If you’re like most people, then you probably rely on your household water supply for many of your daily needs including cooking, cleaning, and most importantly, drinking. Therefore, if something were to go wrong with your water, then not only would you be potentially out of luck, but you could actually find yourself in serious danger. Contaminated water can cause some extremely grave health issues (including death – the most serious one of all), and while you might think that water problems are limited to underdeveloped areas and countries, the fact of the matter is that tainted water has been known to cause severe medical problems right here in the United States.
If having clean water is important to you – which clearly, it should be – then you might want to consider hiring a plumbing company that specializes in backflow prevention to inspect your plumbing system. Blair Harris is the director of Sales and Marketing at A&R Mechanical Services, a locally owned, full service Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning business that has been serving the Amarillo, Texas area since 1992, and according to her, backflow prevention is an extremely important facet of plumbing installation and maintenance. In fact, by law, a house’s plumbing must be set up to prevent water contamination to the greatest extent possible.
So what exactly does “backflow” mean? Residential water supplies are designed in a manner that, ideally, causes water to flow in one direction, thereby keeping it clean by the time it reaches the affected households. However, on occasion, certain atypical circumstances (such as a sudden loss of pressure in a water main) can cause water to flow in the opposite direction, thereby resulting in potential contamination. This destructive phenomenon is known as backflow, and the only way to keep a house’s water supply free of toxins is to implement methods of backflow prevention.
Perhaps the simplest and least expensive method of backflow prevention comes in the form of the air gap. An air gap is an open area of space between any fixture attached to a plumbing system and any place that can collect water (such as the space between a faucet and a sink rim). The purpose of this setup is to prevent sink water from somehow backflowing into the public system and introducing contaminants into the mix.
These days, modern plumbing codes are designed to take backflow prevention into account. However, if a home is older, then it might not necessarily be as up to code as it should be. Additionally, like all household plumbing fixtures, backflow prevention devices do have the ability to wear down over time. For this reason, it’s a good idea to bring in a plumbing company to inspect your plumbing setup, and, if necessary, implement additional methods of backflow prevention.
As a homeowner, it can be easy to take clean water for granted. If you’re serious about protecting yourself and your family from the dangers of impure water, then you’ll want to do everything in your power to ensure that your backflow prevention setup is intact. By bringing in a company that specializes in backflow prevention, you’ll be doing your part to make your home safer.
