South End Plumbing Heating & Air Expert Tips

Tired of Waiting On Hot Water? You Need a Recirculating Pump

Have you gotten tired of waiting on your hot water after you turn it on? If you have a large home, you may wait a few seconds or even minutes for hot water. This is not only time consuming, but wastes precious water.

The distance your hot water has to travel is the reason cold water comes out first. When the hot water faucet is on, hot water travels to your sink through your plumbing. Turn it off and the water stops, but that hot water doesn’t return it to the water heater. It stays in the pipes and gets cold. The next time you might need hot water, the cold water in the pipes has to be pushed out by new hot water from your water heater. The more piping distance between the water heater and the faucet at the furthest part of your home, the more cold water there is and the longer it takes.

The Solution is Simple

You can have our plumbers install a recirculating pump. A hot water recirculating pump is installed on your water heater (and some can be installed under your sink), they function to return unused hot water back to the water heater. This genius design allows you to have instant hot water.

How Often Should You Get Your Water Heater Flushed?

Water heaters need regular maintenance as does other contraptions such as your car. Over time, water heaters build up inside with sediment, calcium, and minerals that settles at the bottom of the tank. By design the heating element of a water heater is at the bottom of the tank, this is because heat rises. If this heat is being insulated by sediment by sediment calcium, then your water heater has to use more energy to heat the water.

It’s proven there are no downsides to flushing a water heater. Minerals build up causes damage and it is more expensive to leave it it in the tank than to just flush it out regularly.

What’s a Backflow Preventer And When Do You Need One?

Backflow preventers are valves that are installed on your home’s plumbing supply line or an irrigation water supply line that allows water to flow only in one direction but never in the opposite direction. The purpose of it’s design is to prevent possible contaminated water from flowing in your or city drinking water supply lines. 

But just what is “backflow”  when it refers to plumbing? Is this something the average Charlotte homeowner needs to worry about?

Never fear, we’ll answer these questions and more in our written guide blow to Backflow Preventers. To begin, let’s look at how contamination from backflow can occur. 

What Causes Toilet Tank Bolts To Rust?

If you have a toilet you may have looked into the tank to clean or fix issues. That being said, if the toilet is more than a few years old you might have noticed the tank bolts are rusty. This can cause alarm because you know if the bolts rust out you’re going to have a massive leak. Rusting toilet tank bolts can easily be prevented by using solid brass bolts. Manufacturers of toilets due to saving every dime on cheap parts have been including zinc plated steel bolts (which are prone to rust) with toilets for years now, and they just don’t last forever.

Should You Switch to City Water if You Have a Well?

Even with city water supply, many people in Charlotte and the surrounding areas are still on well water. There are both drawbacks and benefits to being on either well or city water. So if you are considering switching to city water, you’ll want to ask yourself these questions.

How to Clean Jetted Tubs With Bleach

No one wants to sit down for a nice bath and find flecks of water stains, hair, and who-knows-what-else floating in the water. Unfortunately thought if you have a jetted tub this is pretty common because the jets and plumbing can collect build up and release it into the water even when the jets aren’t on. But there are some simple ways to keep those jets clean using dish soap and bleach.