Red Rock Mechanical, LLC Blog: Posts Tagged ‘backflow prevention’

Why Does Backflow Happen?

Monday, April 30th, 2018

The backflow preventer is a critical device for most commercial buildings, and is sometimes found I use homes and for larger residential structures. The backflow preventer is designed to protect the municipal water system from backflow, which is when waste water from the sewer system side of the plumbing ends up moving into the potable fresh water side, possibly contaminating the municipal fresh water supply. This isn’t something that’s a problem in most homes—there’s a simple air gap device to prevent backflow in the few places it can happen, such as a dishwasher—but it’s a major danger for commercial plumbing. Commercial plumbing has cross connections where there is the potential for backflow to occur and the fresh water becoming contaminated with bacteria and the microbes contained in waste water.

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