Homes in Orange County rarely need to worry about their heating systems. The weather is warm most of the year, with only an occasional cool stretch in the winter and scattered days of rain.
But there’s one heating system that does plenty of work and does it almost every day of the year: the household water heater.
The water heater accounts for a large amount of household energy use per year, and it’s an essential item for a home’s plumbing. This is why we urge people to make upgrades from older water heaters to newer ones (especially if the current water heater is more than twenty years old). A newer water heater can make significant changes in energy savings.
Air conditioning systems get to work early in the year in Southern California. Unfortunately, that means they’re also likely to start showing signs of malfunctions earlier as well—extra time for the stress to set in.
In our last post, we wrote about why it’s important to schedule air conditioning maintenance service before the summer weather arrives. There are many potential AC malfunctions a maintenance inspection can catch, and one of these is noticing that the pressure of the refrigerant in the air conditioner has dropped. This usually means a leak a sprung somewhere, allowing refrigerant to escape. If this is the case, your technician can patch up the leak and put in the amount of refrigerant that was lost to restore pressure. You can trust our technicians with these services for your 
At Saddleback, we offer membership in our Member Value Program (MVP). We offer different program levels depending on your needs: a Plumbing Value Program, an HVAC program, and the ALL STAR Value Plan for Comprehensive Heating, Cooling, & Plumbing System Coverage. Of course, we recommend customers take advantage of the extensive ALL STAR Value Plan so they can have three major home maintenance services taken care of annually.
Water usage usually goes up for a household during the spring because of gardening—you’ll likely notice an uptick in your water bills for the first months of the season. However, if you’ve been dealing with higher water bills than normal, or you think your current bills could be lowered, you can take steps to save water.
Water hammer—it’s an intimidating name. But it’s appropriate, because the sound that water hammer makes in your plumbing can be quite intimidating. It’s the sound of a shockwave going through the pipes, an alarming thump! noise as if someone took a hammer to the piping. Water hammer has sometimes made people believe ghosts were behind the activity. The reality is much less spooky, but it’s something that requires attention from plumbers. 
How long can you expect the water heater in your home to last? The average lifespan for storage tank water heaters is around 20 years, although with the best possible care, they can last longer.
Drain clogs are just about as common a problem as can affect the plumbing in a home. The usual culprits for clogged or slow drains are hair clogs, FOG (fats, oils, and grease), hard water minerals, soap scum, food, and more serious problems with the sewer line. If you can’t clear out a clog using a plunger or a basic hand-cranked drain snake, then it’s recommended you call for a 
Everyone here at Saddleback Plumbing is proud to announce that we’ve again won the Angie’s List Super Service Award, this time for our work in 2018.