Red Rock Mechanical, LLC Blog

Heating Problem: My Electronic Ignition Furnace Won’t Ignite

February 18th, 2014

The standing pilot light was the regular way to ignite gas-powered furnaces for almost as long as these heating systems have existed. But now an electric ignition system have started to replace pilot lights. Because an electric ignition does not need constant power the way a pilot light does, it contributes to energy savings. The electric ignition is one of the reasons modern furnaces have seen a rise in AFUE ratings (annual fuel utilization efficiency) and have remained competitive with other, newer heating systems.

However, just like a pilot light going out, if your electric ignition fails, the gas jets in the burner will not come on and the furnace will provide no heat. There are a number of reasons this might occur, but whatever is behind the problem, you should not attempt to troubleshoot it yourself. Gas furnaces are potentially hazardous if they receive untrained work. Stay safe and call professionals like the staff at Red Rock Mechanical when you need help with your heating in Williston, VT.

Possible causes for electronic ignition failure

  • Igniter age: An electric ignition system is not designed to last as long as a furnace itself and it will need occasional replacements after it wears out. A repair technician will be able to determine if this is indeed the problem and find the proper replacement part.
  • Wrong igniter for the furnace: Here is a good example of why calling for professionals is best. If the wrong type of igniter is in the furnace with incorrectly matched voltage, it will soon fail.
  • High temperature limit switch affecting the igniter: The high temperature limit switch is an important safety feature of a furnace that prevents it from becoming too hot. The switch will turn the furnace off when the temperature rises too high. But a clogged air filter can cause the switch to start turning off the igniter early. The limit switch itself can often malfunction, preventing the igniter from turning on at all.
  • High current in the home: A power surge can cause the electric igniter to burn out, especially if it is a “hot surface” igniter, which functions similar to a light bulb with a burning filament.

Don’t go “do-it-yourself”

Although the electronic igniter in your furnace is a small and replaceable component, you should never attempt to change it yourself. First of all, you won’t know for certain what caused the igniter to fail, and there may be other issues that need attention. Second, you should never interfere with any natural gas system because of the possibility of carbon monoxide exposure and other hazards.

Call Red Rock Mechanical and our 24/7 emergency service for assistance with a gas furnace. Take no chances with your heating in Williston, VT: rely on our NATE-certified repair technicians.

Continue Reading

Tags: , ,
Posted in Heating | Comments Off on Heating Problem: My Electronic Ignition Furnace Won’t Ignite

Who Wrote the First Valentine’s Day Poem?

February 14th, 2014

The celebration of Valentine’s Day is often seen as a modern institution, even if the roots of the holiday go back to Late Antiquity and the figures of St. Valentine of Rome and St. Valentine of Terni. It’s difficult to separate our view of February 14th from the more recent phenomenon of greeting cards, comical cupids, and specialty treats from candy companies.

However, not only are some of these traditions older than we might think (mass-produced Valentine’s Day cards were an enormous success in early 19th-century England), but the earliest Valentine’s Day love poem comes from none other than the first great English author, Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote in the second half of the 14th-century.

Chaucer’s most famous work is The Canterbury Tales, an enormous collection of linked stories in poetry and prose. But his 700-line poem “Parlement of Foules” has the special distinction of being the first surviving record of a connection between Valentine’s Day and romantic love. Chaucer probably composed the poem in 1381–82. At the time, he was a member of the court of King Richard II, holding an important bureaucratic position in London. The date suggests that Chaucer wrote “Parelment of Foules” to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of the English king to Princess Anne of Bohemia.

The poem follows the dream of the narrator, where he walks through Venus’s temple and discovers a meeting of birds where they all choose their mates. This is where the mention of St. Valentine’s Day appears (English modernized):

For this was on St. Valentine’s Day,                                                                         

When every bird cometh there to choose his mate.                                                                  

The poem also contains a familiar Valentine’s image, Cupid with his arrows:

Under a tree, beside a well, I saw

Cupid our lord his arrows forge and file;                                                             

And at his feet his bow already lay.

When Chaucer mentions St. Valentine’s Day, is he referring specifically to February 14th? Late winter isn’t a time when birds in England would mate. However, the date for the start of spring—when some birds would have started nesting in England—was on February 23rd in the calendars of the time, certainly close enough for Chaucer to take poetic license and nudge it a bit to match with Valentine’s Day.

Love birds remain a popular symbol of Valentine’s Day even now, and for this we can thank Chaucer. In fact, he may very well have invented the link between love and Valentine’s Day, although we will probably never know for certain.

Whoever started these traditions, all of us here at Red Rock Mechanical hope you have a wonderful February 14th!

