Hot Water Heater Maintenance Can Make Your Tank Last Longer

If you’ve grown accustomed to replacing your hot water heater every 10 years, chances are good that you’re not doing much maintenance on your tank. A hot water heater that’s properly maintained can last for decades, but those that go without maintenance can break down and become inefficient within a few years of installation. If you’re having difficulty with your hot water heater, Boston Standard Plumbing offers Boston-area hot water heater maintenance and repair services.

Since most hot water heaters are made of metal, rust and corrosion are the two big worries for most tank setups. If metal and water are a naturally bad combination, then metal and hot water are decidedly worse! Left to themselves, they’ll promote corrosion quickly though a natural phenomenon known as a galvanic reaction. Hot water heaters, therefore, are designed with a sacrificial anode that takes the galvanic hit in place of the tank itself. When the sacrificial anode is used up, however, the corrosion process will start to affect the tank, weakening it and shortening its lifespan. This sets up the disastrous hot water heater tank failure that dumps 40 or 50 gallons of hot water on your basement floor, foundation or utility closet.

Step one, therefore, with hot water heater maintenance is knowing what your sacrificial anode is made of and what its expected lifetime is. For many tanks, the sacrificial anode threads into the tank like a screw, however most tanks don’t have enough overhead clearance to get the spent rod out. In this case, the hot water tank may need to be disconnected and moved to a different location to withdraw the spent anode(s) and reinsert a fresh one. Laying the tank on its side when removing the spent anode isn’t recommended, since the weakened anode may be more likely to break inside the tank, leaving sediment and bits of broken rod behind. Also note that some long-life tanks are designed with two anodes instead of one. If your tank has a two-anode setup, be prepared to replace both anodes.

Sediment from the water and from the deterioration of the anode can collect at the base of the tank. Over time, this sediment can harden and reduce the heating efficiency of the tank. Some tanks are built with a drain at the base to help clear out sediment. Other tanks have a rotary mechanism that helps keep the sediment from hardening. Check the manual for your tank, if you have one. Set up a monthly maintenance schedule to drain a small amount of water from the base of the tank. By removing the sediment buildup, you can monitor the health of your hot water tank and help keep its heating efficiency high.

Homeowners often complain of low water pressure, but high water pressure can be very hard on water appliances, including hot water heaters. If your water pressure is above about 80 psi, your appliances and valves can be damaged. A pressure gauge inserted inline can determine your water pressure. If your water pressure is too high, a special valve that lowers the water pressure may be needed to protect your plumbed appliances.

If you need assistance with the maintenance on your hot water heater, or want help troubleshooting hot water problems in your home, Boston Standard Plumbing is here to help. Call us at (617) 288-2911 and schedule an appointment today. We can service virtually all makes and models of hot water heaters, and can provide you with instructions on how to properly maintain your hot water heater.

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Snow Could Deliver Heating Problems To Your Home

Here are a few tips to keep your home in good shape for the rest of the heating season. Remember, if you experience problems with your home heating, give Boston Standard Plumbing a call at (617) 288-2911.

Check your thermostat for proper operation. If you use a programmable thermostat, check the batteries to make sure they’re still in good working order. Whether or not your thermostat is programmable, don’t set the thermostat below 62°F. Your heating system will need to work much harder to bring your home back up to a comfortable temperature, and you run the risk of freezing pipes in areas of your home that are not well-heated or insulated.

If your home has radiators and you find that one area is too hot, while other areas are too cold, try adjusting the heat flow from the offending radiator, rather than adjusting the thermostat. Radiators can be noisy and difficult to work with, but when they’re properly adjusted they can keep a home quite comfortable even during the coldest months. If you have a radiator that produces no heat at all, or produces far too much heat, you may have a broken or stuck valve. The experts at Boston Standard Plumbing can help you with this kind of repair.

For gas furnaces, change the air filter monthly to ensure adequate airflow and to reduce the amount of dust and debris that circulates in the home. Choose a date on the calendar and replace your filter regularly. You can find disposable filters at any home improvement store. Inspect your filter to determine what size your furnace needs.

