Posts tagged ‘shower’
U-Shaped Plumbing Stops Sewer Gases
Look under any sink, shower or bathtub in your home and you’ll find a U shaped plumbing arrangement. This plumbing configuration may go by the following names: p-trap, j-trap, u-trap or s-trap. Depending on how you look at it, it can look like any of these letters.
Technically, the term “s-trap” describes a slightly older variation of this plumbing technique, but the term is often used to describe the one seen below. For short, we’ll just call it “the trap” because it traps water.
Trapping water serves two main purposes.
The first is prevent sewer gases from entering a building through the drain pipes. These gases smell bad and are bad for your health.
The second is to catch small items that are inadvertently dropped down the drain, such as jewelry. There is typically an access cap on the bottom of the trap that can be used to retreive valuables or clean out the trap — they tend to collect hair and other debris.
When water enters the trap, it pushes the same amount of water out the other side of the trap. This means the trap will always maintain the same amount of water in it. Traps may dry out due to evaporation if a particular drain is not frequently used. If you have a rarely used drain, it might be a good idea to run the water for a minute every 4-5 weeks.
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
Secrets on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle
Donate 15 minutes to help someone else
Sources: Wikipedia, Water Evaporation
How to Increase Shower Water Pressure
There is nothing worse than a low pressure shower. Actually, 1000AwesomeThings said it best, “Not much affects your day every day as much as a good shower.”
In a lot of cases, there is something you can do about it. For example, if a nearby faucet has good pressure then you can probably improve your shower pressure in about 5 minutes.
Modern shower heads contain a flow restriction plate to decrease the amount of water you consume, which saves you money and ensures the city can produce enough clean water for everyone. It’s basically a rubber or Teflon disc that has a small hole in it. The smaller the hole, the less water can travel through it and onto your head. If you want to know what that restrictor looks like, click here to see a 10 pack of them on amazon (great if you own a lot of showers and have a problem with too much pressure).
Sometimes, these flow restrictor get clogged with debris, which reduces the flow further. Other times, they’re too small for your home’s water pressure. In either case, you can remove the restrictor, clean it and put it back in. If it’s not dirty then it may be too restrictive for your water pressure. If that’s the case, you can leave it out entirely or drill the hole so it is slightly larger. (more…)
