Saddleback Plumbing Heating & Air Blog: Archive for November, 2012

Radiant Floor Heating Maintenance Tips

Monday, November 26th, 2012

If you have recently upgraded to radiant floor heating in your Lake Forest area home, it is a good idea to know how to operate and maintain them to get the best results. This ensures that your system will continue to provide reliable and efficient heat throughout the winter. Most importantly, you want to make sure you know the best ways to maintain your system since it contains several components.

At Saddleback Heating & Plumbing, we can help you by providing expert advice and tips on heating maintenance. We also provide repairs should you have problems. First, you’ll need to recognize some common issues so that you can provide more information for the technician who will troubleshoot the problem and resolve it for you.

When having problems with a radiant heating system, the best place to start is by checking the thermostat.  Make sure you understand how the settings work and that your system has been programmed for the desired setting.

After making sure that the settings are correct, turn your thermostat up 5 degrees and wait about ten minutes and see if the heat goes up. If so, this could be an indication that your thermostat is not completely accurate and should be adjusted.  Check to see that the boiler is functioning properly and if it doesn’t work, call a technician.

Hiring a professional contractor for routine maintenance is another way to help ensure that your radiant floor system works the way it should. During these visits, the technician will tune your system, which includes checking the pipes and other elements of the actual floor heating components. Ask the technician about other ways you can help protect your radiant floor heating system.

To maintain the boiler components, first check your owner’s manual. All models will be different, and you should know how to check basic things, such as the pressure gauge and safety valves. Checking the water level and temperature are also important maintenance tasks.

Call the Lake Forest heating specialists at Saddleback if you would like more tips on how to maintain your radiant floor heating system.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 22nd, 2012

From all of us here at Saddleback Plumbing, we want to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We hope that you are spending time with the people you care for most and taking this day to remember all the things that you are grateful for in your life.

We also want to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to all of our customers for your loyalty and the opportunity you have given us to provide you with service. As you know, we couldn’t do what we do without YOU!

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Getting the Most Out of Your Plumbing System in Lake Forest

Monday, November 19th, 2012

If the plumbing system in your home in Lake Forest is working right, you probably don’t think much about it when you flush the toilet or take a shower. But when your plumbing system breaks down, you start thinking about it quite a bit. At Saddleback Plumbing, our Lake Forest plumbers respond to a lot of calls for service in the Lake Forest area. We thought that it would be helpful for our customers if we put together a quick list of some things that will help you get the most out of your plumbing system.

Regular Maintenance

Maintenance is one of the best ways that you can protect your home and your plumbing system. Regular maintenance should always be performed by a professional plumber. A licensed plumber will have the experience and training to know exactly what to look for and how to fix any potential problems. Here are a few things that your plumber might do during maintenance.

  • Pipe inspections – Using a small video camera, plumbers can look inside your home’s plumbing system to find any problems. They can also discover clogs or blockages that are in the process of forming.
  • Leak detection – During regular maintenance, your plumber can look for small leaks or places where leaks might occur.
  • Drain cleaning – Having your drains regularly cleaned is a great way to keep your plumbing system working well consistently. With regular maintenance, you can stop blockages before they completely block your plumbing and your water wont’ drain.

Your Garbage Disposal

One area in your home that gets a lot of use is the kitchen. One great way to get the most out of your kitchen’s plumbing system is to be careful about what you let go down the sink. Here are a few things that you shouldn’t put down the garbage disposal.

  • Grease – We all love bacon. But the grease that forms from cooking it should never go down your sink. Once it gets into your plumbing system it will cool and form a sticky solid. This can trap other food and form a clog.
  • Stringy or starchy foods – Foods like celery, asparagus have strong fibers that can get wrapped around your garbage disposal or clog up your drains. Starchy foods like pasta, rice and potato skins expand when the get in water. As they expand they can clog up your drains as well.
  • Bones and fruit pits – These are hard and dense materials that your garbage disposal probably won’t be able to break apart.

