You may already understand that your heating and air conditioning equipment needs yearly HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) maintenance, but were you aware that you also need to call an expert for annual plumbing maintenance? D&K Home Services by Enercare offers the Plumbing PLUS™ Maintenance Agreement for Belleville homeowners to help them uncover issues before they become big problems. While you should always call for plumbing problems and schedule your plumbing maintenance yearly, here are a couple ways you can get your home in tip-top plumbing shape for spring.
Inspect your home’s faucets and toilets for any leaks. Confirm there is no water dripping out of or around the connections when you shut off your faucets. If there is, swapping out the fixtures or repairing the leak could help boost the faucet’s operation and may even reduce your water bill.
After the faucets, check all exposed pipes for evidence of leaks. You can often see visible pipes in the basement and under sinks. In extreme weather pipes can freeze and crack, so springtime is great to make sure the winter weather didn’t damage anything that could cause plumbing problems.
- Give your drains some long overdue attention
Examine your toilet for any fractures or leaks in both the bowl and tank. If everything seems to be in good shape, go ahead and pour about six drops of food color into the actual tank. Wait for about 35 minutes and then check the bowl. If the bowl water is uncolored, you’re fine. If the food coloring appears in the bowl, you might have a leak and will want to call a plumbing expert.
- Don’t forget your water heater maintenance
If something foul seems to be getting in from any of the drains in your home, it be a sign that plumbing maintenance is needed. A properly running drain shouldn’t release smells into the air. Check to make sure there are strains inserted in all your drains to stop hair and other remains from spoiling in the pipes and clogging them up. Once you’ve treated them with a common drain cleaner, pour four quarts of water into drains that are not used often. This will fill the trap and help to prevent odors from seeping in and stinking up your home.
Your water heater takes excellent care of you so make sure you’re returning the favor. Don’t forget that newer water heaters have a higher efficiency, so if yours is older than 15 years, it may be about time to start looking into a new one in order to ensure you don’t have that sudden burst of cold water for several days. Whether or not you plan on replacing your water heater, there are some things you can do to help keep it functioning properly.
Make sure the temperature setting on the equipment is not set higher than 120°F. This will help lower your energy use (and help reduce your bills) while also evading scalding. As a safety precaution, you will want to relocate anything from around the water heater. Your 12 month Plumbing PLUS Maintenance agreement includes a water heater maintenance; and it may actually help your water heater run more efficiently and avoid plumbing problems from happening.
These are just some ways of how you can help get your plumbing springtime-ready, but if you are not comfortable performing any of these tasks, please call D&K Home Services by Enercare and we can come out and conduct your yearly plumbing maintenance and fix (or help avoid) any plumbing problems.