You only want clean, potable water to enter your home’s main water supply line. You don’t want any trace of human waste, fertilizers or pesticides, chlorine from pools, and soaps from sinks, showers, or dishwashers mixed into your water supply.
Your home’s backflow preventer takes the responsibility of keeping water supply flow in one direction — into your home. It works to keep your drinking water safe from contamination as a result of backflow. Authorities require property owners to have backflow preventers installed in their properties to keep stagnant water from mixing with the treated water from the city’s water supply line.
What does a Backflow Preventer do?
The water system relies on pressure to keep water moving and to keep the whole system working. However, for different reasons, pressure changes in the pipes. As a result, the water in the pipes moves backward into the main water supply line.
Backflows are triggered by circumstances like a break in the main water line or when the nearest fire hydrant is used. These situations cause a loss of pressure and stop water from flowing into your home. Since water doesn’t rest, it will flow back to the main water supply line and might contaminate the city water lines.
A backflow can seriously affect the city’s main water supply and pollute the public’s drinking water. When unchecked, chemicals, pesticides, human waste, and other harmful contaminants can easily mix with drinking water and cause health problems.
In the case of a confirmed backflow, it will take more than 500 hours to fix and will cost thousands of dollars. Backflow contaminations are expensive and time-consuming to treat.
This is the reason why Backflow Preventers are installed into your home’s water supply system. The backflow prevention system makes sure that water flows only in one direction. It functions like a gate that only allows water from the city line to enter but allows no water to through the same gate. You can Prevent Backflows in Australia by below system.
Backflow from Fire Sprinkler Systems
With fire sprinklers and other wet fire protection systems, a great volume of water never moves and stays stagnant for a long period of time. The water will stay in the pipes until the sprinkler is activated or some damage to the system causes the pipes to break and the water to flow.
Stagnant water is a breeding ground for bacteria. This can result in water being contaminated and turned into a thick, smelly, sludge of harmful water that can easily contaminate the main water supply systems.
This is why a backflow preventer is necessary to keep the main water supply system free from any serious backflow water threats from systems like fire sprinklers, systems that carry antifreeze, foam, and other harmful chemicals.
Types of Backflow Preventers
There are different types of backflow preventers that are approved by respected testing agencies like the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the Factory Mutual Research Corporation (FM), and the American Society of Sanitary Engineer (ASSE).
Some of these are the Double Check Valves (DCV), Reduced Pressure Zones, and Pressure Vaccum Breakers. Each of these is designed to meet certain conditions related to different water systems like fire hydrants, fire sprinklers, and irrigation.
Do I need a backflow preventer?
Backflow preventer systems are needed in areas where water lines of clean water supply and wastewater might be cross-connected. If you are not sure, ask a plumber to check if your house has backflow preventers installed. If found none, they will know which areas needed a backflow preventer system installed.
