Boston Plumbing and Heating Blog

The warmer weather is fast approaching. It’s hard to believe but it will soon be time to turn on the air conditioner. But is it time to replace the central AC? There are certain signs that indicate it's time to consider replacing your heating and cooling equipment. It may be time to call a professional plumber to help you make a change if:

Your heat pump or air conditioner is more than 10 years old.

Consider replacing it with a unit that has earned the ENERGY STAR label. Installed correctly, these high-efficiency units can save up to 20% on heating and cooling costs.

Your furnace or boiler is more than 15 years old.

Consider replacing with an ENERGY STAR qualified furnace, which is 15% more efficient than a conventional furnace. If you have a boiler, consider replacing with an ENERGY STAR qualified boiler that is 5% more efficient than a new, standard model.

Your AC equipment needs frequent repairs and your energy bills are going up.

Your cooling or heating equipment may have become less efficient.

Some rooms in your home are too hot or too cold.

Improper AC equipment operation, duct problems or inadequate insulation could be the cause.

No one is home for long periods of the day and you do not have a programmable thermostat.

Install a programmable thermostat to start saving energy and money while they're away or sleeping.

Your home has humidity problems.

Poor equipment operation, inadequate equipment, and leaky ductwork can cause the air to be too dry in the winter or too humid in the summer.

Your home has excessive dust.

Leaky ducts can pull particles and air from attics, crawl spaces and basements and distribute them throughout your house. Sealing your ducts may be a solution.

Your heating or cooling system is noisy.

You could have an undersized duct system or a problem with the indoor coil of your cooling equipment.

For more information on having a new AC unit installed, contact Greater Boston Plumbing and Heating.

Energy Star

Drains can really start to smell, and some of those odors can be pretty bad, including the smell of sewage. Here is what to do -- and what not to do – about it.

Considering what they do, it’s a miracle that drains don’t smell up our homes all the time. What happens when your drain is suddenly smelly? Most likely, it’s one of two things: crud inside the pipe (which may be related to a clog) and sewer gas (which is always present in part of your drain system but isn’t supposed to get into the house). Usually a smelly drain problem is easy to solve.

Which One Stinks

Sometimes it’s hard to know which drain smells, so here’s a simple trick: Cover the suspected smelly drain opening with tape or a plastic bag (or both). Let the room air out for a bit. If the smell is gone, you’ve found the culprit. If not, move the tape or bag to the next likely suspect and test again.

Clogs and Crud

A really dirty drain can smell enough to carry into a room, and there are a couple of good clues that this is the source of your problem. A slow drain is one indication. A partially clogged drain doesn’t get rid of waste effectively, leading to more crud buildup. Ultimately, this may lead to a total clog, but it can take a long time. Meanwhile, the buildup just gets worse. The solution is to clean the drain thoroughly with a snake If you don’t know how or if you don’t know what this means, call a plumber.

The other way to tell if your problem is crud is the smell. A dirty drain smells bad, but there’s nothing like the gaseous pungency of sewage. Sewage smell indicates a different drain problem.

A few drains that are most prone to crud-related smells and their solutions:

• Bathroom sink: The drain stopper assembly catches hair — then everything else — several inches below the drain opening. Remove the stopper and clean this section of pipe periodically to eliminate odors.
• Tub/shower drain: Hair clogs lead to soap buildup and badly gunked pipes; clean thoroughly with a snake.
• Kitchen sink: Garbage disposers are the culprits more often than drains. Freshen inside the disposer with Borax or a commercial disposer cleaner, and clean the gunk from the underside of the rubber baffle around the drain opening (you have to do this by hand, and it’s not pretty, but it works).

Smells like Sewage

If your drain smells like sewage, most likely it is sewage or sewer gas. Every drain in your house has a trap — a U-shaped piece of pipe that holds a small amount of water at all times. The water serves as a plug to keep sewer gas from rising up the drain. This works beautifully unless one of the following happens:

• The original plumber or remodeler failed to install a trap, in which case you’d probably smell gas all the time.
• The drain isn’t properly vented, and a suction effect in the system siphons the trap dry. The same thing can happen if the vent is blocked (from tree leaves, bird nests, snow, etc.).
• The fixture served by the drain is too close to other fixtures, such as a toilet drain that’s too close to a sink drain; the force of the toilet flush can siphon the sink trap dry.

If you suspect a dry trap, run water in the fixture slowly for a few minutes, then shut it off This should fill the trap and stop the sewer smell. This can help diagnose the problem but not solve it. However, most venting problems can be remedied by installing an Air Admittance Valve (AAV), a pipe-less air vent that can go almost anywhere along a drain line. A plumber can help with this.

For more help, contact Greater Boston Plumbing and Heating.

Networx

While most people turn to strong drain cleaners when they have a clogged shower or clogged sink, the effects of these overpowering chemicals can damage both pipes and the environment.

Instead of turning to drain cleaning products, call a plumber. A plumber can professionally and safely unclog pipes without using dangerous and destructive chemicals.

Here are a few of the negative effects of over-using drain cleaners.

Where the Drain Cleaners Go

Although using a drain cleaner sparingly is just fine, many people turn to drain cleaners for all of the plumbing problems that they experience. Many people don’t realize what happens to the drain cleaners after they’ve left the pipes. The acid and alkaline from the drain cleaners are treated at the local sewage plant, and then liquidated back into the water supply. As you can see, frequent use of drain cleaners becomes not only harmful to the pipes that they pass through, but to the local environment, as well. A safe alternative to this would be to call Greater Boston Plumbing and Heating to have your pipes and drains professional cleaned. It’s a much safer and more effective option.

Mixing Drain Cleaners with Other Chemicals

When a drain cleaner gets poured down a shower or kitchen sink drain, it comes into contact with previous chemicals such as shampoo, soap, bleach, and an array of other substances. This can be particularly dangerous. When the chemicals break down, they form unnatural substances that can be toxic. You can avoid creating potentially toxic substances by reducing how often you use drain cleaners in your home. If you have been using a drain cleaner on the same drain for a long period of time, you need to have it looked at by a plumber. There is probably a serious problem going on with your pipes that powerful drain cleaners won’t fix. Continuing to use strong drain cleaners will rapidly deteriorate your pipes, leaving you with a multitude of problems.

For more information or for assistance with a clogged drain, contact Greater Boston Plumbing and Heating.

wetrythisathome.org

Outdoor kitchens are becoming very popular. The allow you to relax and enjoy your backyard better than ever before, and they increase the value of your home when it comes time to sell. Most people want a gas grill on their deck or patio, but an outdoor kitchen creates an outdoor living space.

Adding an outdoor sink next to the grill helps with food preparation and reduces trips in and out of the house. Plus, a gas grill that's built into a tiled countertop gives you, as the chef, plenty of convenient cooking and prep space.

Remember your cabinets and countertops need to resist all kinds of weather. Providing an awning or some other shelter from rain and sun is also helpful, so the outdoor kitchen is at least partially protected.

Because water lines will freeze in the winter, the plumber will install pipes and plumbing that can be drained in the fall. The drain line can run to a simple dry well and needs no venting. This is acceptable for the graywater that a prep sink produces.

Your plumber can easily install water lines for an outdoor kitchen sink. And, while he is there, your professional plumber can install you gas lines, so your grill can run from the natural gas lines that run to your home. This way you never have to worry about filling propane tanks.

For more information on plumbing services for outdoor kitchens, contact Greater Boston Plumbing and Heating.

diyadvice.com