Continue Reading

Tags:
Posted in Happy Holidays | Comments Off on Who Wrote the First Valentine’s Day Poem?

What to Look for in a Furnace Repair Technician

February 4th, 2014

Here in Burlington, VT, furnace repairs need to be conducted quickly and efficiently before the snows of winter turn your home into a meat locker. You can prevent some problems with regular maintenance and a close eye on any unusual activity with your furnace. Beyond that, however, you need to trust your repair technician to do the job right and to charge you a reasonable rate for his or her services. Here’s a brief list of what to look for in a furnace repair technician.

Proper certification is the first thing to check off the list. Vermont requires plumbers to be properly licensed, and you should look for someone with good reviews from satisfied customers. Beyond the legal certification, positive reviews mean a history of satisfied customers who are willing to speak up in support of the company’s work.

Then there’s the question of accessibility. A good repair service knows that furnaces can break down at all hours of the day, and that waiting until morning while temperatures plummet outside isn’t always an option. Its a good idea to work with a company who has 24-hour emergency service and will move quickly to address your concerns no matter what the time or day might be.

In Burlington, VT, you can count on the furnace experts at Red Rock Mechanical. We have highly trained technicians available on our staff, our certifications are impeccable, and we proudly stand by our record of over 23 years. We offer 24-hour emergency service for serious problems, and all our labor is backed by a one year warranty. To learn more about our services, give us call today!

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Heating | Comments Off on What to Look for in a Furnace Repair Technician

Heating Repair FAQ: What’s That Sound?

January 29th, 2014

Has your heater started to make strange and loud noises? Do you wonder whether your heater is supposed to rumbling, hissing or clanging? Heater problems are often recognized by unusual sounds. Taking heed of these warning signs is important—today’s minor repair is tomorrow’s major repair. Staying alert to your heating system is part of ensuring system longevity and energy-efficiency. Heating problems are often increasing your utility bills in some way. For heating repair in Burlington, VT, call Red Rock Mechanical today!

While our descriptions of sounds vary from person to person, there are some commonly recognized noises that indicate certain problems. Let’s take a look at a few:

  • Rumbling. If your gas boiler or furnace rumbles, then it’s possible the burner or heating element is no longer working properly. This can also indicate an issue with the pilot light.
  • Hissing. If you hear hissing near your heat pump unit, either indoor or outdoor, then you may have a refrigerant leak. This can cause significant damage to your system if left for long. If you hear hissing in the ductwork surrounding your heater’s air handler, then you may have a leak or crack in your ductwork. This can cause inadequate and uneven heating.
  • Squealing. If your heater squeals, then it’s probably a loose or worn belt, which connects the blower motor to the fan. It may even sound a bit like a loose radiator fan belt in your car on a cold morning. This is often a quick fix, but it depends on the condition of your blower motor and how bad the damage is.
  • Grinding. Grinding is typically caused by the friction of metallic parts. If you have dry bearings in your motor, then that is probably the culprit.
  • Rattling. This is often a vibration issue, caused by loosely connected panels and components. Ensuring that your heater is securely fastened at all times is important to the integrity of the machine as well as your safety.

We hope this brief guide helps you to identify strange noises in your heating system. When you’re ready to fix your heater, call Red Rock Mechanical for Burlington, VT heating repair. 

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Heating | Comments Off on Heating Repair FAQ: What’s That Sound?

My Furnace Broke Down: Should I Repair or Replace It?

January 21st, 2014

In towns like Plattsburgh, NY heating concerns are quite serious, especially considering how cold our winter has been thus far. A new furnace entails time and investment, which may entice you to just hang on with your old one for a time. On the other hand, you may be experiencing such significant problems that replacement is preferable to repairs. The status of your furnace should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but a few general tips can help you decide what to do.

It usually boils down to a question of cost, and whether this particular round of repairs is worthwhile or simply throwing good money after bad. If the repairs are particularly expensive, or if this single repair costs a great deal of money, it may be preferable to install a new one rather than fixing the old. This gives you the opportunity to install a more efficient heater (which can save you money in monthly bills) and/or a heater that includes technological upgrades such as digital thermostats and variable speed fans. All of that can help offset the additional cost, or at least make that cost worthwhile.

Similarly, the age of the furnace should come into play as well. A newer furnace – especially one still under warranty – should likely be repaired instead of replaced. Otherwise, you won’t be getting your money’s worth out of it. If the furnace is more than ten years old, however, and it’s experiencing serious or more frequent repairs, then the time may have come to replace it with a new unit.

