Rentmeister Total Home Service Blog: Archive for November, 2013

Thanksgiving, 2013: The Presidential Turkey Pardon

Monday, November 25th, 2013

Thanksgiving began in 1621, but didn’t become a national holiday until 1863, when Abraham Lincoln declared it in hopes of bringing a divided nation together. We have many Thanksgiving traditions in this country, from turkey at the meal to the annual Cowboys and Lions games on television. But one of the most beloved is the annual Presidential turkey pardon, in which the U.S. President “pardons” a turkey to life in a petting zoo rather than ending up as someone’s main course. As we celebrate this Thanksgiving, we thought you’d like to know a little more about the history of this fascinating tradition.

Farmers have sent turkeys to the White House as far back as the 1800s, hoping to have the honor of providing the President’s annual meal. There have been scattered stories of individual turkeys being “pardoned” throughout that time, including one in which President Lincoln’s son Tad successfully convinced the president to spare a bird intended for the family’s Christmas dinner.

Starting in 1947, the National Turkey Federation became the official supplier of the President’s Thanksgiving birds. The White House arranged for an annual photo op that year with the President receiving the turkey in the Rose Garden. Sadly, there was no pardon as yet; those birds all ended up on the Presidential table.

The push for an official pardon picked up steam in 1963, when President Kennedy ask that the bird be spared just a few days before his assassination. President Nixon opted to send each of the birds he received to a nearby petting zoo after the photo op, though there was no formal pardon attached.

But it wasn’t until 1989 that the pardon became official. On November 14 of that year, President George H. W. Bush made the announcement, and sent the bird to a Virginia game preserve to live the rest of its life out in cranberry-and-stuffing-free bliss. Since then, every President has held an annual pardoning ceremony, with the lucky turkey spared the axe and sent off to live in peace. Since 2005, the pardoned birds have gone to Disneyland in Anaheim, California where they have lived as part of a petting zoo exhibit in Frontierland.

No matter what traditions you enjoy this holiday, or who you enjoy them with, all of us here wish you a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving weekend.

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Hybrid Heating: Are You Ready to Save Money?

Tuesday, November 19th, 2013

It sounds like an overactive commercial. “Hybrid heating: are you ready to save money?” But when it comes to Salt Lake City heating installation, it’s not just hype. Hybrid heating refers to a heat pump married to a small gas furnace, which allows you to heat your home efficiently without succumbing to the problems offer by either technology alone. It works well in places like Salt Lake City, where our winters get cold, but not quite as cold as they do elsewhere in the country. And yes: a properly installed hybrid heating system can save you a great deal of money.

It starts with the heat pump, which combines the functions of a heater and an air conditioner into one single system. In the summer, it provides cool air and in the winter, it provides warm air… in both cases through the same closed-loop system that relies on refrigerant to do its job. Heat pumps cost a little more to install than traditional forced-air furnaces, but they do their jobs much more efficiently. Once they’re up and running, you can save a considerable amount of money in monthly heating and cooling costs, making them a prudent and judicious choice for heating your home.

There’s just one problem. When outside temperatures drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, their efficiency can drop along with it. We don’t always get that cold in Salt Lake City – our winter highs average in the mid-40s – but we do have those cold patches where the thermostat drops below freezing. That’s where the hybrid system steps in, with a small gas furnace to help the heat pump do its job. It provides you with the heating power you need to get through those cold nights while still keeping costs lower than a gas furnace alone.

And those money-saving tendencies also help hybrid systems improve the resale value of your home, helping to offset the cost of installation. “Are you ready to save money?” sounds like a rhetorical question, but with this kind of technology, it’s more than just lip service. The professionals at Rentmeister Total Home Service handle Salt Lake City heating installation service, and can advise you on the hybrid heating system that’s right for you. Give us a call today!

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Common Water Treatment Problems

Tuesday, November 12th, 2013

Running water coming from a municipal system isn’t a luxury. It’s essential for modern living. Aside from giving you drinking water, it also through your showers, bathtubs, toilets, sinks, dishwasher, laundry machines, hot heater, boiler, and refrigerator ice maker.

