Contaminated Water

There is a term for the most common route for contamination and that is ‘back flow’. But what does back ‘flow mean’? The normal way for water to enter a home is under a great deal of, normally the cold water coming into your home is under a fair amount of pressure. Of course this not only speeds up the filling of your bath or the watering of your garden but it also makes sure that water is only flows in one direction and that is out of the hosepipe straight onto your grass. While the system is arranged this way there is no way that it can become contaminated. Little or nothing can get into if, however if the pressure dropped off suddenly what would happen? Worcester Boiler Repair London are aware of contamination issues.


The Scenario:

A road worker has just put his pick through a cold water mains pipe a couple of miles away. You Suddenly find yourself with little or no water supply. The hose is thrown onto the grass and you are of to find out why. While you are away, this water on your garden suddenly finds itself being sucked back into the now empty hose, and after a while, back into the mains cold water supply. Now this water is mixing with dog mess, all forms of pesticides, plant food and goodness knows what. Now, the initial blame for the loss of water is with the roadworker of course. BUT it is your fault that you just contaminated the local water supply and poisoned half of your neighbourhood.


Water regulations insist that you have devices that stops ‘back flow’. Worcester Boiler Service London fit valves. With the hosepipe example, there should have been what is called a ‘double check’ valve fitted to the outside tap. A simple device that will only allow water to flow one way through it. With this device fitted it wouldn’t matter as your tap will not let the water flow back into the cold water mains. Job done.