The plumbing industry and professionals who work in this field know it’s a tough trade day in and day out. It’s a lot of hard work, hands on manual labor, and interfacing with both commercial and residential customers, every day building relationships trying to grow a profitable business.
That said, there are some very hilarious real life plumbing terms, parts, and components that are used every day that arguably are could be interpreted as unsavory if not downright offensive to overly sensitive folks. Here are 13 terms that should make you laugh, if you have a healthy sense of humor, about plumbing, much less life in general.
1. Ballcock
This may be the most anatomically indecent term of them all, but the ballcock part of a typical toilet controls the water’s of a gravity operating toilet tank. When a toilet is flushed, the spherical shaped float in the tank drops to open the ballcock letting water enter into the tank to fill. Water in the tank subsequently rises, causing the float to reach the level in the system that closes off the flow to shut off the ballcock.
2. Nipple
On people, it one thing, but in a plumbing scenario it’s just a short pipe to connects couplings or fittings. Not too complicated, but an easy laugh if you have a sense of humor.
3. Gas Cock
Funny sounding though hard to describe comedically, a gas cock on a main gas line allows for control of natural gas flow or propane. They most commonly are used to shut off gas and can increase or decrease gas flow in many applications.
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4. Rim Holes
Rim holes are the small holes under and around the toilet bowl rim where water flows from the tank to refill the toilet bowl and wash or cleanse the surface of the bowle itself after use. Makes obvious sense now, though before this who knew there was a name for these.
5. Drip Leg
The drip leg is a pipe located at the lower portion on a gas line that’s capped off to collect condensation and debris. Also referred to as the “sediment trap”, it’s far less funny than it sounds.
6. Float Ball
The float ball is the plastic or rubber ball attached to the ballcock that rises and falls as the water fills or empties in the toilet tank. The float ball’s placement on the rising or lowering water level opens or closes the water valve for the tank filling and emptying process.
7. Blowbag
Blowbag sounds like a term with many silly connotations, but it’s really a tool composed of a nozzle and rubber bladder attached to a hose that is inserted into a clogged pipe or drain. It is then inflated to swell up to fill the pipe to release water in pulses to clear the blockage in the drain. Sometimes it can be more effective than pipe snakes, but that’s an entirely different funny term we’ll cover later.
8. Dope
Nothing illicit or name calling here, because in plumbing, dope is simply a lubricant seal used on pipe threads to secure their connection.
9. Cock Hole Cover
Cock hole covers are for sink faucets, not appendage based, that have an extra hole frequently on the sink itself. Various sizes of cock hole covers can be found in many finishes to conceal or hide the hole not in use.
10. Hardness Leakage
Hardness leakage happens when the presence of calcium and magnesium is found in water after going through a water softener, resulting in harder water than expected as the softener may not be efficiently doing it’s job.
11. Pull Out Spray
Possibly the funniest term, its simply a retractable spray head found most often on a kitchen faucet or sometimes shower spray head. Some are retractable hose based, which could make this term sound even funnier, but ultimately it’s an extremely common and convenient water head design in modern homes and remodeled bathroom showers or tubs.
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12. Dam
Tiny swear words aside, a dam in plumbing is technically the seal caused by water in a trapway pipe.
13. Pipe Snake
Wikipedia refers to a pipe snake as “a slender, flexible auger [device] used to dislodge clogs” used for blockages not able to cleared using a blowbag or plunger. Referred to also sometimes as a toilet jack, a pretty funny nickname if there ever was one, there are various sizes that can be employed for use on regular blockages to commercial drain pipes. Fun fact: pipe snakes in non-plumbing context can refer to various families of harmless snakes in South America, India, Sri Lanka, or Asia.
So there you go. Plumbers and field trade professionals in general are pretty laid-back, down to earth, easy-going folks and terms like these, just make everyone laugh just a little, even though they are completely legitimate terms in the industry, no, any other plumbing or field service industry vocabulary or terminologies that’s funny, let us know in the comments or contact us and we’ll added to the list and share on social media.