Drain clogs are just about as common a problem as can affect the plumbing in a home. The usual culprits for clogged or slow drains are hair clogs, FOG (fats, oils, and grease), hard water minerals, soap scum, food, and more serious problems with the sewer line. If you can’t clear out a clog using a plunger or a basic hand-cranked drain snake, then it’s recommended you call for a plumber in San Juan Capistrano, CA who’s licensed and equipped to take care of the problem.
We have a long history with drain cleaning and unclogging, so we’ve seen many of the more … unusual things that can clog up drains. In this post, we’re going to look at some of these odder sources of blocked drains. Some may sound bizarre, but any of them could happen to you—and any of them we can fix.
Everyone here at Saddleback Plumbing is proud to announce that we’ve again won the Angie’s List Super Service Award, this time for our work in 2018.
The use of natural gas is widespread, but it isn’t universal to all homes in Orange County. Some homeowners prefer not to use natural gas at all because of concerns about safety. Of course, it’s easy to operate a home entirely through electricity—but it can present a few tricky questions when it comes to an appliance like a heating system. Homes with natural gas will almost always use a gas furnace—it’s simply the most powerful and most energy efficient option. There are also gas boilers, but these are less common in Southern California.
Digital technology has changed the world in significant ways. For example, tiny digital cameras are now installed in the phones most people carry around with them, allowing them to take pictures almost anywhere to capture any moment.
Winter may not be ice-cold in Orange County, but it’s still a busy time of the year for almost everyone. This makes it easy for many routine tasks to slip off our personal “To-Do” lists, or fall so far down them that they never go from “To-Do” to “Done.”
“Do I need to have a whole-house water treatment system?”
The simple answer is: No. If you see ice forming on your air conditioner (probably along the indoor coils), turn off the system and call for repair services from our team right away. The AC needs to be fixed, and it’s a repair only professionals can correctly diagnose and perform.
Water heaters may not run into problems as often as with heating and air conditioning systems, but they are still going to develop issues every once in a while. Even if you schedule preventive maintenance on a regular basis for your water heater, you need to make sure that you keep an eye out for signs that your system is in need of repairs. The earlier you can determine that your system is dealing with some sort of problem, the faster you can get the problem fixed. The following are just a few of the common signs that your water heater might be in need of repairs. 
What’s the first thing that you do when you notice that your drain has clogged? Probably reach for the bottle of drain cleaner under the sink right? What if I told you that is actually doing more harm to your drain than good? Store bought drain cleaners may clean out your drains pretty well, but they do it at a pretty significant cost. One that most people are paying without realizing it. Read on to find out more about why it’s so important that you schedule professional drain cleaning services whenever you notice a clog in your system, instead of reaching for the bottle of drain cleaner. 
We’re finally starting to get some overcast, cooler weather these days. That means that heating season isn’t far off. You may or may not have already scheduled preventive maintenance or repairs to help get your heating system ready for the upcoming heating season. You definitely should, but we’ll get to that in a later post. Right now, though, we want to talk about why you might not be done with your air conditioning system quite yet. If your air conditioner seems like it might be getting towards the end of its life, now is a prime time to replace it with a new one. Read on to find out why it’s better to replace it now, rather than waiting until next spring or summer.