A water heater is one of the most important appliances in your home.

Used to be that when a water heater needed replacing, most homeowners just bought a new tank to replace the old one. But now federal regulations in 2015 require tank water heaters to become more energy efficient, so buying a new one just got a little more complicated and possibly more expensive. This will will save money on your utility bill over time.

Whether it’s a conventional tank water heaters, or tankless water heaters, we only recommend Bradford-White for their superior quality and reliability.

Smell Gas? If so, don’t call the gas company, but rather immediately call a plumber or turn off the gas yourself.

The reason is that when you call the gas company, they immediately put a lock on the main gas meter valve not enabling you to turn it on. But if you call a plumber, the gas in your home remains on while you safely try to locate the area of the gas leak, enabling you to continue to have hot water or a stove to cook on or heat at home.

If you do suspect you have a gas leak, you should turn off the main immediately, and stay away until we get there. Yes, it’s a dangerous situation to be in, but plumbers are more helpful in this area. Besides the gas company doesn’t fix leaks for you anyway!

So keep a wrench tied to your gas meter so that its there in case you ever need it and consider an earthquake seismic shut off valve which automatically shuts down the gas in case of an earthquake. You might even be eligible for a discount on your home insurance for having one installed.

After the earthquake happens you can assess the damage (if any) and easily turn on your gas using a household screwdriver near the gas meter!

Consider running less food waste and more water down the drain. Stoppages occur when the waste isn’t driven down by the quantity of water.

So when you use your garbage disposal make sure the food waste isn’t going down without adequate water. And for goodness sakes, don’t put anything that has fibrous material like artichoke skin or celery. Rice also has a tendency to expand and cause stoppages as well.

Make it a habit to put excess food waste in the garbage can rather than the drain… in short. If you only ran water down the drain, you’d probably NEVER have to deal with a stopped up drain at all. Try getting used to only rinsing light food off of your dishes for trouble free drains in the kitchen.

Nothings more troubling than a slow draining fixture!

In order to keep your fixtures flowing freely, don’t rinse the hair strands that fall into your sink or shower down the drain, but rather pick them up and place them in the trash can. Get a simple hair drain catcher, it could saving you hundreds on drain cleaning and stoppages.