If water is standing in your basement right now, stop reading about horsepower and start reading the emergency steps further down this page. The first thing you do is cut power to the flooded area, because a submerged pump in standing water is an electrocution waiting to happen. Then you need a manual pump, not … Read more

Most people searching for the best condensate pumps for furnaces are not shopping for a nicer accessory. They are shopping because water somewhere in their heating system is going somewhere it should not, and they want it to stop. That is a category with real consequences, because a high-efficiency furnace makes several gallons of slightly … Read more

The best PEX crimping tools for plumbing are the ones whose jaw matches the exact ring standard already sitting in your fittings, and whose ratchet completes a full cycle before it releases. Get that wrong and the connection fails slowly, behind drywall, where you cannot see it. I have watched more money disappear to six … Read more

A cracked toilet flange and a rotted bathroom floor are not two separate problems. They are one problem in sequence: a wax seal fails, wastewater seeps under the bowl for months, and the plywood underneath turns to pulp long before anyone smells anything. By the time you pull the toilet to look, the cheap fix … Read more

A drain snake, also called a drain auger or plumbing snake, is a long flexible steel or plastic cable with a hooked or cutting head on the end. You feed it into a drain, rotate it to break up or hook the blockage, then pull the clog out. For a kitchen sink, that is usually … Read more

Short answer: the ChoosePRO HD1080P 18mm Sewer Camera is the best pipe camera for drain inspection overall, the VEVOR 300 ft Sewer Camera with 512Hz locator reaches furthest and marks its position underground, and the Anysun 9-inch Self-Leveling Camera gives you the most screen and cable strength per dollar. Below that sit eight more that … Read more

Low water pressure is one of those house problems that gets blamed on the wrong thing. Half the owners we hear from assume their pipes are clogged, when the real cause is usually friction loss across a long run, a pressure reducing valve doing too much, or a municipal main that simply delivers less than … Read more

A gas line that weeps is not a plumbing nuisance. It is a slow leak that can fill a cabinet, a crawlspace or a utility room with gas, and the fitting that failed was almost always the one somebody sealed with whatever was on the bench. Getting the best thread sealant kits for gas lines … Read more

Hard water turns a good bathroom faucet into a maintenance chore. Calcium and magnesium build up inside the spout, clog the aerator, and etch white crust onto the finish until the fixture looks older than the wall around it. The best bathroom faucets for hard water are the ones built from solid brass or stainless … Read more