Answering Two Questions Regarding Your Home’s Plumbing

Plumbing systems are highly complicated and vital to the modern home, but these systems are very often poorly understood by homeowners. As a result, they may be unaware of how to help their plumbing systems avoid problems. Without this knowledge, it is easy to neglect an important maintenance task or be unable to correct some routine problems. In particular, there are a couple of basic plumbing questions that new homeowners will often benefit from having answered. 

Why Should You Clean Your Faucets?

Some new homeowners fail to appreciate the importance of cleaning their faucets on a regular basis. This type of cleaning may seem unimportant, but failure to maintain your faucets can lead to low water pressure and even leaks. Most modern faucets have an aerator that help reduce water usage by adding air to the water coming out of the faucet. Unfortunately, this can start to develop mineral deposits as time progresses, and these deposits will prevent water from flowing through the aerator as it was designed, leading to lower water pressure and leaks. 

Luckily, cleaning these mineral deposits from the faucet is relatively simple. You will simply need to remove the aerator from it and submerge it in vinegar. Vinegar is acidic enough to dissolve these deposits, and after rinsing the aerator, you should notice a sizable improvement in performance if it has been a year or long since you did this task. 

Why Does Your Home's Hot Water Smell Bad?

Another problem that homeowners will often have to address is foul smelling hot water. When this problem arises, the hot water coming from your faucets will have a strong sulfur smell to it. Unfortunately, this problem is often caused by a buildup of bacteria in the water heater, and if this problem arises, you will have to thoroughly clean and sanitize the water heater to eliminate this issue. 

In order to do this, you will need to turn off the breaker controlling your water heater and drain all of the water from it. Once this is complete, you can use diluted bleach to thoroughly scrub the interior of the tank. When you are finished, make it a point to run the hot water for several minutes to flush any bleach that might still be in the tank. 

There are an almost countless number of issues that your home's plumbing can encounter. By understanding the importance of cleaning your faucets' aerators and how to correct bad smelling hot water, you will be better able to ensure these issues do not cause major problems for your home.

If you do run into major problems or feel uncomfortable completing any of the steps above, it is best to call in a professional plumber, such as Aaron & Son Plumbing.


Share