Just Ask Steve

What good is a valve that won’t work?

Question: I woke up with so much energy one Saturday morning that I decided to change out the crummy old faucet on my bathroom sink.  Big mistake! I found a really nice new fixture at the hardware store, but when I got home I couldn’t get the little valve thingies under the sink to shut off the water. Before long, I had broken off the handles and created a big mess.  What are those valve things, and why don’t they work when they need to?

--Elliot

Steve’s reply: Those meek-looking little valves can be real trouble makers. They’re called angle stops and we replace several hundred a year. Their job (in theory) is to be handily available to shut off water to the fixture so that the fixture can be repaired or replaced without having to shut off water to the entire home.  As you’re painfully aware, if not properly maintained they transform quickly from being handy to being a major handicap.

Fortunately, preventive care is simple.  Once a year, fully operate the valves to the closed position once or twice. When you’re done,  fully open it once more before closing it down ¼ turn. Moving these valves sometimes releases loose sand or minerals into the line, so remove and clean the faucet aerator as well.

If the angle stop has been ignored a long time, it may be frozen in place. If this is the case, I recommend you replace it. Trying to force it to work will just cause more leaks to occur or handles to break off, as you discovered. Replacing a frozen angle stop requires turning off the main water supply, removing the faulty part and taking it to the local hardware store for a replacement.  Make sure you get a part that has the same configuration as the original. That way everything should bolt back up easily. It’s a good idea to also replace the water lines that lead from the angle stop to the sink, toilet or whatever at this time too!

Of course, our HPS Maintenance Program services angle stops on an anual basis.

A Very Cool Appliance!

Question:  We have a new home with a nearly invisible built-in type refrigerator. What should we be doing as far as regular maintenance for this nice appliance?

Steve’s Reply: Built-in refrigerators are great! They can be trimmed to look just like the surrounding cabinets, plus they don’t stick out into the room like a standard refer does. 

For any refrigerator, good maintenance starts with a regular (once a year) cleaning of the condenser coils. The coils consist of delicate aluminum cooling fins just like on a motorcycle, only smaller. It’s important to keep the coils clean because they exchange the heat drawn out of the refrigerator interior and deposit it to the room air. Dust acts like insulation and slows down this heat transfer process, making the motor run longer. In a built-in unit, the coils are usually behind a grille at the top. In a standard model, the coils are typically located at the floor level behind a bottom grille panel. The coils can be cleaned with the crevice wand of a vacuum and a special brush made to clean dust out of tight places. The coils and fins are made of soft material, so be careful not to bend them.

The door seals can get sticky and, if not cleaned regularly, can eventually deteriorate.  Wipe the magnetic rubber seals around the doors with a solution of a tablespoon of baking soda and one quart of warm water. Make sure you get into any folds and joints. Use the same mix to wipe down the shelves and interior occasionally. If mildew is showing up, wipe it with a solution of ¼ cup chlorine bleach with one quart of water.

If you keep baking soda in the refrigerator to absorb odors, change it every two months. It loses the ability to absorb odor after that.

If you have an icemaker, throw the old ice out every time you change the baking soda. When you do so, dump the ice and baking soda down the disposal and you’ll be giving your disposal a good cleaning at the same time.

Interior light bulbs eventually burn out, so keep a spare bulb on hand. If you have a door dispenser unit, you will need an extra bulb for that too. Make sure you get the right ones; some manufacturers use special bulbs.

Refrigerators typically have long, useful, trouble-free lives, but occasionally failures occur. A barely-cold interior that doesn’t respond to the adjustment of the temperature setting is a sign of trouble, as is a constantly running motor. If you find this happening, call a pro.

The pros at HPS regularly service appliances, including refrigerators in our Maintenance Program.

How to get yourself into HOT water… forever

Question:  Our home was built in the 60’s and my wife and I have lived here for about 15 years. We have replaced the water heater twice so far, once about two years after we moved in and again about 3 years ago. Should my heaters be wearing out this quickly and could I be doing anything to make them last longer?

Steve’s Reply: Have you taken a COLD shower lately? Probably not, if you live anywhere in the civilized world. Thanks to miracles of modern comfort called water heaters hot water, once only available to the privileged, is now taken for granted by almost everyone.

