The backflow preventer is a critical device for most commercial buildings, and is sometimes found I use homes and for larger residential structures. The backflow preventer is designed to protect the municipal water system from backflow, which is when waste water from the sewer system side of the plumbing ends up moving into the potable fresh water side, possibly contaminating the municipal fresh water supply. This isn’t something that’s a problem in most homes—there’s a simple air gap device to prevent backflow in the few places it can happen, such as a dishwasher—but it’s a major danger for commercial plumbing. Commercial plumbing has cross connections where there is the potential for backflow to occur and the fresh water becoming contaminated with bacteria and the microbes contained in waste water.
Red Rock Mechanical, LLC Blog
Why You Need a Professional for Kitchen Plumbing Repairs
April 16th, 2018
You’ve got trouble with the plumbing in your kitchen. It’s going to happen—there’s a lot of piping and appliances in this space, and it gets an enormous amount of work. But what do you do when you have a kitchen plumbing problem? Your first answer may be, “Get out the toolbox and that belt of special wrenches.” This is fine if you’re dealing with something like adjusting a loose washer in a leaky faucet. But for anything else, such as fixing a leaking drainpipe to removing a broken garbage disposal, we recommend you always call on a plumber. Not an amateur or “handyman.” No, a licensed professional plumber.
Last Minute Furnace Repairs—Don’t Ignore Them
April 2nd, 2018
The weather is still cool-to-cold here, and who knows what sudden shifts may occur through the rest of April and even in to May? You are probably still running your furnace during the evenings and sometimes the days as well. If you think your furnace is showing signs that something is wrong, like a loss of heating power or strange sounds from the cabinets, make sure you call a professional to repair the system right away.
When you read that last sentence, did a pestering voice in your head say, “Why bother? The furnace is about to shut down for the warm season. There’s not much point in hustling to get a minor problem fixed now. Wait it out.”
Please don’t listen to that nagging part of your brain! Ignoring furnace repairs, no matter the time of year, is bad for your comfort, your bills, and even your safety. We’ll explain further.
Start Considering Furnace Replacement Options
March 5th, 2018
“Spring hasn’t even arrived yet, and yet I should be thinking about replacing my furnace?”
Yes! Your current furnace is still working away, and will continue to do so until the warmth finally settles in. But the “spring/summer break” for your furnace is an ideal time to make plans to replace it. The point when you need the furnace the least is the time to have it taken out and a new one put in, because…
- You’ll be far ahead of the next cold weather and won’t have to worry about cramming in an installation in fall.
- Local HVAC contractors don’t have schedules that are packed during the spring and can find a convenient time to arrange for the work.
- You’ll have enough time to review your options carefully for a new furnace installation.
Let’s take a deeper look into that last point. Choosing a new furnace is trickier than it may seem, especially if you’ve never had to have one replaced.
Stuffy Household Air? An Energy Recovery Ventilator Can Help!
February 19th, 2018
Are you getting tired of the winter weather, and even looking at the calendar to see how many days until spring puts you in a deep funk? We understand. Cabin fever can be a serious problem during our cold winters.
But there’s no reason your home shouldn’t feel comfortably cozy with its heater running. If you find that your house is stuffy when the heat is on, and you long for some fresh air, what can you do about it? Opening up the windows doesn’t sound like a good solution—it will let ice-cold air gust in. This places extra strain on the heating system trying to fight back. Of course you could turn the heater off … but you don’t want to do that with the house open to the outside.
But we have a way for you to enjoy fresher air in your house without causing chills and running up your heating bill: an energy recovery ventilator.
A Ductless Heating Installation: A Good February Investment
February 5th, 2018
February is a strange time when it comes to HVAC work for homes. Winter is still here, but now that we’ve moved into the second half of the season, people feel less willing to make big changes to their heating systems. They’ll call for repairs if they need them (at least, they should!), but heating upgrades or new system installations won’t be a priority when warm weather is coming closer.
But we can recommend a few good February investments—aside from those vital repairs—for your heating in Burlington, VT and your home’s HVAC system overall. Today we’re going to focus on one of the best: installing a ductless heating system.
Mid-Winter and Your Furnace: Why You May Need Service
January 22nd, 2018
The middle of the winter is the point when you may have concerns about the performance of your home’s furnace. It’s wise to be on the lookout for potential problems. It’s not only the coldest time of the year, but the furnace has done a half season of work and has another half ahead of it.
There are a number of reasons why you may need to have professionals give your furnace a look and make fixes and adjustments in mid-winter. Schedule your heater service in Burlington, VT or the surrounding areas to ensure you don’t have a furnace that fails for any of the following reasons:
Some Boiler Malfunctions You May Run Into
January 8th, 2018
A boiler is a great way to provide warmth during a stormy and cold winter—and we’re in the middle of one of those right now! The heat coming from radiators and baseboard heaters is cozy and spreads evenly through a room, without having to blow around any dust from ductwork. A boiler also has a great advantage over a furnace, which is that it usually needs fewer repairs over its lifetime. A boiler contains fewer moving mechanical parts that can break down. As long as you remember to schedule heating maintenance for your boiler each year (do it now if you haven’t!) you should have reliable comfort through the season.
There’s no guarantee, of course, that your boiler will work without any troubles. Let’s look at some possible problems your boiler might encounter. Call for boiler heating professionals to check out the issue before it worsens and you end up with no heat at all!
Is Your Electric Furnace Not Up to the Task?
December 26th, 2017
There’s a good reason natural gas furnaces are common for heating in Burlington, VT: they have immense heat output that can overcome even the deepest cold days. And we have quite a few super-cold days in Vermont and New York! A gas furnace not only effectively warms up a house, it also saves money since natural gas costs less to use than electricity.
Natural gas, however, isn’t available to all homes in our area. Some homeowners prefer not to use it even if it is available because of safety concerns. For those homes, the electric furnace is always an option—and it can be an effective option as well.
But this winter, are you finding your house is colder than normal, even when you have the furnace turned up all the way? The electric furnace may not be up to its job. Let’s find out why.
The More You Know: Boilers Rarely “Boil” Today
December 11th, 2017
Furnaces have a long history as residential heating systems. After all, the first fireplaces were basically the original furnaces, and ever since people started to construct pipes connected to stoves to distribute heat to other parts of a building, furnaces have been the most common kind of central heating system.
But the boiler has a long history as well. Boilers didn’t become prominent in homes and commercial buildings until much later than furnaces, but they’ve been common since the 19th century. Boilers offer a number of excellent advantages that have kept them around for all those decades: energy-saving performance, clean heat that doesn’t blow around dust, and a toasty warm feeling that people often prefer to the forced-air comfort that comes from a furnace.
Boilers have changed immensely since their first introduction, of course. Perhaps the biggest change of all is that most boilers today don’t actually boil anything, but instead use hydronic power.
