re: OT Plumbers, why are businesses having to put backflow preventers in now?

Posted on 9/26/14 at 12:49 pm to CootKilla

Posted by Meauxjeaux

98836 posts including my alters

Member since Jun 2005

43480 posts

Posted on 9/26/14 at 12:49 pm to CootKilla

quote:
How would water get into a gas line?

FWIW backflow prevention really is a big deal.

Any water main break ever and suddenly you have a loss of positive pressure throughout a lot of the system.

Any garden hose laying around in a puddle sewage or muck then becomes a suction of that crap right back into the potable water system.

That's why vacuum breakers are becoming required on garden hoses and utility tubs in a home.

I'm not a big regulation kind of guy, but this one is a real need.

Again, most of it has been around for a long time.

ETA: Full disclosure... family business sells a shiteton of backflow preventers.

This post was edited on 9/26/14 at 12:51 pm

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Posted by troyt37

Member since Mar 2008

14309 posts

Posted on 9/26/14 at 1:23 pm to Kingpenm3

I've been a plumbing manufacturer's rep for almost 20 years. Meaux's answer is correct.

For those of you who think it's just the government making money, imagine this:

You live a couple of addresses away from a funeral home. The funeral home doesn't have a backflow preventer on their water service. They are busy gutting someone washing the gore off the table with a hose. The fire department decides to test a line down the street, lowering everyone's pressure to the point that the gore from the funeral home is sucked into the city water supply.

Now you, a couple of addresses down, decide to make some tea. The water you used to make it probably contains someone's blood and guts.

This is not a hypothetical. It has happened. Unprotected, you have probably drank sewer, dog bath water, pesticides from gardens, and all kinds of fertilizers on lawns.

You need backflow prevention. Trust me.

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