Your pipes are always operating. Whether you are brushing your teeth, flushing the toilet, washing dishes, running the washing machine, etc. your pipes are working. That’s a lot of water that moves through your home pipes on a daily basis!
All that daily water that’s constantly running can wear out your pipes. Over a period of time, they can start to thin out. Of course this will lead to your pipes eventually leaking, and the worst thing, burst pipes! It is impossible to stop your pipes from wearing out completely, but you can slow the process down quite a bit. With some elbow grease and effort, you can make your pipes last a lot longer than they might otherwise. Here are some easy ways to do this:
Make sure your water pressure is set at the right level.
High water pressure tends to wear out pipes and their connections faster the harder it is coming out. Check that your homes PSI stays below 85 to ensure proper pipe safety.
If you’re concerned about water pressure problems, consider installing a water pressure gauge so you can clearly monitor all of your water activity.
Stop pouring chemical drain cleaners down your pipes.
These drain cleaners can’t tell the difference between the clogs they’re clearing and the pipes they’re in. Once they eat away a blockage, they’ll keep eating away at the actual pipes. Using chemical drain cleaners all the time can cause irreparable damage to your homes pipes.
Don’t ignore those leaks.
Small leaks may seem like no big deal, but unfortunately, they never are. The constant dripping of even the smallest leak wears away at the pipe connections over time. As these eat away at your pipe, they grow bigger. As leaks grow, they wear away at your pipe even more. This is the worst kind of cycle, a pricey one.
Schedule regular drain cleaning in your home.
The more junk that builds up on the inside of your pipes, the more work they have to do to carry the water. After time, all that work can wear out the insides of your pipes until they start leaking, or even worse….burst pipes! A burst pipe repair will then make you wish you had done more earlier to prevent this from ever happening.
Having your drains cleaned out on a yearly basis will help you avoid any gunk build-up. They’ll will work more effectively and you won’t have to worry about clogs or leaks.
Don’t flush items that aren’t supposed to be flushed.
A toilet is not a garbage can. Do not flush things that have no business being flushed down there. This includes wet wipes! No matter what the label says about being ok to flush. When you flush Q-tips, trash, wrappers, or similar items down the toilet, parts of these items break off into your pipes. Over time, these broken pieces of the things you previously shouldn’t have flushed start to form clogs.
Clogs create choke points in your pipes. These choke points create areas where too much pressure then builds up. When too much pressure builds up, it will cause leaks and bursts. Watch what you flush down your toilet to preserve the life expectancy of your pipes.
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