You may already understand that your heating and air conditioning equipment needs yearly HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) maintenance, but did you know that you also should have an expert perform your annual plumbing maintenance? Strogen's Service Experts offers the Plumbing PLUS™ Maintenance Agreement for Rochester homeowners to help them find issues before they result in big problems. While you should always call for plumbing problems and schedule your plumbing maintenance annually, here are a couple ways for you to get your home in tip-top plumbing shape for spring.
Check your home’s faucets and toilets for any leaks. Make sure there isn’t any water dripping out of or around the connections when you turn off your faucets. If there is, replacing the fixtures or repairing the leak could help better the faucet’s function and may even reduce your water bill.
After the faucets, examine any accessible pipes for evidence of leaks. You can typically see visible pipes in basements and below sinks. Extreme weather can cause pipes to freeze and sometimes crack so spring is the ideal time to make sure the winter weather didn’t cause any damage that would result in plumbing problems.
- Give your drains some much needed attention
Inspect your toilet for any cracks or leaks in both the bowl and tank. If it looks like it’s in good condition, go ahead and put about six drops of food coloring into the actual tank. Wait half an hour and then look at the bowl. If the water in the bowl is clear, you’re in the clear. If the dye appears in the bowl, you might have a leak and should call a plumbing expert.
- Don’t neglect your water heater maintenance
If an unpleasant odor seems to be drifting up through any of the drains in your home, it be evidence that plumbing maintenance is necessary. A properly working drain shouldn’t release smells into the air. Verify there are strains inserted in all your drains to prevent hair and other debris from spoiling in the pipes and clogging them up. After you’ve treated with a common drain cleaner, pour four quarts of water down drains that are not used frequently. This will fill the trap and help to stop odors from getting in and stinking up your home.
Your water heater takes good care of you so make sure you’re returning the love. Remember that newer water heaters have a higher efficiency, so if yours is more than 15 years old, it may be about time to invest in a new one to help make sure you don’t have that unpredicted burst of cold water for a week. Despite whether or not you plan on replacing your water heater, there are some things you can do to help keep it running properly.
Check the temperature setting on the water heater and make sure it’s not higher than 120°F. This will help decrease your energy usage (and help decrease your bills) while also preventing scalding. For the purpose of safety, you will want to relocate anything from around the water heater. Your yearly Plumbing PLUS Maintenance agreement includes a water heater maintenance; and it may actually help your water heater operate more efficiently and avoid plumbing problems moving forward.
These are just a couple ways of how you can help get your plumbing springtime-ready, but if you are not confident performing any of these tasks, you are welcome to call Strogen's Service Experts and we can come out and complete your annual plumbing maintenance and repair (or help stop) any plumbing problems.