Refresh Your Water

Has your property been vacant or unused for a few weeks or longer? Refresh your water!

If your building has sat idle, remember to maintain your internal plumbing and refresh your water before returning to normal occupancy.

Water in internal plumbing can become stale from sitting idle. Unused water that has been sitting in pipes for extended periods may appear cloudy or have an unpleasant taste or odor. Depending on the building and its plumbing, Legionella, metal leaching, and other hazards can also pose a health risk. WaterOne recommends flushing water through your fixtures to 'turn over' the unused water and flow fresh water from the water main through your building's plumbing.

What to Do

  • Run every tap - cold water first, then hot.
  • Flush every toilet.
  • Maintain any other appliance or system with a water connection, such as fire sprinklers, refrigerator filters, drinking fountains, coffee makers, or ice machines.

How to Do It

Here are the recommended steps for flushing your system before it is re-occupied. If you have facilities staff or a property manager, check with them on their plans for refreshing the plumbing system.

  1. Turn on every fixture and run cold water until it feels cool and fresh. Fresh water from the main will feel cooler than water that has been sitting in your building's plumbing. It may take longer for fresh water to reach faucets in larger buildings.
  2. Flush every toilet as well.
  3. Next, run the hot water at every tap until it gets fully hot. This will get fresh water into your building's hot water lines. For this to be effective, flush hot water only after all cold taps have been flushed.
  4. For larger, more complex buildings and facilities, follow ESPRI's Guidance (PDF) for preparing your plumbing before your property is re-occupied.

Water Quality at WaterOne

At WaterOne, we're constantly monitoring the water quality at our treatment plant as well as testing regularly at public businesses throughout our service area. This testing is done to ensure the water quality meets State and Federal guidelines. We recommend flushing your building's plumbing to ensure you and other occupants are receiving fresh water straight from the water main, and avoid using stale water that has been sitting unused for extended periods of time.

If you've refreshed the water in your building and still have concerns about water quality, call WaterOne at 913-895-1800 with any questions.

More Information

Maintaining Your Building's Plumbing

WaterOne Resources