For high-efficiency furnaces that vent directly to the outside, it is imperative that you keep the fresh air intake and exhaust ports clear of snow, debris and ice. Improper ventilation of a high-efficiency furnace is dangerous and may also cause the furnace to shut down or operate inefficiently. Remove slush and ice build-up and avoid placing objects in front of the exhaust port. Also be sure that the fresh air intake is not recirculating exhaust back into your heating system.

If, at any time, your furnace suddenly stops working, you could have a mechanical or safety problem. Do not attempt to heat your home with a fuel-powered space heater or a generator located inside the home. These devices are meant to be used outdoors and must be properly vented to ensure your safety. If you use gas-fired appliances, install carbon monoxide detectors in your home. Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs rapidly and without warning.

If your home heat suddenly stops working, and you cannot determine why, contact us at Boston Standard Plumbing. We can diagnose and repair all heating, cooling and plumbing problems in your Boston-area home.

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When Should You Call A Plumber?

Leaking or dripping faucets, faucet replacements, cracked or leaking toilets and faucet/fixture valve shutoffs are four great examples of repairs that can be completed by the average homeowner and without the need for specialized tools. On the other end of the spectrum, repairs that involve sewer lines and drains (other than a clogged drain) may require special equipment and expertise to complete.

As a general rule, repairs that involve the “clean” side of your plumbing system – that is, the clean water supply – are good candidates for a DIY repair, as long as the fixtures and supply lines are reasonably accessible. Repairs that involve sewer lines, or those that involve specialized equipment like hot water heaters or boilers, are much less likely to be completed successfully by a homeowner, partially because these repairs may involve health and safety hazards, or require specialized tools and skills to successfully complete the repairs. In addition, these repairs may also require interaction with municipal water and sewer authorities, dig permits and other special handling.

For basic plumbing repairs, you’ll want to assemble a “kit” or collection of tools that will assist you in completing basic maintenance and repair tasks. This kit should include one or more adjustable wrenches; a pipe wrench; flat and Phillip’s head screw drivers (including a set of short handled drivers for tight workspaces); vice grips and/or channel locks; a hacksaw; a small diameter pipe cutter; teflon tape; plumbers’ putty; a large capacity bucket; rags or towels; safety glasses and neoprene or heavy rubber gloves; a sink plunger; a toilet plunger and a flashlight or portable/battery powered light source.

Also, as a rule of thumb, if you’re working with older fixtures like sinks or toilets that do not have their own shut-off valves, please do yourself a favor and add one when you do your next repair. All fixtures that use fresh water should have separate local shut-off valves for each water supply line. These valves are generally not expensive. After you’ve installed them, please be aware that they sometimes break in-line. Check the operation of your valves often and replace those that seem difficult to turn or turn with no resistance at all.

Before you begin any plumbing repair, know exactly where your main shut-off valves are and make sure any local shut-off valves work properly. If you’re dealing with a leak or break in a pipe that’s embedded in a wall, you’ll have to open up the wall to get access to the break or leak, and to dry out the area.

Don’t try to cut corners when it comes to drying out the damage. If you re-enclose a wet wall, you’ll soon end up with mold in that space, and that’s a much more difficult problem to deal with. Occasionally, your initial impression of the problem may be wrong. As you dig into the problem, you find that you’re dealing with something much more complex than you’d initially thought. That’s ok; it actually happens all the time. Boston Standard Plumbing can assist, no matter what the nature or size of your problem is. If your problem has gotten bigger along the way, or you need assistance with completing a repair, please contact Boston Standard Plumbing at (617)-288-2911 and we’ll be happy to evaluate your situation.

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Lowering Your Heating Bills

If you want to get serious about lowering your heating bills, there is a range of options available. There’s no single solution; instead, the solution that works best for your home will depend upon what you already have, the way your home is constructed and how much you have available to invest in the long-term heating plan for your home.

