Common Plumbers Terms & Meanings For Your Salt Lake City Home
As in any industry, there is specific language used to name objects and services in order to give them industry specific meanings. At Donahue Plumbing Service, we try to see to it that you’re educated as a homeowner to be always “in the know” when it comes to your home’s plumbing and everything you need to care for it.
For instance, a fixture may mean a large fixture like your toilet, shower, sink, or any other place where your water lines connect to plumbing that can get backed up by the sewer lines. Or, small plumbing fixtures refer to your faucets, spigots, handles, and more that control water flow.
Here are a few more common plumbing terms and what they mean for your Salt Lake City Home:
- Brackish Water: Undrinkable Water that contains too much saline or salt or bacteria between 1K and 15K ppm of dissolved solids.
- Fixture: Refers to anything large or small that accepts or discharges clean or dirty water such as faucets, sinks, toilets, or bathtubs.
- Flapper: The rubber flap at the bottom of a toilet that lifts as you flush to allow flushing and refilling.
- Flow Rate: A measurement of the rate in gallons per minute (GPM) or gallons per hour (GPH) that water flows through your plumbing system.
- Gray Water: Waste water from fixtures other than toilets. Washing machines, dishwashers, etc.
- Grease Trap: Captures grease before it enters the sewer lines. Usually used in commercial applications.
- Hard Water: Water that contains natural sediments in higher various proportions. Traditionally, it’s a measurement of calcium, minerals and dissolved solids within a solution that is measure in parts per million, generally ranging from 100 to 250 ppm.
- Low Consumption Toilet: Toilets designed to use less than 1.6 gallons of water or less to flush -also known as water saving toilets.
- Metal Fatigue: The expansion or contraction of a metal beyond its endurance limit or breakage caused by bending and flexing.
- Overflow Hood: The decorative hood that conceals the overflow on a bath drain.
- O-Ring: Used in valve stems to create a water tight seal, the O-Ring is a rounded rubber washer (not flat).
- Potable Water: Water suitable for drinking
- Scald Guard: A valve designed to prevent extreme water temperature changes. Excellent for households with children.
- Scale: Sediments that have been heated to a certain temperature turn to scale that can coat pipes, coat dishes, ruin appliances, and create rock-hard clogs that have to be water blasted away.
- Sediment: Substances that settle to the bottom of tanks, also known as lime, minerals, calcium, scale.
- Soft Water: Water that’s been treated to a low mineral content.
- Tailpiece: The plumbing pipe section that runs between a fixture outlet and the trap.
- Trap: A curved section of pipe drain that traps a small amount of water to prevent sewer gas from leaking into the home. P and S traps are the most common traps found in bathrooms.