If you’re saying to yourself “my furnace broke down: should I repair or replace it?” then the experts at Red Rock Mechanical can help. Call us for any Plattsburgh, NY, heating repairs you need. We can inspect your furnace to see what the problem is and either instigate repairs or install a new furnace depending on what you need. Our trained staff of experts can answer any questions you may have, then schedule a repair or installation on a timetable that meets your needs. Pick up the phone and give us a call today!

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Heating | Comments Off on My Furnace Broke Down: Should I Repair or Replace It?

What to Do When Your Heating Malfunctions

January 14th, 2014

What to do when you heating malfunctions depends a lot on your particular circumstances. There always comes a time when sinking more money into an existing heater just isn’t worth it. When your heater malfunctions – especially in the dead of winter, when you need it up and running again fast – you need to look for signs to tell you which decision to make. A brief overview of some of the more obvious signs is included below.

  • Higher heating bills. As your heater wears out, it spends more and more energy to do the same basic job, which translates to higher monthly bills. If you’ve noticed higher costs every month, even though your heater isn’t being used any more than normal, then a malfunction may be the final straw indicating that a new heater is in order.
  • Recurring repairs. It’s quite possible that the malfunction is being caused by something that you’ve had repaired before. Or, it may be that the malfunction comes at the end of a long string of further repairs. Either way, it’s a good sign that your existing furnace is ready to give up the ghost, and you should probably invest in a new one.
  • Age. An older heater isn’t necessarily ready to give up the ghost, but if your heater is more than 10 years old and evinces the kinds of problems described above, it’s definitely time to consider a replacement. You might also want to think abo a replacement if you want a more efficient heater (newer heaters are invariably more efficient than old ones) or if you want to install improved features like a variable speed blower.

Repair or replace? What to do when your heating malfunctions can be extremely tricky to determine. Luckily, the Plattsburgh, NY heating repair experts at Red Rock Mechanical can help. Pick up the phone and give us a call today!

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Heating | Comments Off on What to Do When Your Heating Malfunctions

The Winter Is Already Here: Can I Put off Heating Maintenance for Another Year?

January 7th, 2014

We all lead busy lives and sometimes mundane tasks can get put off longer than they should. Case in point: your heating system. Here in Burlington, VT, heating is a serious issue, and ideally every homeowner should schedule maintenance before winter starts in order to ensure that their home is kept warm without undue inefficiency. But life has a way of putting more pressing concerns in the forefront, and homeowners might very well find themselves in the middle of winter without scheduling a maintenance visit for their heater. “The winter is already here: can I put off heating maintenance for another year?” Yes, you can, though like everything else, it comes with a price.

Maintenance basically serves two purposes: to ensure your heater is running at maximum efficiency and to identify potential problem areas.  In both cases, it benefits you to schedule maintenance as soon as possible. In the first case, if you don’t clean off the dust and tighten loos bolts and fittings, the furnace is going to use more energy when it runs. This translates to higher monthly bills for you, as well as increasing wear and tear on individual components overall.

The second purpose is even more significant. If you can’t spot a smaller issue before it becomes a larger one, you run a greater risk of a more serious breakdown: costing you more money and possibly cutting you off from heat in the dead of winter. Considering the severity of the weather this time of year, that’s no small concern.

In light of that, it’s in your best interest to schedule a maintenance visit, even if winter has already arrived. True, you can push it off until next year, but doing so will ultimately cost you money in some form or another. If you need to schedule an appointment, call Red Rock Mechanical today. We work in Burlington, VT, heating maintenance and repair issues are our specialty, and we can help lower your bills and retain a reliable heating system with routine maintenance. Call us today to set up an appointment!

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Heating | Comments Off on The Winter Is Already Here: Can I Put off Heating Maintenance for Another Year?

The Ball in Times Square

December 30th, 2013

New Year’s is a time for parties, fun and great traditions, some of which go back more than a century. Among them is the famous “dropping of the ball” in Times Square, an event which is broadcast to millions of people every New Year’s Eve. With 2014 nearly upon us, we thought we’d take the opportunity to look at the history of this popular New Year’s Eve festivity.

The idea began in 1907 at what was then the New York Times building at One Times Square. The newspaper’s owner, Adolph Ochs, had been celebrating the New Year with fireworks since 1903. He wanted make the event even more remarkable, and added the ball in December of 1907 to welcome in the New Year. The first ball was designed by Artkraft Strauss, who made it out of iron, wood, and light bulbs. It took six men to hoist the ball up the building’s flag pole; once midnight struck, the tremendous ball was carefully lowered, and all were allowed to marvel at it.

Since then, the ball has undergone many changes in materials and design, and even the New York Times has moved to another building. But the tradition remains and the ball has dropped over One Times Square ever since. Today, the ball is electronically controlled, and uses LED lamps for its construction: designed by Waterford Crystal and weighing in at over 1,200 pounds.

