Rentmeister Total Home Service Blog: Archive for October, 2013

3 Signs That You Have a Plumbing Leak

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

Your first reaction to reading this blog title might be, “What? Aren’t signs of leaks obvious? It’s water dripping from pipes!” You’re right about that—but think about the piping in your home: how much of it can you actually see? Only a few sections of your home’s plumbing are visible; your house wouldn’t look attractive with bare copper and PVC tubes running through living rooms and dining rooms. When leaks begin, they often start in places you either can’t see, like inside walls or in floors and ceilings, or places you don’t visit often, such as the basement.

But you can learn about leaks from other signs. Here are three important ones you should know about.

Because most of the pipes in your home are difficult to reach, you should get the services of a professional plumbing contractor to seal leaks and find any other problems that might afflict your home’s plumbing. Rentmeister Total Home Service is available to help you in Salt Lake City, UT with plumbing repair.

1. Unusually high water usage

Your daily habits will mean a steady water bill that will only fluctuate, up or down, in minor ways. However, a steady leak anywhere in your plumbing will quickly add up, resulting in water waste and higher bills. Pay attention to your water usage each month. The EPA estimates that 10% of homes in the U.S. have leaks that waste 90 gallons a day—enough to fill a swimming pool in only three months. The EPA offers this benchmark: for an average family of four, usage of more than 12,000 gallons per month is unusual.

2. Damp/stained walls or ceilings

Because many of the pipes in your home run through the walls and ceilings, pay attention to unexplained moisture along them. Even a small leak will start to seep into wall and ceiling plaster and turn it damp. Rusty colored stains on walls or ceilings will also warn you of pipe problems.

3. Warped and buckled wood flooring

Leaks in the floor will cause wood beams to warp. If you notice rises in wood floorboards, or spots where the beams no longer seem to fit together as they once did, the likely culprit is a leaky pipe.

You’ll need plumbing repairs done fast if you have leaks in your pipes. Call a professional plumber to seal the leaks and find the source of the trouble to prevent it from recurring. For excellent plumbing repair services in Salt Lake City, hire Rentmeister Total Home Service. We’re on duty 24/7 and offer same-day service that will clear up your worries from leaky pipes.

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3 Signs That Your Heater Might Be Broken

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

A broken heater during the winter can be anything from an inconvenience to a nightmare. If it’s an inconvenience and left that way, it will eventually turn into a nightmare. Don’t let that happen: if you think your heater is malfunctioning, get it serviced right away. The Salt Lake City, UT heating repair experts at Rentmeister Total Home Service can get your heater working for you again.

Look for these three signs that you may need to bring in professionals to service your heater:

1. You aren’t getting any heat

Although this seems obvious, it’s on this list for a very good reason: lack of heat doesn’t necessarily mean your heater is broken. Check the circuit breaker; you may have experienced a power surge. Ascertain that the heater is connected to a power source. Look at your thermostat to see that you set it correctly (this error happens more often than you think). If the source of the heat loss doesn’t come from any of these, get an HVAC professional to find out what’s wrong.

2. Loud, unusual noises

Modern heaters should operate with a minimum of noise. Some are quieter than others, but you shouldn’t have trouble noticing a sound that doesn’t belong. Clanging in a furnace might mean a broken fan belt. Rumbling in a boiler could point to overheating. Clicking inside any system that uses natural gas might indicate a crack in the heat exchanger, which is a serious issue that requires immediate professional attention because of a gas leak danger. Whatever the noise, if it’s loud and you haven’t heard it before, you probably have a broken heater.

3. Unexpected swelling in your power bills

You should keep careful track of your budget not only to find ways to save money, but because a sudden increase in a particular area can warn of trouble. If your energy bills spike, and you can’t explain it because of a change in the season, it may be a red flag that your heater isn’t working right. The heater might be draining power to overcome a break or fault. Get repairs done sooner rather than later—before the whole system shuts down, and your budget takes a hit from a more expensive repair.

Because modern heaters are complex devices, amateur diagnosis on a malfunctioning one is a risky proposition. Worse is trying to act on this guesswork. Give the job to the people who are trained to do it. Contact Rentmeister Total Home Service for professional heating repair service for Salt Lake City customers.

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What to Consider When Selecting a New Heater

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013

**Rentmeister Total Home Service No Longer Services Boilers Or Radiant Heating Systems, We Apologize If This Is An Inconvenience**

You’ve reach the point where you need to get a new heater installed in your home. It probably took you a significant amount of time to reach this point. But you’ve only gotten over the first step. Now you have to decide on what kind of heater to get. Just a glance online will make your head spin from all the options: furnaces, boilers, dual fuel hybrid systems, geothermal, heat pumps, radiant floor heating…

Grab onto your head to stop the spinning. We’re here to help. At Rentmeister Total Home Service, we’ve done countless heating installations in Salt Lake City, and we can guide you to the right heater.