If you already have a boiler or hot-water heating system, using a high-efficiency boiler or adding an outdoor reset control may help your heating system work more efficiently and provide more even heat distribution. If you have a gas furnace, replacing an old, inefficient model with a high-efficiency one, and adding insulation and weather-stripping to doors and windows may help your home retain more heat. You may also find that adding supplemental heat to certain areas of your home may improve the overall comfort of your residence and enable you to cut down on the use of your primary heating plant.

Using a programmable thermostat gives you a lot of control over your heating bills. You can use a programmable thermostat to ensure that your heat always gets turned down during the periods when you’re routinely out of your home. In addition, a programmable thermostat can help prevent your home from becoming too cold. If you operate a programmable thermostat, don’t let the interior temperature fall below 62°F. This will help avoid frozen piping in the coldest areas of your home.

Maintaining ductwork and radiators (if you have them) can also have an impact on the efficiency of your heating plant. Change furnace filters where applicable and have your system checked for problem spots, like cracked heat exchangers or broken valves. If you perform regular maintenance on your home heating system, you’re likely to be rewarded with more reliable, more even heating and less costly utility bills in the coldest part of the year.

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Carbon Monoxide Poisoning In Boston

Common sources of CO can include the home’s furnace or other heating plant equipment, clothes dryers, hot water heaters, fireplaces, propane and kerosene heaters, generators and other small machines that use combustion engines, and automobile exhaust. Carbon monoxide is usually vented out of the home through a chimney or other exhaust port. A malfunction or blockage in the exhaust system, an improperly vented machine, or a malfunction in the heat exchanger of a furnace can create a dangerous situation where CO is introduced into the home’s air.

Because CO is colorless, odorless and tasteless, it isn’t possible to detect without mechanical assistance. One of the first symptoms of CO poisoning is confusion. By the time confusion is exhibited, a potential victim may no longer be able to recognize that there is a problem.

To avoid circumstances where CO can be introduced into your home, follow these tips.

Boston Standard Plumbing highly recommends the use of carbon monoxide detectors in your Boston home. Place a CO detector at every level of your Boston home, including the basement, and within 10 feet of all sleeping areas. Do not install a CO detector immediately above or beside a fuel-burning appliance or device. A small amount of CO emission is normal when these devices ignite. This small CO emission does not pose a health hazard and will dissipate into the surrounding air. Prolonged CO emission, however, such as that which occurs when a defective device is operating is a serious problem that requires immediate attention.

CO weighs about the same as normal, breathable air, but since CO is the product of incomplete combustion, dangerous CO may be concentrated in the warm air rising from the defective heat source. Therefore, CO detectors should be placed high on the wall or in stairwells, like smoke detectors. They should also be placed in or near attached garages.

Do not use gasoline-, kerosene-, or propane-powered heaters inside your home under any circumstances. A combustion engine produces noxious exhaust and must be vented to the outside in all cases. If your furnace fails, do not attempt to supplement your heat with a fuel-powered heater. These devices are meant for outdoor use only. Likewise, do not operate automobiles, gasoline powered engines or generators, snow throwers or lawn mowers inside the enclosed garage of your home even for short periods of time. The exhaust from these devices should always be vented to the outside. If you need to start one of these devices, open the main garage door to ensure that fresh air is entering the garage space.

Have your furnace and other heating equipment checked annually prior to the beginning of the heating season by a trained heating and cooling professional. Heat exchangers in gas-furnaces should be checked carefully for cracks or other damage. Defective heat exchangers should be replaced immediately and before the furnace is turned on. Please note that the heat exchangers in high-efficiency furnaces have a much shorter lifespan than these devices do in older, less efficient models. If you own a high efficiency furnace, you will need to replace your heat exchanger more frequently.

If your CO monitor indicates that there is a problem, turn off all combustion appliances (furnace, HWH, stove, etc) and immediately open the windows of your home. Exit the home if possible into fresh air. If anyone in the home shows symptoms of CO poisoning, call 911 immediately. Emergency medical personnel should assess all persons in the affected space, even those not showing symptoms of CO poisoning. Once the home has been aired out, contact a trained heating professional, like those at Boston Standard Plumbing, to determine the source of the CO and repair the defect.

