Plumbing Maintenance Tips From the Experts

If you’ve scoured endless YouTube videos trying to fix a leaking tap or have been left scratching your head over rising water bills, you’re in the right place. We rely on our plumbing for more things than we realise, but it's a fiddly system and when it goes wrong, it can leave us having a hard time trying to work out what the exact problem is. 

Staying on top of regular maintenance can help to prevent some common plumbing problems from arising and leaving you wondering what has gone wrong. Below, our experts have shared some of the best ways you can avoid plumbing disasters.

1. Be mindful of what you flush

It can be easy to start to take plumbing for granted and expect it to be able to cope with anything, but this isn’t the case. The second you start to use your toilet like a trash can, you’re setting yourself up for problems. 

Avoid flushing sanitary products, plastic, cotton swabs or cardboard down the toilet since all of these excess items can cause very problematic clogs which could have been easily avoided. The only things a toilet should be used to dispose of are waste and toilet paper.

Another issue with toilets is potential leaks. If you suspect that water is leaking from your toilet’s tank into the bowl, don’t worry, as it’s easy to check. Simply add some brightly coloured food dye to the tank and wait. It should become obvious fairly quickly if the coloured liquid is seeping into the bowl. Wait an hour to be sure, and if you find there is a problem, you can fix it by replacing the tank ball to save yourself some money on your next water bill. 

If you don’t effectively or regularly clean your shower heads, they can become clogged with mineral deposits. If this is left to build up over a long period of time, the problem can escalate and even lead to them being completely blocked. In order to avoid this, you need to clear the deposits regularly. It's easy enough to do - simply remove the showerhead and soak it in vinegar for 24 hours. If the build-up is too extreme and this doesn't work, you will have to replace the showerhead with a new one. 

If cleaning your showerhead sounds bad, having to clear out clogged drains is even worse! You can avoid this unpleasant job by installing mesh covers over your drains. This is an easy fix that will catch hair, chunks of soap and any other debris from reaching your drains and causing a much larger problem. 

There’s nothing worse than flushing the toilet and noticing the water level continuing to rise beyond its normal level. If this happens to you, open up the tank and push down the flush valve. Doing this should stop the water from rising, which will give you plenty of time to identify and fix the underlying issue, without having to panic about any unnecessary water damage. 

Neglecting your plumbing can lead to all sorts of problems later on. It’s easy to look back and see how much easier it would have been to prevent the issue than to try to fix it afterwards, so make sure you're following these tips from our experts. If you're worried about any aspect of your home's plumbing system, contact us at Absolute Plumbing Australia today.