Water Heater Maintenance Can Affect Your HVAC

If you have a forced-air central HVAC system and a gas water heater like many area homes, and you're looking for ways to save energy, you need to understand that there's a maintenance correlation between the two. What this means is when you're taking steps to boost the efficiency of your HVAC, you'll waste potential savings if you ignore water heater maintenance.

Why Water Heater Maintenance is Important

When it comes to home comfort, your HVAC system and water heater are two necessities you rely on daily. They're also the two biggest energy users in most households. Just as twice-yearly maintenance is vital to keep your HVAC operating efficiently, it's essential for your water heater too.Having your water heater serviced regularly by an experienced professional not only helps with efficiency, but it also keeps the appliance running reliably and can prolong its lifespan too. Here are some key maintenance tasks that a pro will tackle:

• Testing the T&P valve. This valve needs to be fully functional so excess pressure/hot water can exit the tank. If it's seized up, it should be replaced to prevent a dangerous rupture or explosion.

• Checking/replacing the anode rod. This metal rod is in place to attract corrosion so it doesn't eat away at the tank material. Eventually, the rod will disintegrate, so it should be checked routinely and replaced as needed.

• Flushing sediment from the tank. Some minerals present in water form into sediment particles during the heating process, then settle to the tank bottom. Draining, flushing and refilling the tank every year is necessary to clear out sediment so it doesn't affect the unit's energy efficiency, or cause it to fail prematurely.

• Inspecting the tank for corrosion. If your plumber finds considerable rust development along the tank's seams and at various connections, it can be a sign that your water heater might start leaking or even rupture unexpectedly. If the appliance is badly rusted, having a new water heater installed will probably be recommended.

To schedule HVAC system or water heater maintenance in your Broken Arrow home, contact us at Air Assurance today.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Toilet Flapper Troubleshooting

A malfunctioning toilet flapper can prevent your toilet from working correctly. If your toilet is running or won't flush like it should, check for some common signs that will help you pinpoint the problem.

The Toilet Won't Stop Running

Your toilet flapper's job is to rise up from the flush valve and let water into the bowl when you flush, then drop down and stop the flow of water when the flush ends. As the flapper wears out, it can warp, harden or deteriorate and no longer form a tight seal. When this happens, it can't completely stop the flow of water. This leaves you with a toilet that runs constantly and wastes water.

First, make sure the toilet flapper chain isn't so long it's getting tangled and stopping the flapper from closing or so short that it's holding the flapper up off the flush valve. If this isn't the issue, adding a few drops of food coloring to the toilet tank will help you detect a leak. After you add the coloring, wait 10 minutes and if you find the color has seeped into the bowl, you have a leaky flapper you'll need to replace.

The Toilet Won't Flush Correctly

Your toilet flapper chain should have just a slight amount of slack. A chain that's too short will cause the flush to cut off too soon, leaving too little water in the bowl or even fail to fully clean the bowl. A short flush can also happen when the chain is too long. In this case, the rushing water pulls the flapper closed before the flush is complete.To check for this toilet problem, remove the tank lid and watch the toilet flapper as you flush. The flapper should start to drop when around 80 percent of the water has left the tank. If it doesn't, readjust the chain by unhooking it from the flush lever and shortening or lengthening it as needed by two links.

For help with your toilet or any other plumbing fixture, contact us at Air Assurance anywhere around Broken Arrow.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “gmstockstudio/Shutterstock”