5 Common Plumbing Myths Debunked by Professional Plumbers

Talk to any seasoned plumber, and they’ll tell you: most plumbing disasters don’t start with a burst pipe. They start with bad advice.

Someone on TikTok swears by a DIY fix. A neighbor insists their trick always works. Or maybe it’s something you’ve just believed since your first apartment. But the problem with plumbing myths is that they sound harmless, until they lead to water damage, clogs, or emergency repair bills.

Let’s clear up five of the most common ones we run into at Rockwater Plumbing, and explain why sticking to them is a gamble.

1. If the drain is still moving, it’s not a clog

It’s easy to ignore a slow drain. After all, the water’s still going down. But a delay in drainage usually means something’s already collecting in the pipe like hair, grease, scale, or a combination of the three. The flow might not be blocked yet, but it’s well on its way.

Call early, and it’s a quick clean-out. Wait too long, and you’re looking at a full blockage that may need jetting, a cable snake, or access to your main sewer line. This is especially true if more than one drain starts backing up. 

2. “Flushable” wipes are safe for your toilet

Manufacturers print “flushable” on the package, but in the real world, it’s a different story. Unlike toilet paper, these wipes don’t disintegrate quickly. They stay mostly intact as they move through your system, and they’re notorious for catching on joints or building up in bends. Over time, they clump together and slow everything down.

A huge number of sewer backups we’ve cleared had one thing in common: years of wipes stuck together like papier-mâché in the main line.

3. Garbage disposals can handle anything

We’ve seen people put all kinds of things down at their disposals: pasta, potato peels, bones, coffee grounds, and lemon rinds. Most of those belong in the trash.

Disposals are meant to handle small food scraps that get rinsed off a plate, not whole servings or fibrous leftovers. Some items might not jam the blades right away, but they can clog the line further down or create a layer of buildup that narrows the pipe.

If you’re running the disposal and the sink starts to drain slowly, there’s likely more going on below the surface than you think.

4. Low water pressure is just part of living in an older home

Plenty of older homes still have strong, steady pressure. If your flow has slowed over time, there’s usually a reason. It could be corrosion inside galvanized steel pipes, a partially closed valve, or a hidden leak somewhere in the system.

In our plumbing inspections, we often find that pressure problems are entirely fixable. Don’t assume it’s just the age of the house. A licensed plumber can trace the issue, test pressure points throughout the system, and restore the flow without tearing everything apart.

5. You don’t need a plumber unless something’s broken

This one causes more problems than anything else. The idea that you only need a plumber when something’s already gone wrong overlooks how preventable most plumbing issues really are.

Small leaks, sediment in the water heater, worn-out shutoff valves: these are things we can catch and fix before they turn into emergencies. Regular checks, especially in older systems, help avoid last-minute calls and unexpected costs. Emergency plumbing work is stressful. Preventative plumbing work isn’t.

The Real Cost of Following Bad Advice

Most of the plumbing calls we get don’t come from sudden disasters. They come from slow-drip problems that built up over time because of myths just like these.

People stick to bad advice because it sounds easy, or because it worked once. But when that advice turns into a backed-up sink, a ruined ceiling, or a cold shower the morning of a big day, it stops sounding smart.

If you’re dealing with one of the issues we covered, or if you’re just not sure what’s normal anymore, it’s worth getting a real answer. At Rockwater Plumbing, we’ve seen what these myths turn into when they’re ignored. And we’d rather help you deal with it now before it costs you more later.

Give us a call. You don’t have to wait for a flood to talk to someone who knows what they’re doing.