DON’T BE FOOLED

SAM PARAZZO
Dec 18, 2015
2 min read

The Top 5 Plumbing Myths

A dripping faucet is not a big deal. You don’t have to clean your toilet if you use toilet bowl tablets. You can save water by placing a brick in your toilet tank. These are just a few of the plumbing myths that seem to be trending across the country. This post will expose the truth behind the top five myths that you are probably familiar with.

Placing a brick in the toilet tank will reduce water usage. While there may be some logic to this myth, it comes with two very serious pitfalls. First, if you displace too much water in your tank, you will end up having to flush twice when you use the bathroom; causing you to use even more water than before. Second, the brick will deteriorate over time and will damage the internal components of your toilet.
It’s alright if your faucet drips a little. A dripping faucet not only cost you money and staining or pitting your sink, it is also not helping the environment. Leaking household faucets are wasting and estimated 1 trillion gallons of water every year in the U.S. Additionally, a leaking faucet will gradually get worse and you may not even realize it is happening.
If you use self-cleaning toilet tablets, you don’t have to clean your toilet. While they may help to keep your toilet clean, tablets that are designed to sit in your tank and also contain bleach, will actually destroy the internal components of your tank over time. If you want to use bleach to clean your toilet, your best bet is to pour it into the bowl itself, let set for approximately 10 minutes and then flush it so that it doesn’t damage components of the toilet or its finish.
Lemon peels in the disposal are a harmless way to make it smell better. Yes, lemon peels in the disposal will help with any bad odors. However, if your disposal is not strong enough to thoroughly chop up the peels, it will clog your drain. Using white vinegar is a safer way to help with disposal odors.
You can use ice cubes to sharpen the blades in your garbage disposal. Ice cubes will help to clean the blades of your disposal, but they will not sharpen them. You can also use egg shells to clean disposal blades.