Unfortunately, water from the municipal system isn’t often the highest quality. If you notice a strange taste in your water, it may not pose any threat to your health, but it will have a negative impact on your plumbing and the appliances connected to it. Although you can attach local filters to sinks and run your drinking water through filtration pitchers, these only scratch the surface and do not remedy the most serious water treatment problems. Only whole house water treatment systems can dig down to the root of the problem and protect your home’s plumbing, fixtures, and appliances.

If your pipes have suffered damage from poor quality water and you need plumbing services in Salt Lake City, call Rentmeister Total Home Service. We can go beyond repair, however, and offer you water treatment solutions.

The problems of hard water

A common reason people install whole house water treatment systems is to combat the ravages of hard water. “Hard water” refers to water with a high mineral content, usually magnesium and calcium. Hard water is rarely unhealthy to drink, although it can make the water taste unpleasant.

However, hard water poses numerous threats to the health of your plumbing. It leaves calcite deposits on fixtures, drains, and inside pipes. A layer of mineral deposits inside pipes will restrict water flow and raise the pressure inside the plumbing. This will cause leaks that will continue to appear until the pressure returns to normal. Hard water also shortens the lifespan of appliances that use running water, such as dishwaters and laundry machines.

If a boiler heats your home, hard water can do tremendous damage to its water tank. The high temperature inside the tank turns the minerals in hard water into an insoluble limescale that will settle on the tank’s interior walls, leading to temperature imbalance and overheating.

Water softeners

Installing water softeners will alleviate hard water trouble by rebalancing the chemicals to remove the minerals. Some water softeners add sodium to the water supply, although Rentmeister installs a variety of model that do not, so there’s no need to add on a separate system to balance out salt in the water. Sodium-free water softeners run more cost-effectively and ensure that your drinking water tastes clean. They also regenerate when needed, which means fewer maintenance issues.

Solve your water treatment problems today

Rentmeister Total Home Service takes seriously the “total” part of our name. When you schedule a whole house water treatment installation with us, we take care of all the work starting with selecting the model and size that will tackle your specific water treatment needs. Contact us today for professional water treatment service in Salt Lake City, UT.

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3 Reasons You Need Heating Maintenance Now

Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

The winters in Utah may mean vacations for visitors, but for residents they mean a time to switch on our heaters to keep warm and cozy until spring. You will ask a lot from your heating system during the next few months. If it could talk, your heater would ask only one thing from you: a regular maintenance check-up.

If you’re thinking to yourself right now, “Oh no, I haven’t scheduled a maintenance visit for my heater since… uh, well, it’s been a while,” don’t panic. It’s never too late to start regular maintenance if you’ve neglected it. But the time to get going is now. We’ll explain the 3 big reasons why.

Rentmeister Total Home Service delivers professional heating maintenance in Salt Lake City, UT. We have a 100% guarantee that if you aren’t satisfied with our performance, we’ll give you a complete refund.

3 reasons to schedule heating maintenance now

1. Avoid winter emergencies: You know that if your heater breaks down, it will break down on the coldest day of the year. That’s only logical, because that’s when it will do the most work. However, scheduling repairs will prove difficult at this time—because everyone else’s heater that didn’t get maintenance will also break down, and HVAC technicians will have crowded schedules. With preventive maintenance, you can avoid an icy emergency and a long wait.

2. Avoid increased energy bills: If you’ve noticed that your power bills have risen each winter, and you can’t account for it because of regular inflation, than it’s probably because your heater is working inefficiently due to wear and tear. A maintenance check will find out why your heater is overworking and your technician will fix or replace the worn parts, as well as provide a general tune-up that will get your heating system back to peak performance levels.

3. Avoid loss of heating power: Your heater doesn’t have to break down entirely to give you grief. If it starts to suffer from malfunctions, it will perform its job ineffectively. The heat in your home will become uneven, and you’ll find many rooms turning cold that once were pleasantly warm. Regular maintenance visits include a check on the heating power and air flow of your system, so you’ll always have the level of warmth you need.

Scheduling regular maintenance is an investment in the future of your home comfort: it means savings on your power bills, fewer repairs and emergency calls, and an extended lifespan for your heater. But in the short-term, it means you’ll have a much better chance of getting through winter without your home abruptly becoming an ice box!

Rentmeister Total Home Service offers an Ultimate Service Agreement to bring you two precision tune-ups a year (one for your heater and one for your AC), a 5-year warranty on all parts, and 15% off all service repairs. Contact us today for your Salt Lake City, UT heating maintenance!

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