If you would like to learn more about plumbing maintenance in Lake Forest, then call the expert plumbers at Saddleback. We would love to schedule a time to visit your home and look over your plumbing system. Contact us today!

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Plumbing Tip : New Features to Consider Before Buying a Tankless Water Heaters

Monday, November 12th, 2012

Are you considering buying a new tankless water heater for your home? Our plumbers can help you choose the right model, and we’ll make sure you get the right size and install it for you. If you’re considering a tankless new water heater or if you’re looking for ways to reduce your energy consumption, here are some things to consider:

Energy Use

There are two basic types of water heaters: traditional storage tank and tankless. Tank water heaters use a large tank of water that’s kept hot all the time by an electric or gas burner. As the hot water is consumed, more water fills the tank. Tankless water heaters convert cold water to hot water as the water is being used. In terms of energy consumption, tank-style heaters consume energy to maintain a large supply of hot water throughout the day, even if it’s not being used. Tankless heaters consume energy in short bursts, so you’ll want to take that into consideration.

Flow Rate

The other consideration is flow rate. Tankless units vary in their ability to produce hot water on demand. The amount of hot water they produce is measured in gallons per minute. Deciding which size tankless unit is correct for your home should be based on your family’s typical hot water needs. For 1 to 2 bathroom homes, look for models that can deliver at least delivers 3.4 gallons per minute. A shower and a dishwasher each consume about two gallons of water per minute. So for a tankless unit to comfortably serve both with a little to spare would probably require a capacity of five gallons per minute.

Size and First Hour Rating

All water heaters, whether traditional tank models, tankless, or hybrid, have different hot water delivery capacities. A water heater’s capacity is measured by its First Hour Rating (FHR), which is the number of gallons of hot water it delivers in an hour. Getting a heater with a low FHR could mean taking cold showers. Getting one that’s too large could mean you’re wasting energy.

When thinking a new water heater, first think about how much hot water is used in your home each day. Secondly, call the folks at Saddleback Plumbing, Heating, & Air Conditioning. Our staff would be glad to help you calculate which size tankless unit is right for your home.

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Heating Tip 1: Are Your Gas Pipes in Good Shape?

Monday, November 5th, 2012

Natural gas is a popular fuel choice for home heating and cooking. It is affordable, dependable and in large part domestically produced. It is also very safe, generally speaking. It is important that you as a property owner ensure that your gas pipes are in good, safe working condition. In order to do so there are some steps that you will need to take and some warning signs that you should keep an eye out for. Here is some information from Saddleback Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning to keep your Irvine home safe and comfortable when using natural gas.

The first step towards ensuring that your gas pipes are in good shape is to be sure that the installation process is handled only by a qualified profession. If you are having a gas piping system installed for the first time or are scheduling repiping service you need to do your research. Look at testimonials and read online reviews, as well as asking contractors for references directly. Your gas pipes are too important a component of your home plumbing system to take any chances with. Call Saddleback today to learn more about gas pipe installation or to schedule service.

If you already have a gas piping system in your home you need to know what to look for in terms of trouble. While a gas leak may not cause as obvious problems as a leak in your water lines there are plenty of indicators that will tell you your gas pipes are compromised. Because natural gas is colorless and odorless an odor is added to help you identify a leak. This is where the rotten egg smell that so many associate with natural gas comes from. Any unusual sounds from your gas equipment may also indicate a gas leak so it is important that these irregularities are assessed by a professional.

There are also buried gas lines outside that allow natural gas to be piped into your Irvine home. If you see any dirt being blown into the air around this buried pipe or notice bubbling when the ground is wet this gas line may be leaking. Keep an eye out for dead vegetation in the vicinity as well.

When properly used and with a high-quality gas piping system natural gas is a perfectly safe, convenient fuel source. If you have any concerns about the condition that your gas pipes are in call the gas piping experts at Saddleback Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning today. We can help ensure that your home is as safe as it is comfortable with our gas piping installation, maintenance, repair and replacement services.

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