As you start your search, consider these important factors:

Fuel availability

If you already have a fuel source hooked up to your home, this will narrow your choices (unless you plan to shift to a different fuel source). This isn’t as restrictive as it sounds, since some heating systems, such as boilers and furnaces, come in a variety of models that use different fuels. But if you already have gas  connections in your home, you’ll probably want to stay with a gas-powered system. If you use electricity for all your power needs, then you should look into systems like heat pumps.

Sizing

This is one of the most important considerations when getting a heater, and also the one most homeowners overlook. A heater needs to fit your home properly to heat it efficiently. A heater that’s too small will not provide you with the whole-house warmth you need; one that’s too large will “short cycle,” turning on and off repeatedly, quickly wearing down and draining power. Picking the ideal-sized heater requires professional input. Hire an HVAC company to perform a heat load calculation to determine the best size to get.

Health

No, we don’t mean the health of your heater. We mean your health and that of your family. Some heating systems can have adverse effects on respiratory health, particularly for people with allergies, because they can spread dust and other pollutants from ductwork. If you are particularly sensitive to air-borne pollutants, then you may wish to look into heaters that don’t use forced air, such as a boiler or a radiant heating system.

Rentmeister Total Home Service offers a large variety of heating installation options: we install most types, from furnaces to geothermal heat pumps. We’re confident we can find the system that will give you the best comfort for your home. Don’t let the many choices bewilder you into making the wrong one: for help with your Salt Lake City, UT heating installation, contact Rentmeister Total Home Service.

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How Heating Maintenance Improves your Energy Efficiency

Tuesday, October 8th, 2013

Salt Lake City heating maintenance is a necessary step to keeping your heater up and running in the midst of our sometimes harsh climate. We experience our share of cold weather in the winter, and a reliable heater is the best weapon you have against the snow and sleet. Repairs are inevitable for any appliance, but a good maintenance schedule can defer them and even catch little issues before they become a big problem. Just as importantly, heating maintenance helps your unit operate much more efficiently, saving you considerable money in monthly heating bills. Here’s how heating maintenance improves your energy efficiency.

To clarify, heating maintenance isn’t the same thing as repairs. Indeed, if an issue arises that requires repairs, you’ll likely need to schedule a separate service call to handle it. But a maintenance session can spot those problems and let you do something about them before they get out of hand. On a more specific level, a maintenance session serves as a sort of “tune-up.” The service technician cleans off any dirt or dust that has accumulated in the system, tightens any loose parts or fittings, and replace small components (such as screws and washers) with new ones.

The effect of that is to reduce strain and stress on the system by ensuring that everything is functioning the way it should. That means that the unit uses less energy than it might in order to properly heat your home. Your monthly heating bill will be lower, and more importantly, the chances of a larger problem developing will be reduced. That improves not only general operating efficiency, but could prevent a problem that will keep you from being able to run your heater otherwise.

For heating maintenance in Salt Lake City, you can count on Rentmeister Total Home Service to lend a hand. We know how heating maintenance improves your energy efficiency, and want you to save as much money as possible by keeping your unit in the best shape it can be. Give us a call today; we can set up a reliable maintenance schedule and help ensure that your heater is running at optimum efficiency.

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Why You Should Take Care of Heating Repairs Now

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

Salt Lake City heating repair services must tackle a wide variety of issues, from a simple cleaning to full-bore replacement. Most of the time, they’re very necessary. Proper heating is vital to dealing with our chilly winters, providing a cozy, comfortable home when the snow starts to fall. Even more importantly, you need to deal with heating repairs sooner rather than later, lest inaction or inertia create larger problems later on. Here’s a few reasons why you should take care of heating repairs now, rather than waiting for some unspecified future point.

In the first case, problems very rarely go away on their own, and in fact tend to get worse the longer they’re allowed to linger. When a single component stats to malfunction, it increase the stress and strain on other units, forcing them to work harder in order to do their job. That increases the risk of a larger failure involving more components, and thus necessitating more expensive (and extensive) repairs. Acting quickly to address a problem can prevent such an escalation and keep your repair bills manageable instead of colossal.

Perhaps just as importantly, a fast repair job improves the efficiency of your heating unit, saving you money on monthly energy bills. The longer you wait, the more those bills will remain unnecessarily high and the less you’ll be getting out of your heater as an investment. Furthermore, by reducing overall wear and tear on the unit, a speedy repair service can extend the life of your heater, ensuring that you get maximum value out of it and delaying the day when you’ll have to install a new heater.

Finally, a speedy repair service ensures that you don’t have to face a cold front or winter storm without a good heating unit ready to go. You never know what the weather is going to do and delayed repair can leave you stranded when temperatures drop unexpectedly. The sooner your issue is resolved, the better equipped you’ll be to face the unexpected.

If you know why you should take care of heating repairs now, the next step is to call a service you can rely on. Rentmeister Total Home service can handle heating repair in Salt Lake City, and we’re on call 24 hours a day to address any emergencies. Contact us today to set up an appointment.

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