CN Maintenance Tip

Before hooking up your new stainless steel plumbing fixtures, make sure plumbers have already flushed the lines. According to Greg Riphagen of Acorn Engineering, failure to flush the lines is the number-one mistake made when installing toilets, sinks or combination units in cells.

“Many times, plumbers don’t flush the lines until they're already connected to our fixtures,” says Riphagen. “Then we'll get a lot of debris in our valves, which causes blockages and malfunction. It happens quite often and creates havoc with the valves. At that point, they will have to clean the valve diaphragm.”

Correctional News welcomes maintenance tips from suppliers, manufacturers and facilities administrators and personnel. E-mail Morgan Jones at morgan@emlenpub.com.