Ken's Plumbing | Blog

Question: If water causes steel to rust, why doesn’t the inside of my water heater tank rust out?

Answer: It will eventually, unless you have a working anode rod installed.

What is a water heater anode rod?

It’s a fact of nature that water corrodes many kinds of metals—steel most noticeably. But here’s where a bit of cleverness comes in with the invention of the water heater. If you introduce a rod of more “tempting” (that is, more easily corroded) metal into the environment, the water will react with that and leave the steel unaffected.

Modern homes have many “invisible” systems—such as buried cables and underground plumbing—that keep things running smoothly without drawing attention to themselves. The flip side of this convenience, however, is that when something breaks down, the problem can go on for a while before becoming obvious.

This is especially true when it comes to your home’s sewer line, the pipe system that discreetly moves all wastewater from your toilets and drains into the main city sewer (unless, of course, you have a septic system). It’s great that we don’t have to think about where all that waste goes—until something goes wrong.

Let us guess: this spring, when you finally got those first few seedlings planted, you went to turn on your hose to give them their first drink... and suddenly water started spurting out of the top of your spigot’s handle, watering you instead of your petunias.

You try re-fastening your hose to the spigot and tightening the handle, but no luck. You still get wet.

It was working fine last summer! you think. What happened?

Was this you? If so, how did we know? Actually, chances are there are a lot of people having this issue right now.

Since the 1960s, copper has been the piping material of choice in the United States, for both homes and commercial businesses. There’s a good chance that your home’s plumbing is made of copper, which gives your home some distinct advantages.

However, copper piping does have its share of issues. In this post we’ll look at the good and the bad sides of copper, and a few warning signs to watch for.

Does your home have a septic tank? If so, you’re not alone—nearly one in five American households uses a septic system instead of connecting to a city sewer system, and it’s especially common in rural areas.

Relying on a septic tank means you’ll have to take a little more care of what you put down your drains, plus make time to do some regular maintenance to prevent problems down the road.

One in five American homes runs on a septic tank instead of a community sewer line.

Is your home one of them? If so, there are several things you need to know about how to keep your septic system running smoothly.

Today we’ll be looking at the simple step of using an enzyme formula to keep the good bacteria in your tank working well!

Why your septic system needs good bacteria

Your septic system relies on natural processes to break down organic solids until they are safe to release into the soil (and thus the groundwater). Naturally occurring bacteria in your tank are primarily responsible for doing the heavy lifting here. When the processed liquid (called effluent) is released into the drainfield, other natural and physical processes break down remaining organic matter from there.

Winter temperatures in Greenville don’t regularly get below freezing—but when they do, it can cause trouble for your plumbing. Unlike for homes in colder climates, Southern builders sometimes skimp on insulation around pipes, particularly for those connected to the outside of your house.

This means that when temperatures do drop, you’ve got the potential for freezing pipes. As you may remember from high school science class, when water freezes, it expands. If the water in your pipes freezes, it increases the pressure on the pipe itself—which could result in a nasty burst.

Occasionally you’ll discover a pipe that’s frozen but hasn’t yet burst. (One sign is that you turn on the faucet or flush the toilet but no water comes out.) You’ll want to help the pipe thaw ASAP, before worse trouble follows. Here’s how to do it:

Ah, evening on Thanksgiving Day.

Dinner’s over, the whole family is full and happy, and it’s time to load up that dishwasher and clean the kitchen before the big game (and serving up dessert, of course!).

You pack up the leftovers and now you’re ready to take care of that oily turkey roasting pan.

Here’s where things can go very, very wrong.

If you’re distracted by your nephews and nieces or in a hurry to get to the pumpkin pie, you might just put the pan in the sink and wash all those turkey drippings right down your kitchen drain—not even realizing the huge problem you’re about to create.

Did we ever mention that the day after Thanksgiving is one of the days we plumbers get the most home calls?

TV commercials make cleaning your home look so easy, don’t they? Just spritz on this magic formula, and in seconds your bathroom is sparkling clean! If only.

One of the hardest things to clean in a bathroom is tile—specifically, the grout in between tiles. Grout stains relatively easy and it’s porous, meaning it’s easy for dirt and other gunk to get trapped deep down inside.

In a warm, humid environment, grout can also become a harbor for mold and bacteria. Good thing our showers are warm and humid environments!

Cleaning your bathroom tiles, particularly those in your shower, is important so you can avoid the health issues associated with biofilm and mold growth.

Do you dream of a comfortable yard filled with mature shade trees in the summer and a show of foliage in the fall? Trees are a beautiful addition to your home’s landscape. But as with many things in life, keeping trees comes with a price—in this case, occasional maintenance costs.

You probably know the importance of keeping branches trimmed away from your roof. But did you also know that root growth can spell (expensive!) trouble for your home’s plumbing if left unchecked?