Hi. Hey.  Helllllo there.  It’s plenty great to see you again.  Well, I can’t see you, and you can’t see me.  But you can see these words that I’ve thrown onto this page and ran away from.  That’s kind of like seeing me.  This week on the Go Green Plumbing blog-a-zoid we have a very special feature: the bathtub.

Our bathtubs go through a lot.  From your puppy’s first bath after a muddy excursion to mystery floaters that your kids try to use as boats.  Or when your Aunt Helga comes over for a ‘surprise’ visit and mentions she hasn’t had a bath in months, and you know she’s really a Viking, but she says she’s not a Viking, and really–she has to be a Viking.  And sometimes when that happens, you feel like buying a whole new bathroom.  You know what I mean, right?  Or those times you come home and your kids have turned the tub into a makeshift isolation tank in order to travel to The Upside Down to find Will.  Thursday night, AM I RIGHT?  Speaking of travelling to alternate dimensions, let’s come back to reality and talk about three aspects of bathtubs: faucet maintenance, showerhead maintenance and preventing and fixing clogs.

Faucet Maintenance

If you spot a leaky faucet, you’ll want to repair that beast right away.  Truth is, if you leave it be just because it’s ‘just a small leak,’ it could turn into a much larger and more expensive problem.  Plus, the average leaky faucet can waste around the same water as 200 showers per year.  Could you imagine turning on the shower every other day, not jumping in and just wasting the water?  Probably not!  So fix up that faucet.  But how do you avoid leaky faucets and reparations altogether?  One way is to clean your faucet aerators.  More commonly found in sink faucets, aerators affect the flow of the water.  Unfortunately, lime buildup and sediment can begin to form within.  Unscrew the aerator and clean with vinegar and water.

Showerhead Maintenance

Showerhead maintenance is very similar to aerator cleaning.  The difference lies within the fact that the holes in the showerhead buildup with mineral deposits from the water coursing through.  Check out this video on how to clean a showerhead.  If you just need a quick reminder, follow these simple steps.  Unscrew the swivel ball nut with an adjustable wrench.  Ps. Swivel ball nut, how’s that for a name?  You can’t not laugh at that.  Next, unscrew the collar nut and soak the parts in vinegar and water overnight.  Next day, poke a paperclip through each showerhead hole to remove the stubborn buildup that just didn’t want to move out, like that millennial son of yours.

Preventing and Fixing Clogs

First, let’s look at preventing clogs.  That’s just how it should be.  Once a week, send hot water down the drain to clear out any loose buildup in your pipes.  Every month, pour a natural drain cleaner, such as Earthworm Family-Safe Drain Cleaner, down the drain to attack the tougher stuff.  This one’s an obvious, but gross one: clean the strainers that buildup hair and gunk–remove those waterlogged locks at least once a week.  There’s no sense in risking letting it go down into your pipes.  Lastly, if it’s a drain clog you just can’t handle on your own, text or call us at 289-244-9843 and we will take care of it for you.

If you have any questions or just want to chat about vikings named Helga, be sure to call or text us at 289-244-9843, because at Go Green Plumbing, we are always happy to help.