Honey, where’s the plunger?

What are the Top 3 plumbing surprises that happen during the holidays?

Third Place – Hot Water Heater Fails.
Flush your hot water heater once or twice a year depending on how much you use it / how many people are in your household. This may help keep your water heater from failing on you unexpectedly. If you are hosting company, do your best to space out when people are showering. You may want to get up earlier than your guests to shower.
Your pilot light going out on your hot water heater is another common problem. The hustle and bustle and colder temps can contribute to pilot lights getting blown out unexpectedly. If you don’t know how to light your pilot, have us show you the next time we are out. Without the pilot lit, a gas heater can’t fire up.

Second Place – Toilet stopped up.
If you are having company and you have a problem toilet, you should have us look at it in advance. Best practices include, keeping a waste basket next to the toilet and dispose of facial tissues and feminine napkins in the trash not the toilet. Over eating can add to toilet time, so try to get guests to use multiple bathrooms if possible and know where your plunger is.

FIRST PLACE – Garbage Disposal Clogged or Jammed.
There are a couple of reasons disposals get jammed, clogged, or backed up. Other than our standard harp of keeping fats like bacon grease out of your pipes (that goes for fatty turkey drippings too), keep peels like potato, carrot, beet out of the disposal. And never put egg shells or lemon/lime peels down either. Fibrous vegetables jam the levers and can clog/stop a disposal. Just remember to take it easy on your disposal, It probably can’t handle being stuffed full and then turned on suddenly. And always run warm water first before using the disposal and always run water while operating your disposal.