Guilt-Free Soaking With Salt

Some couples fight over finances, others over plumbing. For example, tea baths and those nifty Dead Sea salts look so inviting and luxurious. Yet, some husbands disagree wholeheartedly, as in: “Do you know what salt does to pipes?”

Well, no, not exactly. So we called Eric Dutton of Dutton Plumbing in Granada Hills, who put our fears to rest. “If you have a healthy drain, anything you could sit in, you could put down a drain,” Dutton said.

Modern drains are made of plastic, and older ones of cast iron, neither of which will be hurt by a bath salt, he said. According to Dutton, tub drains are 2 inches in diameter. As for bath teas and potpourris, as long as the sediment--tiny flowers and leaves--is smaller than the fingernail on a pinky finger, it will go down a healthy drain.

Another myth down the drain. Time for a soak in the tub.