Each year, 100 million people watch The Big Game. No one wants to miss any action, so they all wait until halftime to get up and use the facilities. And you know what that means:
Millions and millions of flushes – requiring an amount of water equal to seven minutes of water flowing over the Niagra Falls.
So can all that flushing at once wreak havoc on our sewer systems? Well Frederick County has never experienced such a problem, but after a 16-inch pipe burst in Salt Lake City in 1984 during half time, there is a theory that lots of simultaneous flushing can cause big problems with municipal sewer systems. According to city workers in Utah’s capital that year, however, the pipe was old and probably would have ruptured regardless of the time of day.
The truth is that our city sewer systems are made to withstand large volumes of water that are used every day. Each weekday morning, we all get up and take showers and flush toilets in the same time span, and there are no pipes bursting or other major problems caused from that. So no, everyone flushing at once is not going to cause most plumbers on call to miss the rest of the game.
Problems That Do Happen During the Big Game
We at Putman Plumbing see the same problems after the Super Bowl game as we see after every large gathering.
- Broken garbage disposals due to hard waste and other things they can’t handle.
- Clogged sinks from food running into them.
- Stopped-up toilets from too much toilet paper and “flushable wipes” getting stuck in pipes.
Try to avoid these problems and hopefully you won’t need us!
Call Us If You Need a Plumber
Enjoy the party on Sunday, but if you run into any big problems, give us a call. We’ve been a trusted Middletown plumbing company for many years, and we’ll be happy to help.
