Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing Blog

Why You Need Backflow Testing

Backflow is a potentially hazardous problem that can affect your plumbing. It refers to when your home’s wastewater enters into your fresh water supply, a mixture that can lead to serious health problems. Your home’s plumbing is designed to avoid this backflow, but it can never be foolproof.

One way to help prevent this problem is with the installation of a component onto your plumbing called a backflow preventer. You should also consider having professional backflow testing to make sure that the preventer is working correctly and that your drinking water is not in danger of contamination from other sources.

Call Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing when you want to schedule backflow preventer installation or backflow testing for your plumbing in Rockville, MD. We are also available for free second opinions should you need them.

Backflow Testing

How important is it to keep your potable water and wastewater separate? The consequences of wastewater contamination can be severe, leading to numerous diseases and public health hazards. It’s important for the health of your family that you keep your plumbing in good condition and safe from the dangers of backflow.

The drinking water in your plumbing is pressurized, but the wastewater is not; it instead moves through gravity and ventilation. The design of plumbing, with different pressure areas, is what prevents cross-contamination between wastewater and potable water. A drop in water pressure can cause wastewater to flow into the potable water pipes through back-pressure. A plumber can install a backflow preventer at a strategic point to prevent this from occurring. There are other sources for backflow trouble: any faulty cross-connections—such as bypasses, jumper connections, or change-over devices—can lead to backflow.

Backflow testing is an important procedure to discover out how best to prevent contamination in your water supply. A proper test can identify the type and location of backflow preventer to help keep your fresh water clean. After a backflow preventer is installed, you should still schedule yearly testing to see that the device is working correctly.

Testing is a basic procedure for professionals: they connect a testing kit to the backflow preventer, shut off the water downstream from the device, and check that the preventer is working correctly. Because the backflow preventer is installed outside your house, you do not need to be home for the test.

Contact Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing to start with backflow prevention: we can perform the testing to see where your plumbing can use help to keep your fresh water safe, and we’ll install backflow preventers to help. For safe and healthy plumbing in Rockville, MD, trust to us!