5 Plumbing Myths That Could Be Costing You Money
Plumbing advice travels fast, especially the kind that sounds like a clever life hack. The trouble is that some of the most widely repeated tips do very little, and a few can actually cause damage that costs more than the problem they were supposed to solve. Here are five worth retiring for good.
Myth 1: Lemon peels clean and sharpen your garbage disposal
This one sounds appealing because it's cheap and makes your kitchen smell nice, but disposals don't actually have blades to sharpen. They use blunt impellers that grind food against a stationary plate, and grinding citrus peels does nothing for that mechanism beyond leaving a fresh scent behind. Worse, the fibrous strands in citrus peels can actually wrap around the impeller and contribute to jams, the opposite of the intended effect. If odor is the real issue, running ice cubes through the disposal helps knock loose debris, and a little dish soap with cold water handles the smell without any risk of jamming.
Myth 2: Putting a brick in your toilet tank saves water
This tip has been circulating for decades, and it made a certain amount of sense before low-flow toilets became standard. The problem is that bricks break down over time in water, and the crumbling fragments can travel into the tank's mechanisms, damaging the fill valve or flapper seal, or getting lodged somewhere that causes a leak. A toilet with a compromised flapper seal wastes far more water running constantly than the brick was ever meant to save. If you want to reduce water use, a tank displacement bag designed for the purpose, or simply upgrading to a modern low-flow toilet, does the job without the risk.
Myth 3: "Flushable" wipes are fine to flush
The label says flushable, so it must be true, right? Not really. Unlike toilet paper, most wipes marketed this way don't break down quickly in water, even after they clear your toilet bowl. They travel through your home's plumbing largely intact and are one of the leading causes of clogs in both home sewer lines and municipal sewer systems, where they contribute to massive blockages utilities call "fatbergs." The safest move is treating all wipes, flushable or not, as trash rather than toilet paper.
Myth 4: A slow drip isn't a big deal
A dripping faucet seems too minor to worry about, especially when it's easy to tune out after a while. In reality, a faucet dripping once every few seconds can waste thousands of gallons of water over a year, and that's before considering what a slow drip under a sink or behind an appliance can do to cabinetry, flooring, and subfloor material if it goes unnoticed for months. Small leaks rarely stay small in terms of their cumulative cost, they just stay small in terms of how dramatic they look.
Myth 5: All plumbers charge about the same, so it doesn't matter who you call
Pricing, experience, and the quality of work can vary quite a bit between plumbing companies, and going with whoever answers the phone first isn't always the best strategy, especially for anything beyond a very simple job. Licensing, insurance, warranty on the work, and straightforward communication about pricing before work begins all matter more than people expect until they've had a bad experience with one of them missing.
The bigger pattern here
Most plumbing myths share something in common: they promise a shortcut that sounds too easy for the problem it claims to solve. Real plumbing issues, whether it's a clog, a leak, or a running toilet, usually have straightforward causes and straightforward fixes, they just aren't always the ones that make for a catchy tip.
When you're not sure whether a piece of plumbing advice is worth trying or worth skipping, it costs nothing to ask. ProFlow Plumbing is happy to tell you honestly whether something is a reasonable DIY move or a myth that's more likely to cost you than save you, and give you straightforward pricing on anything that does need a professional.