If you are heating your home with an alternate heat source because you lack the resources to pay your utility bills in the winter, we urge you to contact the utilities directly to see if you qualify for home heating assistance. Social service agencies in the Boston area may also be able to provide home heating assistance.

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Avoiding Frozen Pipes In The Winter

First, keeping pipes thawed relies on heat. If you plan to leave your home for any length of time (even during the day while you work) do not set your thermostat lower than 62°F. Your home’s plumbing is often found encased in walls, unheated crawl spaces or in the basement of your home. Some of the heat from the living spaces and duct work in your home will help to keep these areas warm, but this type of heat will only go so far. The warmer your living space is, the warmer the unheated areas of your home will stay and the less likely you are to experience a frozen or burst pipe.

Insulate the pipes in your home. This will help keep the pipes warmer and will also help prevent radiant heat loss along your hot water pipes. Pipes in and near outside walls and crawlspaces are the most likely candidates for freezing so be sure to keep these as warm as possible.

Be very careful about the pipes that enter the home from outside. This would include your main water line and any outdoor spigots you may use for gardening or home maintenance. A shutoff valve should protect your outdoor taps. Every fall, close this shutoff valve and drain any standing water out of the outdoor taps. Remove any garden hoses and store them for the winter. Also drain any standing water from your sprinkler system, if one is installed. This will protect these systems from expansion damage that standing water could otherwise cause.

If you use rain barrels, dry wells or other rainwater run off collectors, drain these for the winter. Clean your gutters, too! This isn’t strictly a plumbing tip, but plugged gutters will cause backups in the downspouts and severe icing along your eaves, which can force water into your home.

If a pipe in your home has frozen but has not yet burst, you can thaw it out. Do not use any type of open flame (such as a torch) to melt the ice. This creates a high risk of fire, as well as a high risk of personal injury. Open the tap and locate the frozen area. This area may be frosted over on the outside due to condensation. The pipe may also be deformed in the critical spot. Heat the pipe from the tap back toward the frozen spot. You want to clear out the pipe, and if you start from the frozen point, the newly melted water may have nowhere to go.

You can heat exposed pipes using a hair dryer, an incandescent or infrared light, or a space heater. Use foil, a cookie sheet or rolled aluminum behind the pipe to reflect heat evenly around the pipe. You can also use “heat tape” to help warm up the pipes. If your frozen piping is below a sink, open the doors to the base cabinet and circulate warmer air around the pipes.

If your pipe is unexposed, you may need to remove drywall or plaster to expose the pipe. If you don’t want to do that, turn up the heat in the home and wait or use an infrared heat source to help warm the hidden pipes. If the pipe bursts while you’re trying to thaw it (a real possibility), turn off the water at the main shutoff immediately. At this point, you will have to expose the pipe to repair the damage and dry up the water.

If you think you may have frozen pipes or your pipes are in danger of freezing, you can call Boston Standard Plumbing at (617) 288-2911. We offer emergency plumbing services and can help you assess the condition of your plumbing, turn off the water, thaw pipes and make any needed repairs.

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What Will An Outdoor Reset Control Do For Your Boston Home?

Many homeowners in the Boston area have boilers rather than furnaces and replacement of the heating system just isn’t a practical option. So what can these homeowners do to conserve energy and save on home heating costs? If you have a boiler and haven’t already done so, consider installing an outdoor reset control (ORC).

An ORC is an external sensor that monitors the outside air temperature. When the thermostat indicates the inside temperature has dropped, it communicates this information to the ORC instead of directly to the boiler. The ORC then compares the outdoor and indoor temperatures and acts as a fine-tuning adjustment for the boiler, instructing the boiler to heat only to a certain temperature. The boiler generates enough heat to warm the home’s interior to a comfortable temperature without wasting energy.

As the outdoor temperature falls, your boiler is tuned to generate more heat. When the outdoor temperature rises, your boiler’s maximum temperature is turned down. You will save on your heating bills regardless of whether you use a traditional boiler or a condensing boiler. Depending on your home heating setup and how you use your boiler, an ORC could reduce home heating costs between 5% and 30%.

