The holiday season is a time for family, friends, and fun. However, all of these extra guests can place stress on your home’s plumbing system. Big meals and grease can damage your drain or garbage disposal, extra guests can punish your toilets with extra “flushes” and hot water heater with extra showers. Whether in the kitchen, bathroom, or throughout your home, Hutchinson Plumbing Heating Cooling is here to help with a few helpful tips to get your home’s plumbing through this holiday season.
Help in the Kitchen
-Do NOT pour grease, cooking oil, or fat down the drain. These “fatty” by-products can clog drains and traps creating back-ups and leaks.
-Just as bad are “instant” food or foods where you “just add water.” Once you “add water,” these products tend to rapidly expand causing clogs in drains.
-Protect your garbage disposal by NOT placing turkey bones, pumpkin pulp, or seafood shells into it. Many garbage disposals will fail to properly grind these products down, causing damage and clogs.
-Keep the garbage disposal “clean,” by turning on the disposal and the water before adding any food products
Help in the Bathroom
-If you have a hot water tank (not a tankless, or instant, hot water heater), those extra guests taking showers can quickly drain your house of hot water. Plan ahead and spread showers out as much as possible so your water heater has the opportunity to recover and provide enough hot water to everyone.
-Adjust your water heater’s temperature and mix of hot/cold water during your shower. By turning up your water heater’s temperature (ie. from 120 degrees to 130 degrees) and mixing with cool water, you can increase the amount of “shower ready hot water” available for you and your guests. Though this will rob your home of some energy efficiency, this is “paid for” with happy guests.
Rest of Your Home
-If you have pipes in your garage, attic, or crawlspaces, make sure to insulate the pipes. Most big box stores sell pre-fabricated pipe insulation which is easily installed, and all you need to know is the size of the water pipe to be insulated.
-In extreme cold, and especially if you have any pipes at risk of freezing, then allow the attached faucet to drip to prevent the pipe from bursting.
If you do notice that one of your plumbing pipes has developed a leak, you need to call a professional plumber as quickly as possible. Especially in the wintertime, little leaks can quickly turn into massive issues as the leaking water turns to ice. Hutchinson has been providing expert plumbing service and consulting to the Sicklerville, Pitman, and the rest of the Gloucester County, NJ area since 1948. You can Trust Hutch to be on time, be professional, and to treat your family like part of ours. Call Hutchinson today at 866-953-8728 for help with all of your plumbing needs.