Here on our plumbing blog, you’ll notice the content can jump around from time-to-time. One week, we may be breaking down our favorite faucet brands, while the week after is all about tips for getting the most years out of your water heater. The common theme is that it’s designed to provide plumbing knowledge to the end user. In today’s blog post, we’re going to take a look at a topic that might not only save you a few bucks on your monthly utility bill, but also one good for the long-term outlook of the environment and that happens to be water conservation. As you can likely guess, we’re all guilty of probably wasting water at one point or another. We often do it without even thinking about it and sometimes it may even be the result of a faulty component in your plumbing system. Today, we’ll examine a few of these different areas where you may be wasting water.
Before we dive deeper into that topic though, we would also like to welcome any first-time visitors to our plumbing blog. Stine-Nichols Plumbing is located in North Kansas City, MO, and offers residential, commercial and new construction plumbing services. If you live in or near the Kansas City area, we would be happy to have the opportunity to earn your business. To request a free estimate and speak with a member of our team, click the link HERE. With that introduction in-place, let’s now talk about ways in which you can save a little water. After all, there’s not unlimited water and many have estimated a potential water shortage could actually occur in the future.
Low-Flow Fixtures
Whether it be in the bathroom or kitchen, fixtures are an important element of your plumbing system. After all, they are one of the few pieces that are readily visible and as such, you may be particularly interested in the overall appearance of them. With that being said, for the majority of homeowners, the most important attributes behind a quality fixture are the aesthetics, durability and efficiency. In this section, we’ll be discussing the last of these traits: efficiency.
Unsurprisingly, over the years, fixture brands have gotten better and better at creating their products. Not only does this include modern designs, but also ones that operate at higher efficiency levels. One prime example of this is “low-flow” fixtures. To sum it up, low-flow fixtures use less water. Trust us, it really is amazing how much water can be saved by low-flow fixtures (especially when compared to older models). For instance, take the United States’ Energy Policy Act of 1992. This piece of legislation set a maximum of 1.6 gallons of water to be used per toilet flush. Compare that to toilets using nearly double the amount of water prior to that act and it’s not hard to see how much water can be saved.
Another way to track whether or not a fixture is efficient is by checking if it has a “WaterSense” label. These products meet the EPA’s guidelines for efficiency and essentially give the homeowner peace of mind that they’re not wasting any water. Many of the larger retailers will have plenty of these WaterSense products available and you can even run a search on their website to filter out the products. HERE is a link for WaterSense products sold at The Home Depot. In addition, if you’re interested in learning more about the EPA’s WaterSense program, feel free to click HERE to view their website.
Running Toilet
Many of us have dealt with the running toilet at some point in our lives. While it probably wouldn’t be categorized as a plumbing emergency, it can be an annoyance for homeowners to deal with and if left untouched, can also waste money (and water). Luckily, most of the time, a running toilet can be fixed relatively easily and inexpensively. For example, a common culprit behind the running toilet is a faulty flapper. Even though it’s a pretty simple part, the flapper is responsible for allowing water to flow into the bowl after a flush occurs. Simple, yet very important! Well, given all of the wear and tear that it goes through, flappers will eventually need to be replaced due to the fact that the seal won’t be as tight. This, in turn, allows water to consistently enter the bowl. While a faulty flapper isn’t the only reason for a running toilet, it does tend to be one of the more common causes.
Does my toilet have a leak, thus leading to it running often? There are a number of signs that may mean a running toilet is present. Whether that be constantly having to jiggle the handle to get it to stop running or ghost flushing, you generally know when something isn’t normal. However, a quick and easy way to tell for sure is through the use of food coloring. All you have to do is this: put a little food coloring into the tank (just a few drops will work!). After that, let the toilet sit for at least 30 minutes without using it. Then, once the time has elapsed, look inside the bowl. Has some of the food coloring made its way down? If so, you have a leak somewhere and it’s now time to do some toilet troubleshooting!
Leaking Faucet
Keeping on with the theme of fixtures wasting water, we now have faucets! This is another example of a plumbing problem that’s easy to put on the backburner. After all, how serious can a faucet with a minor drip actually be? Well, it definitely will be wasting water and depending on the severity of the leak, can also be costing you money too! Fortunately, a leaky faucet can be fixed. Although, I will preface that by saying you’ll want to be careful if you’re planning on turning this repair into a DIY job. Particularly if you’ve never attempted a faucet repair before, you want to make sure you don’t lose any of the pieces or reinstall them incorrectly. Nonetheless, there are a few different reasons as to why your faucet may be leaking. It could be an issue with the cartridge, O-ring, amongst other things. Keep in mind that sometimes it may make more sense to simply replace the faucet altogether. If the existing faucet is fairly old to begin with and has significant wear and tear, you may consider that!
Prefer to Leave the Plumbing Repairs up to a Professional?
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, water conservation is certainly an important topic to discuss in today’s world. Aside from the obvious water-saving methods like avoiding long showers and even turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth, there are a number of connections between water conservation and your home’s plumbing system. If your home has dated plumbing fixtures, chances are they will be nowhere near as efficient as the modern day options and use up a lot more water. If you let a running toilet or dripping faucet continue to sit unfixed, it’s not going to magically get fixed on its own, even if it is something as minor as a faulty piece like a flapper. I hope you learned a thing or two from this blog and feel more comfortable in diagnosing the warning signs of different household plumbing issues.
If you feel something is wrong with your plumbing system, your friends at Stine-Nichols Plumbing are always here to help! Simply give us a call to 816-348-3481 and we would be happy to discuss your plumbing needs in more detail.