Without an ORC, your boiler will simply heat to a preset temperature and blast heat into the home regardless of the outside temperature. In this case, the boiler can “short cycle” or turn on and shut off in a very inefficient way, especially on warmer winter days. The haphazard operation of the boiler means that the radiators and baseboard heaters won’t heat a room evenly and may make a lot of undesirable noise as they struggle to cope with the on-off actions of the boiler.

This uncontrolled approach wastes energy and creates an uneven home heating situation. Your home can easily end up being far too warm, which means that your heating bills will be much higher than they need to be. If you adjust the boiler to compensate, you could find that your home isn’t warm enough for the coldest days of winter.
If you have a steam or hot-water heating system and would like more information about an outdoor reset control, or need assistance with the maintenance of your heating system, please contact Boston Standard Plumbing at (617) 288-2911.

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High Efficiency Furnace Maintenance Can Save Service Calls

High efficiency furnaces will reduce the amount of money you spend on heating your Boston-area home, but this high efficiency doesn’t come without cost. Typically, a high efficiency furnace may cost between $1,500 and $3,500 depending upon a number of factors. If you’re accustomed to an old furnace, the high efficiency model may come with a few surprises. Older gas furnaces draw air from inside the home back into the furnace to be heated and forced back into the living space. The products of combustion (including a lot of relatively wet air) were sent up the home’s chimney.

For newer furnaces, the addition of a fresh air intake and an exhaust line may be somewhat new. In many installations, the products of combustion are no longer routed up the chimney, but instead exit the house through a PVC line about 3″ in diameter.

The furnace relies on both fresh air intake and its exhaust port to work efficiently and safely. Should either of these lines become clogged with debris, the furnace will shut down. Debris can come in a variety of forms: trash, leaves and similar organic buildup can clog these lines. More likely in the winter, however, snow, ice and frost will plug these pipes, reducing the efficiency of the furnace or shutting it down altogether.

These intake and exhaust pipes should be placed on a side of the home that is sheltered from the wind. This will help reduce the amount of debris, snow and ice that may accumulate as the result of air movement around the home. Likewise, the intake and exhaust pipes should be separated from each other by at least 12 inches, and no objects should come within 20 inches of the pipe’s opening. This will help ensure that airflow into the intake the pipe will not be reduced and exhaust will not be reflected back toward either the intake or exhaust pipes.
Boston Standard Plumbing can assist you in maintaining your high-efficiency furnace throughout the heating season. Contact us today for more information about how to care for your high-efficiency furnace or to diagnose and resolve heating problems.

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Using A Plunger

There are two main designs for plungers; one is classic, the other is modern. Both can clear clogs. The classic plunger design consists of a thick rubber “bell” attached to a wooden handle. The plunger bell is usually coarsely threaded onto the wooden handle. If you select this kind of plunger, make sure the handle and bell connect solidly. The last thing you want is the bell separating from the handle when you need it most!

Look for good quality rubber, too. The bell should have no cracks or stress marks on it, and the handle should be relatively straight and smooth. Buy one plunger for each toilet in your home, and buy a sink plunger (a miniature version of The Classic) and use this only for sinks and tubs.
The modern plunger has a bulb shape to it with a tapered opening toward the bottom of the bell. This kind of plunger is designed to work with modern toilets and has a series of collapsible rings that, when used properly, can supply more force than the classic plunger can.

When your toilet drain becomes partially blocked, and flushing doesn’t cause the bowl to overflow, it’s tempting to flush the toilet again to see if you can dislodge the blockage. Don’t! If the bowl isn’t draining properly, you’re likely to cause a sewage overflow, and then you’ll have a much larger problem to deal with.

To plunge a toilet, place the plunger completely over the drain, making sure that the outside edge of the bell makes a complete seal against the toilet fixture. Push down slowly and pull up quickly several times. You may feel or hear the clog release. Remove the plunger and let the rest of the water in the bowl drain. Once the bowl is empty, flush the toilet again to make sure the drain is completely clear.

