And So It Flows: Understanding Backflow Prevention

So backflow is basically the reverse flow of water in a plumbing system, right? So typically water is pushed out under pressure and gets to where everywhere it needs to go when everything's working appropriately.

But things can happen in a plumbing system where you can lose pressure basically in pipes.

Maybe there's a pipe break or maybe there's a fire situation and water is being diverted for that.

And this creates situations in the plumbing system where water can flow in the opposite direction.

And there's two kinds of backflow.

Basically, they've got to watch out for in those situations.

One is called back siphonage.

So think about like a straw.

Right.

When you when you have less pressure, you can bring things into the plumbing system.

A good example of that would be like a garden hose.

Let's say you had a garden hose in a pool, right? You're trying to fill a pool or something.

If you lose the pressure in the plumbing system, that pool water can be brought back into the drinking water supply.

And that's not good.

All kinds of things can be introduced at what are called cross connections, wherever clean drinking water can mix with bad things, basically.

And there's a lot of disgusting things that can get into the drinking water.

And so we got to make sure we protect that.

The second kind of backflow is back pressure.

So that typically happens when you have a higher pressure situation downstream in the plumbing.

So think of like a pump or you could have thermal expansion when you're heating water and that's pressure pushing things into the drinking water system that shouldn't be there.

So we got to protect against those.

That's what backflow preventers do.

They get installed in those locations to make sure that that bad stuff can't get into the drinking water, keeps it clean and safe for people to use.

Yeah.

And backflow, I mean, like a lot of things in plumbing and same with all the trades is that you don't really think about it until there's a problem where it's like, oh, shoot, my toilet is messing up or my faucet's not running.

So backflow is basically the reverse flow of water in a plumbing system, right? So typically water is pushed out under pressure and gets to where everywhere it needs to go when everything's working appropriately.

But things can happen in a plumbing system where you can lose pressure basically in pipes.

Maybe there's a pipe break or maybe there's a fire situation and water is being diverted for that.

And this creates situations in the plumbing system where water can flow in the opposite direction.

And there's two kinds of backflow.

Basically, they've got to watch out for in those situations.

One is called back siphonage.

So think about like a straw.

Right.

When you when you have less pressure, you can bring things into the plumbing system.

A good example of that would be like a garden hose.

Let's say you had a garden hose in a pool, right? You're trying to fill a pool or something.

If you lose the pressure in the plumbing system, that pool water can be brought back into the drinking water supply.

And that's not good.

All kinds of things can be introduced at what are called cross connections, wherever clean drinking water can mix with bad things, basically.

And there's a lot of disgusting things that can get into the drinking water.

And so we got to make sure we protect that.

The second kind of backflow is back pressure.

So that typically happens when you have a higher pressure situation downstream in the plumbing.

So think of like a pump or you could have thermal expansion when you're heating water and that's pressure pushing things into the drinking water system that shouldn't be there.

So we got to protect against those.

That's what backflow preventers do.

They get installed in those locations to make sure that that bad stuff can't get into the drinking water, keeps it clean and safe for people to use.

Yeah.

And backflow, I mean, like a lot of things in plumbing and same with all the trades is that you don't really think about it until there's a problem where it's like, oh, shoot, my toilet is messing up or my faucet's not running.