Posts Tagged ‘Avon Lake’

Lakewood, OH Plumbing Repair Tip: Common Water Main Line Repairs

Monday, March 25th, 2013

Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating  can take care of all your Lakewood, OH plumbing repair needs, including water main repairs. Whether you have a major break, leaks, or other issue, call us for prompt service. Our plumbers are trained to repair water mains throughout the area. We are here to serve you, so call any time if you have questions or concerns. First, we’ve put together some common repair needs for main water lines.

Incorrectly installed water lines that supply your home with fresh water can cause any number of issues.  Poorly-located lines can be susceptible to tree root intrusion and other problems with poor soil conditions. If the line isn’t insulated properly, then it could burst during freezing temperatures. Make sure you hire a plumber you can trust to install or repair water lines in your home.

Some signs that you are in need of a water line repair are pools of water in your yard, sudden high water bills, drips in water pressure, or other noticeable issues with your water system, you could have a broken water main. At Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating, we use the latest in technology to pinpoint leaks and repair any problems we find. While damages to your water lines are not always evident, call a plumber if you have any suspicion that your water line is broken. You can also call the water department to see if there’s been an issue with the municipal system outside your yard.

If you notice any of the above signs or having trouble with your plumbing system in general, give the Lakewood, OH  plumbers at Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating a call. Our professional plumbers can take care of all your main water line repair needs.

Avon Lake, OH Plumbing Guide: How a Water Treatment System Can Help Your Water Heater

Monday, February 25th, 2013

Whether you have a tank or tankless water heater, your Avon Lake, OH hot water system may benefit from water treatment. Not only will this make sure that your pipes, valves, and so on remain clean, it also gives you clean water for drinking and bathing. Let Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating come take a look at your water heater to see if a water treatment system might help to extend the longevity of your system. If you are at all concerned about your water heater, or if you have questions as to how to make it more effective, call Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating today to schedule a consultation or repair service.

Hard water can be a serious problem for many homeowners. Water is determined to be “hard” when it has significant amounts of calcium, magnesium and other minerals. This is typically not harmful to consume, but it can present problems for indoor plumbing. Mineral deposits can grow on the inside of your pipes and one system that is especially prone to hard water damage is the water heater. Whether tanked or tankless, the minerals can leave extensive trails of lime scale and rock-hard deposits that can permanently damage your water heater.

There are many different types of water treatment options, from special cartridge filtration devices to reverse osmosis. It depends upon your location and your individual needs, but if you want to extend the life of your water heater or save it from contaminated water, then a household system is probably the best option. The treatment device will be attached to the main line of your water supply. The professional water treatment team at Pompeii’s in Avon Lake, OH will determine the most efficient type of treatment, whether a series of filtration devices or a reverse osmosis system. Reverse osmosis is a rapidly developing technology inspired by the natural biophysical process of osmosis, whereby water transfers across a membrane. Reverse osmosis treatment removes contaminants by trapping them on one side of this membrane, and allowing pure water to pass into your indoor plumbing to reach your water heater. Household systems like these treat water before they even reach your home. They are the most comprehensive systems.

If you are concerned about how hard or contaminated water can affect the water heater in your Avon Lake, OH home, call Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating to speak to a plumbing expert.

How To Tell If You Need Duct Cleaning in Avon Lake, OH

Monday, February 18th, 2013

Keeping your ducts clean in your Avon Lake, OH home is a critical part of maintaining your heating and cooling system. As your local plumbing and heating specialists, Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating is committed to the comfort and safety of your home. Professional servicing of your air ducts can go a long way towards an energy and cost efficient heating system. Let us take care of that for you. Call Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating today.

The ducts of your heating and cooling system circulate temperature-controlled and filtered air to the various rooms in your home. The various airflows—supply, return and exhaust, respectively—need to be kept dust- and allergen-free. Successful maintenance of your ducts promotes good indoor air quality. Whether dust, dander, pollen or other allergens, such materials cannot only impact air quality, but, if left alone, they can also obstruct air flow, leading to imbalances in your HVAC system. Knowing when to call Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating is therefore important. Reducing dust is crucial, but there are also other problems that duct cleaning can take care of, including  biological contaminants and other debris. If you believe your HVAC system suffers from any of these problems, please call a local Avon Lake, OH duct cleaning specialist today.

