How toilet maintenance can help you save money

Regular plumbing maintenance can be a great way to save money over time. By conducting simple checks and maintenance tasks, homeowners can prevent costly repairs that arise from neglected plumbing systems. For instance, regularly inspecting for leaks can help detect small issues before they escalate into major problems requiring extensive repairs. Additionally, cleaning out drains and ensuring that garbage disposals are in good working order can prevent clogs that often lead to emergency plumbing services. Flushing the water heater annually keeps it functioning efficiently, which can lower energy bills. Moreover, insulating pipes can prevent freezing during winter, averting the need for costly replacements. By prioritizing these routine maintenance tasks, individuals not only enhance the longevity of their plumbing systems but also significantly reduce overall expenses associated with plumbing emergencies. With a proactive approach, saving money on plumbing maintenance is entirely achievable.

Your own inspection of your home can help as well. Things to look out for is plumbing fixtures that never stop dripping. or areas in your front yard that constantly stay wet and never dry up. Another plumbing leak that people are not aware of that could be costing them a lot is water leaking from your toilets tank into the bowl. This issue can cause people an extra $100 per month or more on their water bill if not spotted and taken care of, especially if it's multiple toilets at once! I'v seen this many times and when it happens to renters they always ask me if they'll have to pay for the extra water use since it's a plumbing issue and land lords are responsible for those repairs. Unfortunately I'm never able to give them an answer since that is between them and their landlord and I'm just a plumber sent out to repair the leak. All I know is the extra water use on their bills could have been avoided if they knew the signs that water was leaking out of the tank and into the bowl. If you don't know either I'll explain right now.

Whenever water is leaking from the tank into the bowl the water level in the tank drops low enough to the point that the float in the tank, which lets the toilet tank know if it has water or not, activates and starts filling the tank to the proper water level. Now if water levels constantly drop throughout the day you can see how this is a problem, since your tank will keep using water to replenish the tank with more water. Now you may be thinking the obvious sign would be that your toilet bowl would be filled with a ridiculous amount of water, but that's not how it works. When the water from the tank goes into the bowl the excess water in the bowl just seeps down into the drain allowing the toilet bowl to stay at its normal water level. So to actually spot this issue you need to catch the toilet leak while the tank is being filled. You'll know when you hear a kind of hissing noise or water noise coming from your toilet randomly throughout the day. Toilets actually don't make noises at all when not in use, so if you hear any noise coming from your toilet lasting for longer than a second just lift up the lid and see if you notice it being filled up. If it is this doesn't mean you have to replace the toilet, you might just need to change a flapper, fill valve, or a flush valve. Either way it's going to be a lot cheaper than replacing the whole toilet and now you don't have to pay for extra water use.

You may also be wondering if you can be proactive and just stop this whole mess before it even starts. The answer is yes you can. You can stop reading right now and lift up the lid on your toilets tank to get some good information about your toilets state. When you open the lid you might see on the lid itself a print or stamp of the what year it was made, if not it might be located on the inside of the tank itself. So if you do find the date and the toilet is 10 to 20 years old you may want to replace the parts because that's that they start to break down either from the material getting weaker or just too much wear on moving parts and mechanisms.

DIY or get help? This is up to you I'm sure you can YouTube things and find a lot of help. But nothing beats an experienced guy who works on these issues on a weekly basis and can catch other issues while he's there. Those Youtube videos are great and definitely help but sometimes it's just DIYers also who did research and learned it then and there and may not know about other warning signs or other steps you can do while doing maintenance. Not only that a qualified plumber is ready if an emergency happens such as the on/off valve popping off on you, which has happened to me and it sucks. Not only that it can save you time since toilet tank repairs take maybe 2 hours top to repair for someone with experience, and for people just starting to do it could take twice as long or more.

So with all that said I wish you all good luck with your issues and pray you never have to deal with them in the first place. I also hope you've found this article enjoyable and informative and hope you have a great day.

Another sign that your parts are close to breaking down is just looking at the condition they're in. Phoenix, AZ and the surrounding cities have some of the worst water in the country due to all the minerals inside. So when you lift that lid look out for a lot of debris on the bottom, rust on the metal chain connected to the toilet lever, discolored flappers, and the worst of them all is the rubber seals curving and starting to look like some sort of barnacle. All these are very good signs that parts are about to fail and you may want to start replacing them. Because they will break soon and you can either pay for just the replacement or you can pay for the replacement and the high water bill they cause you once the water seals are broken and start costing you possibly a couple hundred on your water bill.