Water that goes inside your house is designed in such a way that it flows in one direction only. However, your home’s fresh water supply can be tainted when the water pressure in the main system drops abruptly, making the water flow to reverse. Because of the reduced pressure, contaminated water from washing machines, dishwashers, toilet –tanks, the garden sprinkler system, gutters etc. May flow back to the freshwater system.

How to Prevent Backflow in Your Home

Although backflow can cause water contamination in your home which can pose serious health problems, preventing it is very easy. To help you understand how you can prevent backflow, outlined below are some of the effective measures that you can put in place.

• Check out all the cross-connections in your home

When your house’s water pipes are connected to different types of plumbing-fixtures or water equipment, cross-connection is usually established. However, if the different piping connections are not well protected, water contamination can occur in the event of backflow. Therefore it’s important to identify and also examine all the cross-connections in your home to ensure that all the water pipes are protected and to reduce chances of reverse- flow from happening.

• Install backflow – prevention devices

In case the water pressure of your home’s main supply significantly drops and becomes much lower than the pressure in the other water pipes, there are high chances that water can end up moving in the wrong direction. Also, most garden taps are usually used together with hosepipes and when the hosepipe is attached to the tap, there are high chances of backflow happening. In order to prevent this, it’s essential that you install backflow-prevention devices, for example, a non-return valve which restricts the flow of water in one direction. Other reverse flow prevention devices include pressure vacuum – breaker, atmospheric vacuum –breaker, air gap, hose bib among others. Note that the choice of prevention device depends on the size of the pipe, where it’s located as well as the need for inspection.

• Always place the shower head in the appropriate place

Placing the shower head at the bottom of the bathtub while there’s still water present in it can be disastrous because dirty water can easily flow back in the system leading to the contamination of the main supply system. In order to prevent this, always ensure that the shower head is correctly placed in the holder after you’ve finished using it.

 

For more information, contact Vinny’s Jersey Plumbing, located in Wayne, New Jersey.  We also service other cities in New Jersey, such as Millburn, Caldwell and Cedar Grove.