They require the careful service of a qualified professional who will ensure that your ducts are cleaned properly. Call Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating!

Benefits of a Water Treatment System in Avon Lake

Monday, December 10th, 2012

The plumbers at Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating can help you with all your Avon Lake water treatment system needs. We keep up with the latest technology so that we can install the best system for your home. We’ll make sure to find the right solutions to keep your water clean and pure with our comprehensive services.

Here are a few of the benefits of a water treatment system:

Filters Municipal Water

Even if you get your water from a municipal system, contaminants can easily leach into the system and pollute your water. Also, many municipal systems don’t filter out all impurities. For the cleanest and best tasting water, its best to have your own water treatment system specially designed for the needs of your home.

Protects Your Plumbing System

If you have hard water, it can not only affect the taste of your water, but it can also harm plumbing pipes. If you see corrosion or a rusty color coming from your tap, you could have a number of minerals that are causing this issue. A water treatment system can filter these out and protect your plumbing system.

Filters Well Water

If you have well water, we can install a water treatment system to filter out common contaminants that are found in in this kind of water source. Well water can be high in minerals or contain bacteria, so it is important to make sure you have a system that can filter out these types of contaminants.

Call the Avon Lake plumbers at Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating any time to if you need help choosing the right water filtration system for your home.

Is Your Furnace Dead? 3 Signs You Need Furnace Replacement in Avon, OH

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

If you have a furnace in your Avon, OH home, then you’re likely trying to keep it as long as you can. No one likes to have to replace an important component in their home. But eventually that day will come. However, the good news is that you will most likely be able to tell when it’s going to happen. There are a number of obvious warning signs that can indicate there are serious problems with your furnace. The heating technicians at Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating have been replacing and installing furnaces in the Avon area for many years. We thought it would be helpful if we laid out 3 of the most common repair problems that we see.

Strange Noises

If you don’t check on your heater often you are likely able to hear it when it starts up. If you start to notice strange or loud sounds coming from it, these might be a sign that something is seriously wrong.

  • Rattling – This could indicate that you have a carbon monoxide leak from a cracked heat exchanger. During proper operation, your heat exchanger should properly exhaust dangerous combustion fumes out of your home. When you hear rattling from your furnace, it can sometimes mean that the heat exchanger is cracked.
  • Rumbling – if you have an oil-fired furnace and you hear a loud rumbling sound when you turn it off, it could be a dangerous problem. This might mean that there is uncombusted fuel still in the combustion chamber.
Call a professional immediately if you think your furnace is suffering from either of these problems.

Rusted Heat Exchanger

While rust might be a strange thing to have in a furnace, it can sometimes occur when you have an air conditioning system attached to your furnace. During the air conditioning process, condensation can form on the cooling coils. During proper operation, this condensation drips into a pan and drains away. If that condensation pan becomes clogged, the water can overflow onto the heat exchanger. If this goes on unattended, it can rust through your heat exchanger.

Air Flow and Heat Issues

If you’ve started to notice that your furnace doesn’t produce enough heat or if there is very little air coming out of the registers, these might be indicators of deep problems. While low heat or low air flow can sometimes be explained by something as simple as a clogged air filter, there might be other more serious cause of the problems. For example, if you have low air flow, it could be that the furnace’s filter is clogged. However, it might also be that the furnace’s fan is broken. It’s always best to check with a professional heating technician.

If you need furnace repairs for your home in Avon, OH, contact the heating experts at Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating. We have years of experience offering reliable and high quality heating services throughout the Avon, OH area. Give us a call today!

Avon Lake Heating Tip: Downflow and Upflow Furnaces

Monday, September 24th, 2012

There are a couple types of furnaces on the market – upflow furnaces that take cool air in at the bottom and warms it and downflow furnaces that take the same cool air in from the top and warm it to release at the bottom. Both furnaces have a slightly different result in heating your Avon Lake home, so which is best and how do you decide what will fit for your home? Here are some things to consider.

