This month on our blog, we’ve been taking a look at how you can take better care of your home by completing some general maintenance this fall. In our first installment, we took a look at maintenance for your heating and cooling system. In our second installment, we took a look at maintenance for your plumbing. Last week, we examined maintenance for your electrical system. In this week’s final installment of our four-part series, we’ll go over what to do if you come across a more serious issue when conducting your fall maintenance procedures so you can make sure your home is in its best condition.
As you’re going through your fall maintenance checklists this year, you may come across something you didn’t anticipate finding. Maybe it’s an extremely dirty heating and cooling system which may have a bigger problem than just an air filter. Maybe it’s a circuit breaker that’s shut off and refuses to turn on again for some reason. Maybe it’s a plumbing leak that’s been hidden for quite some time. In any sense, you may find these larger problems need some special attention or more dedicated service than you initially had anticipated.
On this blog, we’ll explore just a few of these issues which you may have come across and what you should do to make sure they’re fixed properly and won’t pose a risk of danger to your home.
A Dirty HVAC System
When changing out your HVAC filter, you may get the opportunity to get a quick look at what the interior of your HVAC system looks like. If you notice a thick layer of dust over everything, there’s a good chance your HVAC system isn’t functioning optimally, and that means extra wear and tear, higher likelihood of a breakdown, and a much higher energy bill for both heating and cooling.
The easiest way to make sure your system is cleaned out completely and running at its best is to schedule a professional maintenance service. Professional maintenance includes a full inspection of your system and a collection of general maintenance services which keep your system working efficiently and dependably. However, we even recommend booking one of these services even if your system appears to be in good shape. A maintenance service can helps keep you comfortable and keep your system working, which saves you money in both the short and long term.
A Faulty Circuit Breaker
Have you found a circuit breaker in your panel which has shut off and for some reason won’t turn back on again? Or one which does turn back on but quickly trips and shuts off again with even a seemingly small electrical load flowing through it? This could mean one of several different things, and that’s why the best plan of action is to contact a professional for an electrical inspection.
On one hand, your circuit breaker could simply be worn out and need replaced. Breakers will generally only last a few years before wear and tear start to cause them to experience problems, so a breaker replacement service isn’t exactly unheard of. In best-case situations, a breaker replacement service solves the issue and gets your home working properly again.
However, it could also point to a more serious problem. For example, you could have a short somewhere in the electrical circuit. Shorts are extremely dangerous—the surge of electrical current can cause components like wiring and switches to overheat, causing burns if touched. It can even melt the metal in your wires, sparking a fire in your home. They could even cause a serious shock or burn injury to you or someone in your home. If there’s a short in your wire, you should have it attended to by a professional as soon as possible to make sure it’s fixed properly—this is not something someone without experience should handle.
An Unexpected Plumbing Leak
You go to drain out your water heater and remove the sediment from the tank when you spot it: a slow drip of water emptying into the drain pan beneath your heater. When this is the case, do not hesitate—take action right away and have your tank replaced. Water heater tanks are always battling against the corrosive nature of water. While an anode rod can help prolong the life of your tank by giving water something else to corrode besides your tank, eventually the tank itself will start to dissolve in your water until it develops a tiny crack. This tiny crack is all that the water in your tank needs to start dripping out. However, these cracks don’t stay small, and a leak that’s not dealt with quickly will turn into a major problem if the tank isn’t replaced.
When it comes to water heaters, tanks are pretty much the only major part that simply can’t be repaired. Repairing a tank involves cutting into the outer shell, digging through the insulation in your tank, and then patching the crack (assuming it can be found). This not only ruins the insulation around your tank and causes it to lose the ability to keep water warm, but is pretty much impossible to repair. We always advise replacing a leaking tank entirely and doing it as soon as possible to prevent a leak from growing to the point where it could cause flood or serious water damage.
If you need help with these or any other major service this fall, don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and reach out to the experts at All Pro Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical by dialing (909) 500-8193.