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Maintenance Tip #1 – Preparing the water heater. Turn off the power if its an electric water heater. Turn off the water to the water heater by closing the valve on the cold water line. Its located on top of the water heater. The cold line is always to the right. Open a hot water tap inside the house. Air pressure will come out of the tap. Open the drain valve located at the bottom of the water heater. It looks like a hose bibb. Let a gallon or more out of the water heater. Do not allow anyone to use hot water for the time you are working on the water heater. Maintenance Tip #2 – Overhead clearance. Anode rods are almost as tall as the water heater itself. More often than not the ceiling is too close to the top of the water heater to be able to pull the entire anode rod out. No matter, lift the anode rod up as far as you can. Check to see if their is any flaking on the surface or any of its core wire is exposed. If not, then you can reinstall the anode as is. Most of the anode rods problems occur at its top because that’s where most of the hot water is. If you need to remove an anode rod. Bend it in the middle against the water heater’s opening and pull it out. |
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To put a new one in, simply bend it in the middle again and straighten it out at the opening. If the anode top is wobbly when you try to screw it in, pull it half way again and attempt to straighten it as much as possible. If the overhead clearance is less than 2 feet, buy a link-type anode rod. It has "sausage" links of metal attached together. Its very easy to install. Maintenance Tip #3 – Choosing anodes and replacing anodes. There are three types of metals used to make anode rods. They are magnesium, aluminum, and zinc. If you have naturally soft water, you should install a magnesium anode. Aluminum is used when you have very hard water or water that is softened heavily with salts. Installing an aluminum anode after you discover your previous anode has deteriorated heavily is recommended. If you install a magnesium anode after finding a heavily deteriorated anode could cause a negative reaction in the water and cause pressure to release out of the households faucets. If you have to install an aluminum anode rod, avoid using the hot water to cook with. Modern science believes that aluminum in the water can cause Alzheimer’s disease. Don’t consume any hot water. Zinc anodes are rare to find already installed in a water heater. Zinc anodes are used to counteract the effects of sulfur smells in the water. Zinc anodes are only 10% actual zinc. The rest is aluminum. Do not consume or cook with a zinc anode any more than an aluminum one. If the rod bends easily in your hands, it is aluminum, if not it is magnesium. Anodes have a protective current of about two feet. Buy anode rods that are too tall for your water heater. Cut them down if you have to. Try to buy anodes that are more than 3 feet and 8 inches. Maintenance Tip #4 – Add a second anode rod. If your water heater has an exposed hexagonal-shaped head on top of it, you can install another anode rod for more protection for the water heater. Provided the hex-head exists, unscrew the hot water outlet. It’s the pipe on top of the water heater on the left. This is where you can install a combination anode rod. Make sure the anode rod has a brass nipple that is 2 to 6 inches long. Hire a plumber to do this or look for the information in my article on anode rods. Warning: Adding a second anode can be quite a task. Maintenance Tip #5 – Removing sediment. There are three signs you have sediment buildup in your tank: A lower element burnout if you have an electric water heater, A lot of noise if you have a gas water heater, or a foul odor coming from both types of water heaters. If the sediment piles up high enough, the lower heating element in an electric water heater will be covered and unable to heat water. If your hot water suddenly starts to run out long before it used to and you have an electric water heater, then its probably sediment build-up. Gas water heaters get covered up by sediment down at the bottom where the flame heats the burner plate. Water gets covered by sediment and becomes superheated steam. This expansive steam releases pressure that sounds like a loud row happening inside. If you smell a sulfur odor coming from the water heater, that’s due to sediment build-up which breeds foul smell bacteria inside of it. To rid yourself of these problems, install a curved dip tube. You can also have a plumber use a special expensive Muck-vac tool. Dissolving the sediment is another option. Also, if you have an electric water heater, you can use a shopvac to suck the sediment out through the lower heating element. The how-to of these approaches is just below this sentence. Maintenance Tip #6 – Install a curved dip tube and flush the water heater. When you buy a water heater, it usually comes with a straight dip tube. The dip tube is the piece of plastic pipe inside your water heater that extends from the top of the water heater’s cold water inlet to the bottom of the water heater. It’s job is to get the coldest water near the bottom where it can be readily heated. Sediment forms at the bottom of the water heater and does not move at all except at the small portion of the water heater where the dip tube extends to at the bottom. The water coming out of the tube pushes the sediment away. Trying to wash the sediment out of the drain valve on the outside of the water heater is also impossible. Installing a curved dip tube where the bottom of the tube curves to a ninety degree angle, causes the bottom of the water heater to be swept by the incoming cold water. Sediment is picked up and kept in suspension in the water. Opening the drain valve and letting cold water enter the water heater for 5 minutes can clear up a lot of sediment. Installing a curved dip tube starts by unscrewing the cold water nipple. It’s the pipe on top of the water heater on the right hand side. Stick a curved handled set of pliers in the hole of the cold water inlet and twist the dip tube up and out of the water heater. Get the dip tube high enough and you can pull it out by hand. If this doesn’t work and the hole is rusty, scrape the rust away first. Take the new curved dip tube and mark it at the top on the side that the curve points. Wrap the top of the curved dip tube where you will be screwing it in at the top with teflon tape about eight times. Insert the curved dip tube and point it so that water will swirl along the side of the water heater. Also point it the direction going away from the drain valve. The drain valve is located on the outside of the water heater at the bottom. Make sure it is fully open when draining the water heater. If you use another method to clean the sediment out of your water heater, you should still install a curved dip tube. Optimum flushing should be done every six months or even more often. Maintenance Tip # 7 – Removing sediment with a muck vac. Hire a plumber to use this tool to remove the sediment from your water heater. The tool is expensive and takes some knowledge on how to use. This is the most hands off method to remove sediment there is. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Haynes
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Carbon monoxide poisoning is the leading cause of death by poisoning in the United States each year, and every year, more than five thousand people are hospitalized with injuries and sicknesses related to it. Of the twelve thousand poisoning deaths that occur in the United States each year, at least six hundred are from CO.