 Downflow Furnaces

A downflow furnace releases heat higher in the home and it then circulates downward, creating a cascading effect that requires effective insulation throughout your home and often space in the top floor or attic for the necessary equipment. Downflow furnaces may be needed in homes that don’t have a basement and the necessary space for an upflow furnace.

 Upflow Furnaces

An upflow furnace is the traditional basement furnace that heats and releases air up into the home through vents at the floor level. This type of furnace is more efficient and provides more reliable and comfortable heat, so it is a preferable choice to a downflow furnace, but it is not suitable for all homes, especially mobile homes or those that don’t have space for furnace in the basement (or that don’t have a basement).

Choosing Your Furnace

For the most part, an upflow furnace is easier to install, less expensive to operate and more effective in heating your home, so if you have he option this should always be your choice. However, sometimes a home will require the use of a downflow furnace. Modern technology has greatly enhanced the effectiveness of downflow furnaces, so it will not be significantly less efficient than an upflow model.

For more information about furnace installation in Avon Lake, give Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating a call!

Avon Lake Plumbing Guide: Easy Drain and Sewer Maintenance

Friday, January 27th, 2012

When it comes to your Avon Lake home’s plumbing, one of the most important things you can do is perform regular drain and sewer maintenance. Those pipes are vital to maintaining a steady flow of waste water out of your home – if something goes wrong, you’ll regret not fixing it earlier. Here are some easy strategies for maintaining your drains and sewer lines:

  • Avoid Unflushable Items – Some items are designed to be flushed down the toilet. Everything else is not. If something isn’t specifically designed to go down your toilet, don’t put it down there. This includes paper towels, napkins, any kind of food, floss, or hair, and anything else that should go in a garbage can. Toilets may seemingly whisk everything away in one flush, but a lot of that stuff can get stuck on its trip to the sewer.
  • Clear Drains Weekly – You can’t clean your sewer line without professional help, but you can do your best to keep drains clear on their way out. Use boiling hot water and lemon juice or a mixture of baking soda and vinegar once a week to clear out the drains of any excess build up. Also, avoid putting any grease or other gunk down the drain that might stick to food particles and clog the drains.
  • Have Slow Drains Inspected – If a drain in your home slows down significantly, have it inspected. It might be a bit of hair stuck in a trap somewhere, or it could be your sewer line starting to clog. It’s better to know now than to wait and fall victim to a much larger problem in weeks or months.
  • Use Drain Strainers – Don’t let anything go directly down the drain. Use strainers to block food, hair or other stuff from getting into the sink or bathtub drains. Hair in particular, when mixed with grease or soap can become a glue-like substance in your drains.

Drainage and sewer maintenance are services that can be scheduled with Pompeii’s Plumbing and Heating to ensure that all your drain lines are open and flowing efficiently to maximize residential drainage. It is the general maintenance that helps to stop small unseen issues, before they turn into larger and much more costly situations.

Question from Avon Lake: What Causes Low Water Pressure?

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Low water pressure in your Avon Lake home can make just about everything from showering to cleaning more difficult. It is frustrating, but it often seems like there is very little you can do about it. In fact, you may be able to improve your water pressure in a variety of ways, but the appropriate technique will depend on the root cause of your problem.

There are several different possible causes for low water pressure. If the problem is limited to certain areas or fixtures in the house, it may very well be because the pipes feeding that area or fixture are too small. Smaller pipes will only allow a smaller amount of water to pass through at once, making it impossible for you to get the force you are after.

Fixing this, of course, means putting in larger pipes, and that may be easier said than done. However, if the problem is on a small scale, you should not have too much trouble or need to pay too much to have a professional complete the job. A problem in a particular fixture can also result from small clogs or backups in the fixture itself, and this is a relatively easy situation to remedy as well.

A low water pressure problem that affects your whole house can result if the main pipes feeding into your house are too small. This could be the case if your house has been added onto since it was built or if you have more people living there now and using more water.

Replacing those incoming pipes is a big job, but it is often the only way to increase your water pressure and make it possible for the system to satisfy the water needs of the house. This is definitely something you will want to have a professional plumber work on, and while it can be costly, it will be well worth it in the end.

Another possible reason that you might have low house-wide water pressure is that you live at the end of the area water system or that you use an improperly located well. If your well is downhill from your home, for instance, you should consider installing a booster pump that can help move the water into your house more efficiently. The same remedy can work if you live on the outskirts of town and at the limit of your town’s water system.