A number of television broadcasts have helped carry the event over the years, but by far the most famous is “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” which first ran in 1972. The show was created and hosted by Dick Clark, who became a staple of the event as much as the ball itself. Clark hosted the show every New Year’s Eve from 1972 until his death in 2012. Since then, it has been hosted by Ryan Seacrest, who shared hosting duties with Clark starting in 2005.

Whether you’re watching the ball drop on TV or have some other New Year’s Eve plan in mind, we here at Red Rock Mechanical wish you nothing but the best for 2014. Have a safe and happy New Year!

Continue Reading

Tags:
Posted in Happy Holidays | Comments Off on The Ball in Times Square

Happy Holidays!

December 23rd, 2013

Holiday greetings from Red Rock Mechanical! We hope you are having safe and pleasant season, enjoying your favorite traditions for this time of year. We wish you the very best, and we thank you for your business this year.

In honor of the season, here are some fun facts about one of everyone’s favorite holiday movies: It’s a Wonderful Life.

For years, one of the enduring December traditions in the United States was watching the movie It’s a Wonderful Life playing almost nonstop on numerous television stations. No matter the time of the day, you could turn on the TV set, flip through channels, and discover It’s a Wonderful Life playing. Whenever you needed him, you could find Jimmy Stewart shouting, “Hello, Bedford Falls!”

But now… It’s a Wonderful Life only appears on broadcast television a few times during December, and most families instead choose to watch the movie on video. What happened?

The reason goes back to the film’s initial wide release in January 1947. (That’s right, it opened after the holiday season. It was not even promoted as a holiday film.) It’s a Wonderful Life was a box-office disappointment at the time, and its studio, RKO Radio Pictures, lost more than half a million on it. The movie’s production company, Liberty Films, was sold to Paramount to avoid bank foreclosure. (A bit ironic, considering the movie’s plot.) In 1955, the National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to It’s a Wonderful Life, which included the television syndication rights.

However, NTA failed to properly renew the copyright in 1974 because of a clerical error, which allowed the film’s images to enter into the public domain. Although the movie’s plot was still under copyright protection because it was adapted from a published story called “The Greatest Gift,” television stations across the world could now broadcast it with only minimal royalty payments.

In 1993, Republic Pictures, which now owned the NTA library, tried to enforce their claim to the copyright of the film, as they possessed the rights to “The Greatest Gift.” Republic Pictures succeeded, and licensed exclusive television rights to NBC. Suddenly, It’s a Wonderful Life vanished from local television stations, and NBC made the movie’s broadcasts—usually twice during December—into major events. As of 1998, Paramount again has the rights to It’s a Wonderful Life… 43 years after they lost them.

It’s still easy to make It’s a Wonderful Life a part of whatever traditions you observe during the holidays, whether through home video or television broadcasts. Despite its lackluster initial reception in 1947, Frank Capra’s film is now an inseparable part of December in the United States.

Have a great holiday week!

Continue Reading

Tags:
Posted in Happy Holidays | Comments Off on Happy Holidays!

Common Boiler Repair Problems

December 18th, 2013

In Plattsburgh, many homes use boilers to keep them comfortable all winter long. Boilers are inexpensive to run, and they tend to be more efficient than gas furnace. Boilers are reliable pieces of technology, but like all mechanical devices they can still experience their share of problems, which require a trained technician to repair. Here’s a short list of common boiler repair problems, which you should keep an eye out for when operating your heating system.

  • Leaks. Leaking could stem from the central boiler or anywhere in the piping system, and is often cause by a corrosion of the fittings or damage to the pipe.
  • Low pressure. Low water pressure can be caused by leaks, faulty valves or similar issues. You can spot it by more strange noises in your pipes and by uneven heating in the boiler system.
  • Clogs. Clogs in the system will prevent hot water from reaching the radiators, leaving those areas without proper heat. The clog will need to be cleared and proper flow restored before the issues can be fixed.
  • Broken thermocouple. The thermocouple regulates the flow of gas into the system. When it’s broken, the gas will not flow and the boiler won’t ignite.
  • Broken pilot light. The pilot light ignites the gas in the system. If it goes out, it it’s blocked by build-up or if it’s otherwise impaired, the thermocouple won’t release any gas into the system.

Regardless of the causes of common boiler repair problems, you want a repair service that knows what it’s doing to make it right. In Plattsburgh, boiler repairs can be made by the experts at Red Rock Mechanical: qualified professionals who can get to the bottom of the problem quickly and correct it with maximum efficiency. Pick up the phone and give us a call today. You’ll be glad that you did!

Continue Reading

Tags: , ,
Posted in Heating | Comments Off on Common Boiler Repair Problems