Flushable wipes seem like one of the best inventions humans have ever made. No more having to find a bin to throw the wipe in, just use it, flush it and forget about it. Could things be any more convenient? Well, one thing we all tend to forget is that a lot of the times when things are convenient, someone or something ends up paying a cost for it. In the case of flushable wipes, it could be your plumbing!
Even though wipes might be labeled flushable, the plumbing system of homes aren’t really designed to handle them. Other than human waste, the only thing that’s acceptable to be flushed is toilet paper. Flushable wipes can end up getting stuck in your plumping and causing damage in the long run!
The Danger of Flushable Wipes
Toilet paper is usually considered flush safe because it only takes about a day or two for it to completely break down and make it out of the pipes. Flushable wipes will easily make it past the first couple of inches, but after that they will stay there for a long, long time. While these wipes might eventually break down and make it out of the pipes, chances are the entire process will take several weeks or even months!
That means if enough flushable wipes are flushed, they will all end up accumulating in the pipes and eventually clog them up.
When pipes become clogged and stay clogged for a while they end up damaging them from the inside out, and reduce their lifetime. This is something that no one should ignore.
If you’ve been flushing wipes down the toilet, first of all, stop. Secondly, watch out for the drainage becoming slower. If it is, you should call Sewer Cleaning Brooklyn, or a recommended sewer cleaning service in your general area to come and help you clean out all of your plumbing that may be affected.
Once the plumbing has been cleared out and is given the OK by the pros, you can start using it without worrying. Although, this doesn’t mean that you can just go back to flushing wipes down the toilet. They’re going to have to stay out!
Even worse for old homes
When you’re trying to figure out how okay your home would be if you flushed a bunch of flushable wipes down the toilet, just ask yourself one question. Was your home’s plumbing laid down before or after flushable wipes became a thing? This is one of the easiest ways to narrow down how okay your home would be if a bunch of these would make it into your pipes.
If your home’s plumbing was set in before the wipes were a thing, there’s no way the pipes can be designed to handle the wipes. However, if they’re a recent plumbing system, there is a chance that it would be somewhat okay if a few of them have been flushed.
The older the home, the more dangerous this can be. Mainly because older plumbing has already gone through intense wear and tear from the time they were laid down, to right now! That’s why with older homes, flushing the flushable wipes is a risk that one could take. However, once they accumulate enough to get clogged and cause a major problem, there would be a pretty massive plumbing renewal you’d be looking at!
A hefty fix, that’s usually going to come at a hefty price!
Lie in the name
Flushable wipes are one of those things that are marketed as being totally okay to be flushed. Even though they say “flushed” they don’t mean that the wipe would be plumbing safe. Not by any means! That’s why it’s important to always make sure you know exactly which items are safe to flush, and which ones just aren’t it!
