and install a leak detector. With leak detectors today, you can receive notifications through an app that links to your leak detector. This app will be able to send notifications directing to your phone so that you are aware of any unwanted water leakages before they get more severe.
Limiting pipe noises:
Sometimes you may hear loud pipe noises after using a faucet or after flushing a toilet. The water hammer is the culprit of these noises. A water hammer can be noisy and disruptive; it sounds as if your pipes are getting hammered. When shutting off your water, all of its momenta stops onto the closed valve. As a result, this will cause damage to your pipes if it continues to occur. To limit it, you can install a water hammer arrestor. A water hammer arrestor can absorb the impact of the water and valve momentum and protect your pipes by doing so.
Do you have hard water?
Hard water can damage a plumbing system on its own, due to its high concentration of minerals. Minerals such as calcium and lime can limit water flow and can even cause pipe damage. The lifespan of your household appliances can also be cut short due to hard water. Your dishwasher and your washing machine are two of the main appliances that will be affected. However, by installing a water softener, you can prevent this. A water softener will filter out hard water ions and replace them with sodium ions. Your water will become soft, limiting the damage due to hard water.
Purifying your drinking water:
Purifying your drinking water from bacteria, toxins and viruses can protect your health. Keep in mind that standard water filtration systems cannot filter out all of the contaminants, but a reverse osmosis system can. By installing a reverse osmosis system, your water will be free of bacteria, toxins and other chemicals.
What are you waiting for?
Remember, you should address plumbing problems before they worsen. By learning and countering each of these potential problems beforehand, you will be able to be free of the worry of more severe plumbing problems.