Q & A

1. Maintenance, have your water heater flushed at least once a year. This removes the grunge and grime and buildup on the inside of your hot water heater.

2. Change your water filters under your house. If you have noticed that your water pressure has dropped, this is a good indication that your filter needs to be changed. Many houses on city water have filters, but they were installed by the prior owner, and you have no idea.) Have your filters checked at least 2 or 3 times a year.

3. Have your aerator caps on your faucets cleaned. They may need to be replaced if they are too bad.

4. Have your pipes checked under your house in the crawl space. It is important that you make sure they are insulated, and not exposed to the cold. If they freeze, they can burst, and that is a nasty problem.

5. Do not leave your crawl space open. It is important to keep cold airflow away from your crawl space.

6. If you suspect that your pipes may freeze, crack a faucet to keep the water running, as running water does not freeze as easily. Won’t do much at negative 40, but in the 15-30f (-1 to -10c) range, it will help a lot.

7. DO NOT put the following items in your garbage disposal:  Fish tank gravel. Seriously. Its rocks. Your disposal will not turn the rocks into powder. Coffee grounds. I know that sounds counter intuitive, but its too fine, and won’t get ground up. Besides, they belong in your garden. Pasta. What? Its edible, right? But it expands, and absorbs water, and get stuck. Ever try to remove dried on pasta from a plate? Yeah.. Bones. Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, etc. Your grinder is not powerful enough to crush their bones and drive them from their lands and hear the lamentations of . .. oh wait.. wrong movie. Oatmeal. Same as pasta, only stickier. Nuts. How is peanut butter made.. How does a disposal work. See how that’s similar? Maybe putting peanut butter down your drain is not such a good idea. Onion skins. The rest (chunks, etc) goes down, but the skins act like a cargo net in a pickup, and catch everything going down. Either trash them or cut them into smaller pieces. Egg shells. Surprising, right? They do nothing for the blades, and they get caught just like onion skins. And they are really good for your garden. Crush them up and put them in the compost pile or garden. Trash. Yeah, all the paper towels and bags, and candy wrappers belong in the trash. Banana peels belong in the compost or garden. Don’t be an idiot. Fibrous vegetables, like pumpkin, celery and rhubarb. Fibers, in a whirly thingy. So they can get tangled up. Yeah, great idea…. Potato peels. First, this (again) belongs in the compost or garden. Second, this is bad because of the strainer effect, again. Its not a problem if a bit gets in there, but not too much. Pits (peach, plum, etc). Its called a stone fruit for reason. Your disposal will not grind that up. Some cleaning chemicals, like draino. Its actually bad for your drain lines, and can cause corrosion. Bleach will not (that’s a rumor I have heard, and according to the professional plumber, if you are using enough bleach to harm your copper, cast iron or PVC pipes, then then we need to buy stock in Clorox. A cup in your dishwasher will take so long to corrode your pipes that your grandchildren will still not have to worry about it.) You can put a little ice down the disposal to clean off the blades, and hot water with dish soap to clean the grease build-up. Paint. What? Really? People put paint down the drain? I mean, if you are cleaning out a paint brush, that’s one thing, but you KNOW its going to create a buildup on the inside of your disposal and pipes. Corn husks. Same as fibrous vegetables, it belongs in the compost or garden. Its really good for your garden. Seafood shells (oysters, clams, crabs, etc) . Because again, hard stuff going down the drain.. Its just not good for it. Try the trash can. Grease. Grease is a liquid when warm or hot, but once it goes down the drain, it hits a cold pipe, and solidifies.. on the inside of the pipe. And creates a blockage. Some restaurants will take your leftover grease. Alternatively, let it cool, put it in a leak proof container and put it in the garbage. Hmm. Disposal of grease may be a whole separate entry on the blog.

Comical commentary written by Jason Krumbein.