To plunge a sink, you may need to remove a built-in stopper. Plunging a bathtub drain usually doesn’t require this step. Depending upon the design of your sink drain, you may be able to release the stopper with a quick twist, or you may need to dismantle the stopper assembly from beneath the sink.

Sinks and bathtubs often have built-in emergency overflow drains. These drains are built into the sink itself at the top of the bowl. In bathtubs, the overflow drains are normally found underneath the lever that controls the bathtub drain. In both cases, these drains feed water directly into the drainpipe. These emergency drains will not allow you to form the good seal you’ll need to plunge a sink drain effectively. To create good suction in a sink or tub, you’ll need to block these drains. A wet towel or washcloth held over the emergency drains often does the trick.

As with a toilet, you’ll want to push the plunger down slowly and pull up quickly. Repeat this motion until the clog releases. You may need to take a break; plunging can be hard work!
Try to clear a clog using a plunger first. Do not attempt to plunge a drain once you’ve added a drain cleaning product to the clog. Drain cleaners, especially those that contain lye, can be highly reactive. These cleaners cause a chemical reaction that generates heat and can spew caustic lye upward and out of the drain. Once you’ve added a drain cleaner, stop plunging until the cleaner breaks through the clog.

Boston Standard Plumbing recommends Bio-Clean for clearing clogged drains. Bio-Clean is a bacterial-enzymatic cleaner that clears a variety of drain clogs. Bio-Clean is 100-percent safe for your plumbing and will not harm your skin if it comes in contact with you.
If you would like more information about Boston Standard Plumbing’s drain cleaning and sewer services, or you would like to try Bio-Clean drain cleaner, contact us at Boston Standard Plumbing at 617-288-2911.

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Tree Roots In Your Boston Home's Main Drain

Often, the first sign of trouble is a sewage backup inside the home. Raw sewage can back up into the basement and appliances, leaving a hazardous mess to clean up. Tree roots represent a serious problem, and one that’s not going to be resolved by adding a chemical to the sewer line.

Tree roots usually invade from the top of the sewer line, while wastewater flows in the bottom of the pipe, rarely filling it to capacity for more than a few seconds. Chemical additives will never reach the roots that are causing your sewer problems. Some foaming agents fill the sewer pipe and kill the tree roots they contact. This will only provide temporary relief. The tree will keep sending roots into the damaged sewer line.

If tree roots have invaded the sewer line of your Boston home, you’ll need to respond not only to the immediate problem – a clogged sewer line – but also to the long-term issue of new root growth, as well as the damage to the sewer line itself.

Mechanical removal of the obstruction will clear the sewer line immediately and allow bio-hazardous materials to flow freely into the sewer system. If this is the only step you take, however, you can be sure that the tree roots will grow back very soon.

You’ll also want to assess the damage to the sewer line. Badly broken lines will allow waste materials from your home to escape into the surrounding soil without ever reaching the sewer line. This can cause problems if the break is near the foundation of your home, or under the driveway, sidewalk or another structure.

The professionals at Boston Standard Plumbing can help you determine the location and extent of the damage. Complete repair may entail replacing the sewer connection or placing a protective shield over the broken line. It may also be necessary to poison the soil around the pipe with copper sulfate or a similar compound to prevent the tree roots from invading the line again.

If you’ve experienced a sewage backup in your home, your first step should be to contact the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, the sewer authority in Boston. They will determine (usually at no cost to the homeowner) whether the breach is on your side of the sewer connection or the utility’s side. BWSC also offers a one-time financial assistance program to homeowners and commercial property owners to help offset the cost of replacing a sewer connection. To receive this one-time aid, the problem must meet certain conditions. For more information about this program, follow this link.

If the damage to the line is on your side of the connection, contact Boston Standard Plumbing. We are fully licensed and bonded, and provide 24-hour service for plumbing emergencies. We can help you correct major problems with your Boston home’s main drain.

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