For the most part, the plumbing system in your home is based around the same designs that have been in place for over a century. Water pressure is what allows water to get up to the faucets in your home, so a pressurized water system guides the indoor plumbing supply. Gravity is what helps move wastewater along, so the sewer pipes in your home are quite simple indeed.
However, beyond the basic concept of sewer lines and water supply pipes, plumbing has advanced a great deal over just the last couple of decades. There are new technologies in plumbing we think any homeowner should know about. That way, when the time does come to call in a plumber, you’ll know that you have someone on the job with the right tools and equipment to make your home run smoothly.
Video Pipe Inspection Equipment
When your pipes clog up, there could be one of several possible causes at fault. That means there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Unclogging a pipe that’s filled with grease and debris involves a different process than getting rid of tree roots in the pipes, and it’s not a good idea to go in blind with a drain auger and hope for the best.
Video pipe inspection equipment ensures that a technician gets a full scope of the problem before attempting to clean or repair your sewer line. They can view leaks, clogs, tree roots, and even check for an excess of buildup on the pipe lining.
Hydro Jetters
A hydro jetter is essentially a long hose, but with a 360° nozzle that can spray out water in all directions. Water comes out at an extremely high pressure to blast clogs away from the pipe lining and into the sewer system. Technicians may use a cleanout to access the sewer main, but this type of drain cleaning can also be used on a smaller set of pipes, such as in your kitchen plumbing.
PEX Piping
PEX piping is now one of the preferred pipe materials in new installation and pipe replacement alike. Polyethylene piping is versatile and tough, more so than many of the metal piping materials many people would assume to hold up better. Copper piping can fall victim to corrosion due to the way the metal reacts to water and the soil around the pipe, but PEX piping won’t have this problem.
Tankless and Heat Pump Water Heaters
Tankless water heaters are well known for being an efficient substitute for conventional tank water heaters. They take up less space in the home, but more importantly, they do not use up energy throughout the day like conventional water heaters do—only when you really need hot water.
Heat pump water heaters are another alternative you may not know so much about. This system uses refrigerant to absorb heat from the air around it and move this heat into the tank, like a refrigerator in reverse! It’s a more efficient electric water heater than the standard method of heat generation, which means it, too, can save you money in the long run.
Evans Plumbing Inc installs and services plumbing systems and water heaters in Ketchum, ID. Contact us today!
