The great winter fear for plumbing: frozen pipes! It’s a trouble most of us have some familiarity with because of our extreme winters. It’s the reason people tell you to always have your central heater set for at least 55°F when you’re away from home. There may be nobody in the house, but your pipes need a bit of warmth or they might freeze solid and create all types of problems.
Red Rock Mechanical, LLC Blog
The Best Way to Deal With Frozen Pipes
January 4th, 2021
Why Won’t the Boiler Heat the Home as Well Anymore?
December 21st, 2020
The heat a boiler sends into a house, whether from radiators, baseboard heaters, or in-floor elements, feels wonderful during cold winter days. But what if one morning you wake up to discover that the house isn’t warming up as well as it should? You check the thermostat to make sure the settings are right, and then you might try raising the thermostat setting to make up the difference. But you shouldn’t have to do this: the boiler is supposed to meet the standard household demand for comfort, and pushing up the thermostat to attempt to compensate may lead to more trouble.
What’s wrong? Do you need to call for heater repair in Essex, VT to fix the boiler? Or is it time for a new boiler? We’ll look into the possibilities below.
Ways to Troubleshot (Not Repair!) a Faulty Gas furnace
December 7th, 2020
We want to be clear about this from the start: Only a trained, licensed HVAC professional should repair a gas furnace. This is a matter of safety—although even if it were safe to tinker with a gas furnace on your own, you’d still only want a trained professional to touch the system to make sure the repair is done right. In many jurisdictions, it’s illegal for anyone without a special license to work on an appliance connected to a gas main.
In this post we’re making a distinction between trying to repair a gas furnace and going through basic troubleshooting steps when a furnace isn’t working properly. There’s nothing wrong with making checks on a furnace before you call us for heating repair in Plattsburgh, NY. Often, the problem with a non-working furnace is something simple you can correct on your own. Just don’t take any steps where you need to get tools and open up the furnace! That’s the point where you’ve gone past troubleshooting and might get into actual trouble.
That Strange Sound From the Pipes? It’s Called Water Hammer
November 23rd, 2020
It’s a quiet day in your home, and you’re washing your hands at the kitchen sink. You turn off the tap, and suddenly a loud and surprising bang! sound leaps out from the walls. A sound like a hammer striking against metal.
What was that?
It’s a plumbing phenomenon called water hammer—for reasons you can probably already figure out. This is a common problem in residential plumbing and one that will often take a Burlington, VT plumber to fix. First, let’s take a look at what water hammer is, why it’s a problem, and why it might occur in your plumbing. Once you have that information, we can tell you how we can help resolve the problem.
Does a Gas Furnace Dry Out the Air in a House?
November 9th, 2020
This is a question we often hear, because it’s almost conventional wisdom that a gas furnace makes the air inside a home drier during winter. But conventional wisdom isn’t always correct, and false information spreads fast today.
So let’s confront the question here: Does a gas furnace really dry out the air in a house? If it does, that’s a major concern because dry air in winter can create comfort problems and even health issues.
Reasons You Have Too Many Clogged Drain Problems
October 26th, 2020
When a drain clogs up or becomes so slow it might as well be clogged, it’s an annoyance. Sometimes a plunger can fix it, other times you need to summon one of our plumbers. Although regular drain cleaning and maintenance for your plumbing can reduce the number of clogged drains you face, there’s no way to prevent all of them.
One clogged drain in Burlington, VT is a nuisance. Frequently clogged drains or multiple clogged drains at the same time can indicate a major problem with your plumbing that will require the intervention of a professional plumber. If you are running into clogs as a regular problem, we recommend calling us to have a closer look.
Here are some of the reasons you may have habitual drain clog troubles:
Make October Heating Maintenance Month!
October 12th, 2020
If we had to select the best month for scheduling heating maintenance in Plattsburgh, NY, it would be October. There is no truly bad month for heating maintenance: it’s important that it gets done each year, so having it later or earlier is better than never. But October is when you’ll get the most from having professionals inspect and tune-up your heating system.
Why is this? For one, it’s in the “Golden Zone” where it’s early enough to beat out the first serious cold weather of the year but late enough that the heater will be in prime shape for when those cold snaps first make their chilling debut. It’s also a time of year when HVAC technicians like ours have less crammed schedules because we aren’t dealing with as many emergency calls for failed ACs or heaters. You can schedule maintenance for the most convenient time.
Some Tips to Prepare Your Plumbing for Fall
September 28th, 2020
The change of seasons is already on us, and if you aren’t already in the middle of making household preparations for the coming winter, you’re planning to get started soon. We’d like to help! We offer service to maintain both your heating and plumbing in Williston, VT. In this post, we’re going to look at what you can do to help prepare your plumbing this fall so it’s ready for the colder months ahead.
The Great Fall Question: Did Your AC Do Enough This Last Summer?
September 14th, 2020
Fall is almost here—it may already be here by the time you read this—and people will start looking forward to their end of the year plans. But this is also a time to reflect on the summer, and in our case, that means reflecting on air conditioning in Burlington, VT. Specifically, your air conditioning system. How did it perform this summer? Your answer may help you decide on vital AC services you can have done during the fall lull.
5 Steps to Make Your AC More Efficient
August 31st, 2020
At the end of the summer is when you’re most likely to notice your air conditioning system is wasting money. The bills for the summer have accumulated, and you may see a difference in how much you’re paying—an unpleasant difference.
But you don’t have to accept the fate of a bank-breaking Williston, VT, HVAC system. You can take steps to improve the energy efficiency of your central AC. Some are bigger steps than others, and you may require the assistance of our expert air conditioning technicians. But making the changes are worth it since an inefficient AC is not only expensive, it’s going to decline further and end up sticking you with a non-working cooling system on a day when you need it most.
