Summer time blues with your frost-free hydrants.

So often in the spring, I get many calls about frost-free hydrants that have frozen and burst. The reason is because they had left either their hose on or an quick couple adaptor causing ice to back up into the hydrant and cause it to burst in the wall. Many of my clients call me year after year having the same thing happen. Fortunately, Woodford Hydrants has now made available a hydrant with a spring in it to absorb the ice expansion. It is guaranteed not to freeze and burst. The bad news is that it costs about $15.00 more than a regular one. For those of you who cannot seem to remember to remove your hose in the fall, now we have your solution. One other problem that crops up is that we sometimes has a false start to spring and people get their hoses out and then we have a freeze. You know what comes next. Don't forget to remove your hoses in the early spring or the fall.

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Those who own the classic new two story house built on a concrete slab.

I have been asked many times about how a client can improve the comfort of the heating and cooling system found in so many of these new homes that are built on a concrete slab and are two story. In most cases these duct systems are very poorly designed and cannot easily be changed, however, this does not mean that we are powerless to help you be more comfortable.
Most of the problems are with the great deal of temperature found between upstairs and downstairs. The easiest way to correct this problem is to install vacuum/pressure actuated computer controlled dampers and separate the upstairs from the downstairs. We could then add an upstairs thermostat to control it separately. We can generally get the temperature closer to 2-3 degrees instead of 10 degrees difference. Each house is different but we would be glad to assess your specific house and give you a free estimate. Let us know what we can do to serve you.


http://www.mcconnellphac.com

What about these no salt water conditioners?

I know many people have asked me about the ads that they have heard about a no salt water conditioner. They are wonderful in certain conditions. First, you must understand that they remover nothing from your water. They are not to be confused with a water softener which removes through ion exchange particles and minerals of certain types. A water softener uses the salt to rechage the resin bed while then attracting those minerals to the resin and flushing them out during regeneration. The "Easy Water" system on the other hand does nothing to remove anything but it does a very good job of changing the mineral structure so that if you are only dealing with hardness, they do a great job of making those minerals not stick to pipes or fixtures.

If your only concern is hardness, then an "Easy Water" is a great choice. However, if you have iron or other issues, those would need to be addressed by a different type of system. I think an "Easy Water" system is a great way to protect a water heater and your fixtures. The other obvious benefit is that they use no salt and require no maintenance. The cost of an "Easy Water" is about the same as a water softener.

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Why Should I Buy a Service Agreement?

Service agreements (at least my service agreements) don't just provide our customers with two cleanings, one in the spring for the air conditioner and one in the fall for your furnace, but they also provide our customers with priority service status and a 15% discount on any service performed on your equipment. But let's set aside the priority status and the 15% discount for a minute and examine the other benefits. First, a service agreement is priced at a very discounted rate for the services performed. That means that if you were to call me for a furnace cleaning and not have a service agreement, it could cost as much as the price of the entire one year service agreement but would only get a furnace cleaning. On top of that you get the other benefits. Why would we offer this discount? Because we can schedule the cleanings on our time and keep our schedule full when we have off times. Plus the service agreement ties us to our customers and gives us the opportunity to serve our customers better. I would invite you to visit my website and click on the Preferred Client Club tab. That explains our service agreements in detail. As always feel free to contact me through my website.

http://www.mcconnellphac.com

What happened to the days when your word meant something?

I often get mistified by the fact that some clients of mine are so appreciative of the fact that I simply return a phone call. I just have to think, that that is what you are supposed to do, isn't it?
Well obviously these days that is a rarity. I have always treated people the way I wanted to be treated. And I don't want to have a call not returned. But what about doing what you say you will do?
Well, this too seems to be something that is harder to find. When I tell someone that we will do something, we will do it. I don't make false promises. Now this seems to be simple common sense and of course, something that everyone should do but, I find this too to be not so common.
If you struggle to find someone that you can trust with your mechanical systems, there should be no question who to call. We will treat you like we would want to be treated. Our word is as good as gold and you can take it to the bank.

http://www.mcconnellphac.com

I fixed that furnace myself!!

One of the most common problems I see is that the flame sensor needs cleaning. What is a flame sensor, you ask? The flame sensor is a stainless steel rod that has a ceramic base and on one side is the rod and the other is a wire that runs to the ignition board. This wire tells the board if there is a flame or not. Often the only thing needed is to take some sandpaper and clean the SS rod until it is shiny again. You can't hurt it by cleaning it because it is just a piece of stainless rod.

The syptom to tell you that that is the problem is: The furnace will cycle on and off several times and eventually will go into lockout (a state where the furnace will no longer try to light until it is reset). If you are experiencing this problem, try those steps. You just might save yourself a service call and be able to say: I fixed that furnace myself!

Old school fixtures in a throw away era.

Many of us hate to throw anything useful away. If you are like me (and you may not be) you hate to see something that seems to have a lot of life left in it be just thrown away. Unfortunately, we live in an era when the labor involed to fix something old and outdated is so expensive that you are better off just buying a new ---fill in the blank. Now before you give me a well duh, about this post, let me give you an example. I frequently run across old faucets that a customer wants repaired. Now depending on where the faucet is installed and how difficult it is to replace, it could be cheaper to put in new ones than to repair the old. This, of course, depends on how old they are. Often I am asked to repair an old toilet. The thing about toilets that many people do not realize is that they get minerals built up inside the china and around the trapway and just because you replace every component on the toilet, it may not flush well. This is especially true if you have hard water and no softener. There are many other examples of throw away products these days. I hate to see it be like that but for the sake of you the client, I have to keep in mind that often it is better to suggest replacement rather than repair. Now, if you are one of the kinds of clients that just wants it fixed. We can and will do that even if it costs more. You are our boss.


http://www.mcconnellphac.com