This deadly poison, which is colorless and odorless, can attack in even the safest-seeming of homes. It can seep into the air you and your family are breathing, and you may not even recognize its presence at first. Although carbon monoxide is usually noted for how quickly and easily it can cause deaths, it can also cause chronic symptoms, including flu-like symptoms, upset stomachs, headaches, and even brain damage.
CO poisoning is even worse for young children and pregnant women. People who smoke a lot or who have heart or lung problems can easily succumb to the effects of it. This danger, however, can affect any members of your family, including your pets, but you can protect your family members from this dangerous poison by using a few simple techniques.
One of the best ways to protect your family from CO is to replace your old furnace and hot water heater. A low-efficiency heating system can leak the residue of the burning natural gas or oil, and high-efficiency furnaces and hot water heaters will leak less residue. Replacing your furnace can also keep your home safe by getting rid of the old appliances, which may have rusty spots that are more likely to leak carbon monoxide and other bad residues.
Another one of the easiest ways to protect your family from the deadly gas is to have your furnace serviced each year. Get a professional to perform your furnace maintenance, which can keep your furnace more efficient. This can also keep the area around your furnace clean, and all of your ventilation systems clear of blockage that can cause carbon monoxide to back up and leak into your home.
After you’ve taken all these precautions, you should install carbon monoxide detectors in your home. These detectors come in many different sizes and shapes, and they have many different functions. For instance, some digital detectors offer a function that shows how much carbon monoxide is in the air of your home. Since there is always some CO around, you can see whether or not the level is approaching dangerous. More simple detectors will simply have a light or noise that would tell you when the carbon monoxide level is so high that you need to get out of the house.
These steps should be enough to keep your family safe from carbon monoxide, but if you have a chimney, you should also make sure that it’s in good shape, since loosening masonry can also cause you to have carbon monoxide poisoning in your home. Be sure, too, to check any of your other appliances that run on oil or natural gas, since they will also have potential to leak the dangerous gas.
If you’re looking at installing a new furnace in your home, now is a great time to do it. You can get a tax credit from the government for buying a high-efficiency furnace, but you may need to know a little bit about how furnaces are rated so that you can make the best possible choice for your home.
The most obvious rating for furnaces is the one assigned by the Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. This rating basically looks at the percentage of heat produced for every dollar’s worth of fuel that your furnace consumers. Today, all furnaces have to be at least 78% efficient, which means that 78% of the fuel that is consumed by your furnace actually goes to heat your home.
Obviously, then, the higher the AFUE rating of the furnace you choose, the more money the furnace will save you. If you buy an 80% efficient furnace, you’ll lose 20% of your fuel costs into empty space, and if you buy a 90% efficient furnace, you’ll only waste 10% of your energy costs. Chances are likely that a furnace that’s more than a decade old will be losing you more than 20% of your energy costs, so a new high-efficiency furnace can save you a lot of money.
While a furnace’s rating is really important, it isn’t the only important thing that you should consider when selecting a furnace. For instance, furnaces consume not only oil or natural gas but also electricity, which runs their fans and motors. Different furnaces will consume different amounts of electricity, so buying a furnace that is not only efficient with your gas or oil but also with your electricity can save you money on your energy bills.
One of the most electrically efficient types of furnaces is one with a variable speed motor. These motors help precisely control the flow of the air in your home by turning off and on or moving at different speed during different times. These types of motors can save you lots of money on your electric bill.
Another way to save energy is to find a furnace that has two-stage heating, which means that it puts out high heat on very cold days and lower heat on milder days. Most of the time, the furnace will run at the lower heat output, which means that it will use less energy on these days.
Combining the actual AFUE ratings of the furnaces you’re choosing with the knowledge of its electrical efficiency and the type of heating that it offers can help you make the best choice on an energy-efficient furnace. You can basically save yourself even more money by doing the research on the type of furnace you’re buying rather than simply buying a furnace that happens to have a high energy-efficiency rating. Even some Energy Star rated furnaces could cause your electrical bills to rise – or at least not to fall when you replace your furnace – so be sure that you look at all the aspects of your furnace before you buy a new one.
