Reasons Wet Wipes Should Never Go Down Your Toilet

You probably know that wet wipes should not be thrown in the toilet. However, do you know the reasons why? Some people may assume that flushing a wet wipe once in a while may not wreak any hazardous damage to their plumbing, but the reality is a few wipes could cause a plumbing catastrophe. Moreover, by the time that you realise that you have a plumbing emergency at your house, your drains will be severely clogged, and you may require complete replacement due to burst pipes. Thus, it is essential for every individual to know the reasons why wet wipes should never be disposed of by flushing them down the toilet.

Wet wipes have a slow rate of disintegration

A widespread presumption about wet wipes is that once they are in the water, they will dissolve almost as fast as regular tissue paper. Thus, people tend to reason that as the wipes go down the drain, they will eventually break down into tiny pieces. The reality is that tissue is designed to disintegrate at a faster rate, and this is why it is difficult to use a tissue to wipe surfaces with water, unlike wet wipes that will hold their structure.

Therefore, even if the wet wipes will be out of sight when you flush them, you can be assured that they are travelling through your plumbing system in a relatively intact state. The more wet wipes you flush down the toilet, the more they accumulate and form blockages in your drains. So although it may take a while for the bundles of wet wipes to cause problems, it is inevitable that your plumbing will succumb to blocked drains in the future.

Accelerated root intrusion problems

If you live in an older residence, three is a high likelihood that root intrusion has started to occur with your underground pipes. However, homeowners will not be aware of this underlying issue if there plumbing is still in working order. Toilet tissue and water can quickly pass through the maze of roots in their piping system without causing additional blockages.

Wet wipes, on the other hand, will accelerate the rate at which root intrusion becomes a plumbing problem as the material becomes increasingly entangled with the roots. As a result, what would have been a minor problem to fix ends up causing a wall of debris within your pipes, and this can lead to your drains being severely backed up. A plumber will not only have to address the root intrusion, but you would require through drain cleaning or replacement depending on the extent of the blockages.