• Check regularly for water around the heater and listen for unusual noises.
• Consider lowering the water heater thermostat to 120 degrees to save money on your energy costs.
• Always maintain two feet of clearance around the water heater unless the manufacturer specifies otherwise.
• If you have an older water heater, you may want to consider adding a layer of insulation around it to help it hold heat and use less energy.
• Don’t forget to adjust the water heater to the lowest setting if you plan to be out of town. Some heaters have a built in “vacation” settings that you can easily switch on and off.
• If you feel that you aren’t getting your full tank of hot water that could be because you tank is filled with sediment

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Toilet tank leaks waste water and cause higher water bills. If you suspect your toilet tank is leaking, a simple do-it-yourself home toilet leak test can detect if your toilet tank is leaking water into your toilet bowl.

Following these steps to test if your toilet tank has a leak:

Step 1. Remove the toilet tank lid and add a small amount of red food coloring to the tank’s water.

Step 2. Replace toilet tank lid and do not use toilet for at least an hour.

Step 3. After an hour, check to see if the water in your toilet bowl has any signs of the red dye. If it does, then the water in the tank is continuously leaking into the toilet bowl. Be sure to flush and clean your toilet immediately following the test to prevent dye stains.

Most toilet tank leaks can be easily fixed by replacing your tanks internal parts. Complete toilet tank part kits can be purchased at your local Home Depot, Lowes, or other home supply store.

Not up to fixing your toilet leak yourself? No worries, just give 1 Plumbing Company, Inc. a call and we will be more than happy to take care of it for you.

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Many homeowner’s use their sink and garbage disposal to frequently dispose of food waste. Even when using a garbage disposal, disposing of food down the drain often leads to debris build-up over time that requires professional drain clearing. Keep your drains clear year round by limiting what you put down the drain and spending a few minutes performing preventive maintenance, such as:

• Before and after running your garbage disposal, run cold water down the drain to flush debris down the main line.
• On occasion, run hot water down the drain at full pressure for up to 2 minutes.
• Keep your grinder sharp and eliminate orders by grinding ice and lemon peels through your garbage disposal weekly.

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Did you know?

• Indoor plumbing dates back to at least 2500 B.C.
• Sir John Harington is credited with inventing the flushable toilet in 1596, hence the American nickname for it, “the john.”
• Copper piping, which is the #1 material used for plumbing work in today’s world, is the same material that the Egyptians used to lay their own pipe – some 3000 years ago!
• Since 1963 (the year CDA [Copper Development Assoc] was established), more than 28 billion feet or about 5.3 million miles of copper plumbing tube has been installed in U.S. buildings. That’s equivalent to a coil wrapping around the Earth more than 200 The current installation rate now exceeds a billion feet per year.
• In a typical household, toilet flushing constitutes up to 38%of all water-use in the home.
• A low flush toilet can save you up to 18,000 gallons of water per year.
• An invisible leak in the toilet will waste up to 15 gallons of water a day or 5,475 gallons a year.
• In a typical home, more than 9,000 gallons of water is wasted while running the faucet waiting for hot water. As much as 15% of your annual water heating costs can be wasted heating this extra 9,000 gallons.
• At 140 degrees, it takes five seconds for the water to burn skin. At 160 degrees, it takes only half of a second. Your water heater should be set to no hotter than 120 degrees.
• Approximately 1 in every 318 homes or buildings have a leak.
• If a drip from your faucet fills an eight-ounce glass in 15 minutes, it will waste 180 gallons per month and 2,160 gallons per year.
• A slight trickling faucet or showerhead can waste up to 100 gallons of water or more in a week (depending on the size of the drip).
• A dripping faucet/hose bib can lose up to 180 gallons a month or 2,160 gallons per year.
• A 1/8 inch hole in a metal pipe, at 40 psi, leaks 2,500 gallons of water in 24 hours.
• A leak the size of a pinhead can waste 360,000 gallons per year, enough to fill 12,000 bathtubs to the overflow mark.
• Consider this, a failure at 70 pounds of pressure can expel up to 650 gallons of water per hour. That’s what you could be faced with if your washing machine hose fails. Washing machine hoses are usually made of reinforced rubber, which can lose resiliency and burst as it gets older.  It’s important to replace this hose every 3-5 years.

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