Furnace vs. Heat Pump: A Guide from Amherst

Monday, October 17th, 2011

If you’re preparing to replace your existing heating system in Amherst, you may very well be struggling with the question of whether to go with a furnace or a heat pump for all of your future home heating needs. Each of these systems have their own advantages and drawbacks, and once you’ve narrowed it down to one type or the other, you’ll still have a pretty wide variety of products to choose from.

Furnaces are still the most popular type of home heating equipment on the market. You can get furnaces that run on gas, oil or electricity, although gas furnaces are by far the most common type of furnace around these days. The latest models are extremely energy efficient, with AFUE ratings reaching into the high 90%s.

Like heat pumps, furnaces use ducts to transfer heated air throughout your home. They typically require regular maintenance once every year or two depending on the type of furnace you have, and they can be expected to last anywhere from 15 to 25 years when properly maintained. Most modern furnaces are also made to be compatible with a central air conditioning or cooling system as well.

Heat pumps, on the other hand, don’t generate the heat that they circulate throughout your house. Instead they are able to extract the heat from the air outside and pump it inside. This means that they use much less energy than even the most energy efficient furnaces.

However, heat pumps are only capable of heating your house comfortably when the outside temperature is above freezing. If you live in an area with particularly long and frigid winters, you’ll probably find that you need to supplement your heat pump with another heat source. Because of this, it actually makes little sense to use a heat pump in more extreme climates.

On the other hand, if you live in an area with relatively mild winters, heat pumps can be a great option. They provide a constant flow of warm air to all parts of your home and can also keep you house cool during hot summer months. To cool your home, heat pumps simply reverse the process they use to warm it. They take the heat out of your indoor air and pump it outside. This is a very effective home cooling method and makes heat pumps a great solution for year round comfort.

How Do EER and SEER Work? A Question From Vermillion

Friday, August 19th, 2011

If you’ve looked for a new air conditioner in Vermillion recently, you probably noticed each unit comes with an EER or SEER rating. The former is for room air conditioners and the latter for central air conditioning units. In both cases, the number is a measure of how efficiently the system uses electricity. Effectively, if you buy a system with a high rating, you spend less on electricity. Of course, there are tradeoffs. The higher rated machines tend to cost much more, so as a homeowner, you’ll have to evaluate how much you can spend now and how long it will take to save money from that investment.

How EER and SEER Are Measured

These numbers are required by the government to tell you, the consumer, how many BTUs per hour the device can use for every watt of electricity drawn. The more BTUs a system can use, the better for your bill.

Let’s say you want to buy a 10,000 BTU system to cool your living room and dining room. A pretty standard number for a single room unit is 11, meaning the 10,000 BTU system would use about 900 watts per hour to run at full capacity. We figure this out by dividing the BTUs (10,000) by the watts (900).

There is a lot of math to do here, so many people simply look for a higher number within their price range. But, at what point is the upgrade really worth your extra money?

Choosing the Right Energy Efficiency Rating

The easiest way to describe this is to compare two similar devices with different EERs:

Air Conditioner 1 Air Conditioner 2
BTUs 12,000 12,000
EER 9 11
Watts 1333 1091
Price $300 $450

In this particular case, we can spend more for a device that is the same size but uses less electricity. The question then is whether that increased expenditure will pay off in the short term. Let’s assume each device would be operated for 10 hours per day for 30 days in a typical summer month. That’s 300 hours of operation. If the average cost per kWh in you are is $0.09, it will take 4 hours for the first air conditioner to consume 1 extra kilowatt of electricity equal to an additional $0.09. If your air conditioner runs for four months out of the year, we know that it will operate for a total of 1200 hours. That means:

[(1200 hrs x 242 watts) / (1000 watts/kw) ] x $0.09/kWh = $26

So, you save roughly $26 per year from that high efficiency unit. With a $150 price difference, you will break even after 6 years (though probably sooner if the price of electricity goes up).

Don’t forget, however, that central systems are a much more efficient option with SEERs of up to 16.5 and much larger BTU areas to cover. The savings there can add up very quickly.