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How Maryland and Washington D.C. Homeowners Can Track Water Usage

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Leaks are a common problem in households and can lead to significant water damage and unexpected hikes in utility bills. These leaks can occur anywhere within your plumbing system, including faucets, toilet and your home’s pipes.

If you see an unexpected jump in your utility bill – it is possible you have a leak in your home that should be inspected by a professional, insured and licensed plumber.

If you would like to identify a leak ahead of time – before it causes damage to your home or your wallet – Mallick Plumbing & Heating recommends installing a MOEN Flo Smart Monitor and Shutoff – or “Flo” for short. This smart device, which powered by plugging into your nearest outlet and installed on your water supply line, searches for any irregularities in your water usage, including for any type of leak. Flo by MOEN accomplishes this by tracking your home’s water temperature and pressure.

Prior to installation, it is important to get a professional plumber to inspect your plumbing system and perform leak tests to ensure there are no existing leaks. If your MOEN Flo is installed with an existing leak, it will recognize the leak as regular water usage and will not recognize it or alert you.

To take things a step farther, you can easily use MOEN Flo with a monitoring system app downloaded on your phone, which your plumbing professional can assist with.

Have any questions on MOEN Flo? Call (301) 804-6759 to speak with a knowledgeable Mallick Plumbing & Heating Team Member and get yours installed today!

How does the MOEN Flo App work?

After a professional and knowledgeable plumber — such as the ones at Mallick Plumbing & Heating – installs the MOEN Flo device on your main water supply line, it will need to be connected to your home’s Wi-Fi system.

From there, your plumber should have you download the Flo by MOEN app and connect it to your device. You can view any water usage trends in your home, receive alerts on any irregularities, control and track your water usage, and use a remote shutoff option if you need to immediately shut off your home’s water supply.

Monitoring your usage is easy. Within the app is a graph icon at the bottom of your phone. Once clicked, you can view your water usage by the day, week, month or year if you would like to recognize any trends. You also can include custom date ranges to compare your water bill cycles.

You also have the ability to see your home’s water flow rate, pressure and temperature in real-time. This is informative for you to know because you can recognize any irregularities within your water supply.

How can I have MOEN Flo Installed?

Leaks can be costly – and they won’t wash away your savings with a smart device like Flo by MOEN. Installation of this device should be handled by a trained a certified professional to prevent any leaks from occurring on your main water supply line.

If you’re looking to secure your home and keep it safe from minor leaks or major water damage, Mallick Plumbing & Heating has been specially trained by MOEN to provide you the right option for your home, install the device and perform all the necessary leak tests needed prior to installation.

Call Mallick Plumbing & Heating at (301) 804-6759 to schedule your MOEN Flo installation today!

MOEN Flo Installation Explained

Thanksgiving Plumbing Problems to Watch Out for This Holiday Season

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Thanksgiving is a food oriented holiday! Nothing says Thanksgiving, like bowls of gravy and fatty comfort food. Unfortunately, the hallmarks of the holiday can spell trouble for your plumbing system. Thanksgiving has a longstanding reputation for being the idealized picture of an American family holiday, but behind the scenes, there’s a lot of work and planning that goes into hosting a family holiday. You may be asking, what does that have to do with your plumbing system?

3 Ways Thanksgiving Affects Your Plumbing

Hosting your loved ones during the holidays means putting your plumbing to the test. Most of us aren’t sure of the condition of our plumbing and sewer system until there’s a problem. If your system is on the brink of failure, a family holiday could be the stressful event that pushes your plumbing and sewer system over the edge into breakdown and failure.

If you’re planning a holiday gathering, the following plumbing and sewer issues are the most common failures experienced during Thanksgiving and Christmas each year:

Clogged Kitchen Sink: If you’re not a chef, it’s likely you’re not cooking large-scale meals for your family during the remaining 50 weeks each year. Most people cram a lot of cooking and kitchen activity into the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas, leaving your kitchen sink struggling to keep up. Your kitchen sink can become clogged by the fats, oils, and greasy residue left behind from the delicious comfort foods we all love to eat during Thanksgiving. Food preparation like chopping and peeling can be dangerous for your plumbing if allowed to go down the drain. It’s not uncommon to find eggshells, potato peels, and bones blocking drains and causing backups. You can try a few home DIY remedies in a pinch, like boiling water, vinegar, and baking soda solution to break up the oils and grease that can coat the lining of your pipes.

Loss of Hot Water: Whether your guests are staying overnight or you’re only hosting Thanksgiving Day, losing hot water is a serious problem that can ruin your holiday. No one wants to take cold showers or spend the day boiling water for various tasks around their home. All the dishes and laundry used over the week will also need to be washed, which can be difficult, if not impossible, without hot water. The holiday season may be too taxing on your hot water supply if you have a traditional tank water heater. Depending on the size of your water heater, it can be difficult to supply enough hot water to meet the elevated needs during Thanksgiving. Just because your water heater is running out of hot water doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. Your needs are simply outpacing your production. You can fix this problem by creating a hot water usage schedule or consider upgrading to a tankless system before the holiday season.

Backed Up Toilets: Thanksgiving is all about eating and drinking with friends and family, which means you will have more traffic through your bathrooms during the day or week. Even a well-maintained toilet can fail under heavy usage, but toilet no-nos usually cause most of the problems experienced during the holidays. There are several issues that can lead to toilet problems during the holiday season, including:

· Too much toilet paper

· A failure to flush

· Flushing undrainable items

If too many people use the toilet without flushing, it can lead to clogs. Another common culprit is toilet paper, which can cause clogging – especially when used too liberally. Remind guests that some items, like diapers, cotton balls, or sanitary items, should never be flushed. Your septic system and drains may also respond negatively to flushable items like wipes. It’s important to be mindful of what you flush when your system is being pushed to capacity with heavy guest usage.

Contact Mallick Plumbing Today! 

Thanksgiving is a busy time, and if you’re hosting the festivities this year, don’t let plumbing mistakes ruin your holiday. You can avoid holiday plumbing problems this Thanksgiving with a few changes and smart planning. If you’re experiencing plumbing problems this Thanksgiving, call the professionals at Mallick Plumbing today at (301) 804-6759 for immediate help.

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