At Smith’s Plumbing Services, we provide honest facts to educate customers about their plumbing system. However, while we are strong believers in DIY plumbing, we also want to ensure homeowners are not making mistakes which can actually damage their equipment. While the Internet is an excellent tool for tips and tricks, there is still a lot of misinformation out there regarding how to treat your appliances. It’s also important to proceed with caution when attempting to fix problems without a licensed plumber. Keep reading to learn the 3 most common plumbing mistakes you always should, and hire our experienced Memphis plumbers when you need professional service you can trust.
The Top 3 Plumbing Mistakes You Should Avoid at All Costs:
- Putting the wrong things in the garbage disposal: Despite talking about foods you should never put down your garbage disposal multiple times on this blog, we still find this is one of the most common plumbing mistakes. Regardless of what myths you may have heard about how you should or should not treat your garbage disposal, people still put things like grease, bones, eggshells, coffee grounds, rinds, as well as fibrous and starchy food down their drains all the time. Remember despite being called a “garbage” disposal, THIS DEVICE IS NOT FOR GARBAGE. As a general rule of thumb, solid waste should always go in the trash can, while only the leftover food remnants and particles on your plate get left for the garbage disposal.
- Flushing too many products down the toilet: If there’s one appliance people put the wrong things in as much or more than their garbage disposals, it’s their toilets. Remember, toilets are for toilet paper, human waste, and that’s all. Cotton balls, facial scrubs, acne swabs, paper towels, and tampons are all flushed by homeowners way too often—and that’s just covering common sanitary and hygiene products! In fact, certain “flushable” wet wipes and brands of toilet paper have been found to be unsafe for your plumbing system, too. Again, your toilet is not a garbage, it is not built to withstand any random item you want to dispose of. From old soap to dead fish, please, think twice before you flush.
- Using chemical drain cleaners: As we mentioned above, Smith’s Plumbing Services is all for customers fixing simple problems on their own. However, no plumber worth their salt will tell you it’s a good idea to use chemical drain cleaners to get rid of a clog. We have discussed the corrosive harm liquid drain cleaners can cause for your pipes on several occasions. If you do want to get rid of a clog on your own, you can use a drain snake, or, in the case of unclogging a toilet, a plunger or auger. Bio drain cleaners are usually okay too, otherwise, your best choice is to put that chemical cleaner down and call our Memphis plumbing team for professional drain cleaning service.
Call (901) 290-1110 for more info on your plumbing system, or send us a question online.