When I was in college — more years ago than I would like to admit — I served as a resident assistant in my university’s residence halls. Each floor had a vacuum students could use to clean their rooms. Despite the infrequency with which college students actually used the vacuums, it was amazing at how often they were broken. It turns out that the rubber band that spins the brush in the vacuum head is really no match to the vast cornucopia of odd items that young adults attempt to suck off their floors. Strands of long hair, socks, power cords, money, toilet paper, tin foil, as well as other “not safe for publication” items were all found to have disabled the economically priced vacuum cleaners provided for student use. At this time in my life, vacuum breakers would have held a completely different meaning to me than it does today after years of exposure to the plumbing industry.
In the plumbing world, the need to protect the potable water supply from the dangers that come from backflow and back siphonage is so well understood that to call it common knowledge would be a bit of an understatement. The 2015 Uniform Plumbing Code touches on the various methods to prevent backflow and back shiphonage in section 603.3, but diving a bit deeper could be useful.