Last year about 10 million water heaters, were shipped new in the United States and about 8 million expired units ended up in the land fill, unnecessarily. Water heaters don’t have to wear out.

Water heaters break because of one thing: lack of maintenance. Failure to properly maintain the heater results in rust, and rust kills it. The deaths are always untimely and like most indispensable appliances, water heaters often croak at the most inconvenient time. It’s not difficult to tell if your water heater has failed. The unheated bath water is a clue, as is the flooded garage.

Don’t feel too guilty about neglecting this wonderful appliance, it isn’t all your fault. Except for a (usually inadequate) drain valve, few residential water heaters are built with any thought towards maintenance at all. Manufacturers certainly haven’t gone to great lengths to tell you how to make their products last longer, for obvious reasons. Here’s what you can do to keep your water heater going indefinitely.

Let’s start with the easiest task, flushing out the sedimentary build-up. When water is heated, minerals are forced out of solution and form solids that settle to the bottom of the tank. This sediment is mostly calcium carbonate and the harder your water, the more of it your heater will produce. As this sediment accumulates on the bottom of the tank it can cause two main problems. First, the layer of sediment acts to insulate the bottom of the tank from the heat so that the flame must heat the tank hotter and hotter to warm the water. Overheating can destroy the glass liner and deform the bottom of the tank, predisposing it to rusting. Second, a dense sediment layer can act as barrier to the effects of the anode rod, leaving any exposed metal under the layer subject to the effects of unabated rust. Sediment is a sticky substance and cannot be adequately flushed if it is allowed to build up for too many years. 

Flushing of the tank must be thorough and performed at least once a year without fail to have optimum effect. Unfortunately, the wimpy plastic flush valves provided by most manufacturers don’t provide enough flow to flush the tank rigorously enough. I recommend replacing the manufacturers valve with a ¾ inch brass ball cock valve (about $10) with garden hose threads so that you can attach a hose for frequent flushing. Lowering the water temperature to 135 degrees will also slow the build-up of sediment in the tank.

Most water heaters sold in the U.S. are steel tanks internally coated with a glass ceramic material similar to that on porcelain cooking pots. Whether fueled by natural gas or electricity, the water heater tank’s main protection from rusting is the glass coating. Unfortunately, it doesn’t completely coat the interior of the tank. Voids in the coating can and do occur at internal joints, welds, fittings, and seams. Cracks and chips in the liner can also result from rough handling during shipping and installation.

In order to combat premature rusting at these weak areas in the glass armor, manufacturers install one or two sacrificial anode rods in the tank.  By means of an electrochemical reaction, the anode rod(s) (made of magnesium, aluminum or zinc) corrodes away instead of the steel tank. This reaction virtually prevents the interior of the tank from rusting--so long as the anode rod is in place. An anode rod under typical conditions will last about five years after which it must be replaced or the tank will begin to dissolve. The anode rod is located by finding a large hex shaped bolt head on the top of the tank. Sometimes the bolt is easily visible while other times the manufacturer has covered it over with insulation or a plastic cap or has completely hidden the thing under the sheet metal on the top of the water heater. The anode rod is so tightly bolted in place that once found, you will need a special tool called a torque multiplier (or, not recommended, a socket wrench with a 4 foot cheater pipe) to remove it. New anode rods cost about $15-25 and if you put a new one in every 5 years the tank should last many many years.

Another maintenance task you can do to extend the life of your water heater is to take a look at it now and then. A little attention goes a long way. Examine the water lines coming into the unit for signs of rust. Rust in this area is caused by electrolysis and can be cured by replacing the rusty parts with new plastic-lined steel nipples that have threads wrapped in Teflon tape.

Is all this worth it? If your current water heater is less than 7 or 8 years old, absolutely! After 8 years, the unit may still be worth the rehab if it hasn’t yet begun to rust and/or leak. A new water heater, installed, can run from $600 to $2000 depending on the size of the unit, access and the local building codes. You can make yours last indefinitely with just a little regular effort and few dollars in parts every five years. 

HPS preforms regular maintenance services on your water heater(s) and can replace the anode rod as part of our client directed repair services.