Saddleback Plumbing Heating & Air Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Orange County’

Electrical Failures in Your AC System

Monday, June 27th, 2022
wires

An air conditioning system is an electrical device. This probably isn’t news to you, because you know that your electrical bills rise during the summer as the air conditioner starts to put in more work. You may not realize just how much electricity an AC uses, however. It’s one of the highest consumers of electricity in most households, consuming 3,500 watts per hour on average. (For comparison, the air conditioner in “fan only” mode consumes 750 watts per hour). Only an electric water heater has a higher average electrical usage, and you may not even have one of those.

So you can understand why electrical failures in an air conditioning system are among the most common a unit can face. We’ll look at several of the electrical malfunctions from your AC that may lead to you calling us for air conditioning service in Orange County, CA in the future.

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Can a Ductless AC System Really Benefit My Home?

Monday, June 13th, 2022
ductless

Ductless technology has become more popular with homes in the US over the last decade. You might be one of the many homeowners who has wondered if using a ductless mini split system to cool your home is a good idea. Making the change from a familiar central HVAC system that uses ducts can seem intimidating, but our technicians can help you with deciding about a ductless AC installation in Orange County.

So … is a ductless AC a good choice for your home? How can you benefit from one? 

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Corrosion vs. Your Water Heater: What You Need to Know

Monday, May 16th, 2022
Run-down House

You can expect a service life from your gas-powered storage tank water heater (the most common type) of 12–15 years, possibly longer if you stay diligent with annual maintenance and always call for prompt repairs when anything goes wrong with the system. Electric tank water heaters can last for several years longer.

During the life of your water heater, corrosion is the biggest foe to watch for—the one that can bring your water heater’s service life to an end. Corrosion occurs when water meets metal in the presence of oxygen, so any water-using appliance made of metal is at risk of corrosion, particularly rust. 

Does corrosion on your water heater mean the end of the line for it? Can you have it repaired or is it time to call us for a new water heater installation in Orange County? We’ll address these questions below.

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What Will Intense Heat Do to an AC?

Monday, May 2nd, 2022
sunlight

We can expect another intense, hot summer ahead. The spring has already thrown a few 90+ days at us. This kind of heat may make you worry about whether your AC can stand up to it. After all, it’s a Southern Californian’s nightmare to have a home air conditioning system suddenly fail during one of the hottest days of the season.

The best weapon you have against AC failure during the coming heat is professional maintenance. We recommend calling us to schedule the service at your earliest convenience: spring is the ideal time to have the job done, and the summer is approaching fast. If you have this service, you can feel better about your AC’s performance for the season.

But we do want to address the issue of intense heat vs. an air conditioner and talk about what kind of effect heatwaves have on cooling systems. This can help you understand when you need to call us for air conditioning repair in Orange County. 

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What Causes Water Leaks in Your House

Monday, April 18th, 2022
pipe-rupture

Water leaks are an insidious problem in homes throughout the country. Many residential plumbing systems have leaking pipes that stay hidden for weeks, months, even years, slowly causing building damage and wasting immense amounts of water. We recommend our customers schedule occasional leak detection for their homes to find out if they have hidden leaks. Once we’ve located the problem, we can easily use plumbing repairs in Orange County to solve the problem. 

But how do these leaks start in the first place? There is no single cause of hidden pipe leaks, which is why almost any home can run into this problem. We’ve listed several of the most common causes of a leaky home plumbing system. This knowledge can help you know what to watch out for and problems you can avoid.

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Why We Don’t Recommend Using Store-Bought Drain Cleaners

Monday, April 4th, 2022
drain-cleaning-cutaway

Nobody likes a clogged drain, and most homeowners want to solve these problems as soon as possible. There are ways to clean your drains, but one of the most popular (and harmful) methods is using a store-bought drain cleaner. We’ll tell you why we don’t recommend using these cleaners and suggest some safer alternatives in this post.

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Planning for the Heat With AC Money-Saving Tips

Monday, March 21st, 2022
air-conditioner

We’re already enjoying warm weather here in Southern California as spring starts, which is exactly what we expect. We can also expect this summer to be another hot one when we need our air conditioners putting in serious work to keep us cool and happy.

Running an AC is expensive. The only electrical appliance in a house that uses more electricity is an electric water heater (if you have one). The compressor of an air conditioner draws on large amounts of power to run when the AC switches into cooling mode, from 3,000 to 5,000 watts per usage hour. For a comparison, most electrical appliances in a house only use watts per usage hour measured in the low hundreds.

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Welcome March With AC Maintenance

Monday, March 7th, 2022
air-conditioner

Wouldn’t you like to get started on summer early? We can’t change the weather outside for you, but we can help start making an important preparation for another season of hot weather. March is the time when people start to think about the coming warmer months, and it’s the time we recommend our customers arrange for regular air conditioning maintenance. 

We want to stress how important annual air conditioning maintenance is for a home. It isn’t a job you want to skip for a year or two, no matter how tempting it might seem. The air conditioner for your house is vital during the summer—you wouldn’t want to have it fail on you during one of the hottest days of the year, but without maintenance that becomes a much stronger possibility. 

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Has Your Heat Pump Suddenly Stopped Heating? We Can Find Out Why!

Monday, January 24th, 2022
cold-man-with-thermostat

The local temperatures have been swinging back and forth during the start of the year, and it’s conditions like this that will make you appreciate the power of your heat pump. You can enjoy energy-efficient heat that can handle our coldest Southern California days, and when you do need a touch of cooling, you only need to adjust the thermostat down for the heat pump to switch over to act as an AC. Our climate makes the most of heat pumps, and it’s one of the few places in the country where heat pumps will switch back and forth during a season.

A heat pump can’t be perfect, however, so you may run into a problem this winter where your heat pump just won’t heat. It may be stuck in cooling mode, or its heating mode doesn’t produce enough warmth. What’s going on, and do you need heat pump repair in Orange County? We’ll examine the “no heat” heat pump problem below—and when you need a solid answer and repairs, just call us.

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Why Your Gas Furnace Keeps Shutting Off So Soon

Monday, January 10th, 2022
Gas-Burner

So far, this has been a cold winter for us in Southern California! Our temperatures may make many other parts of the country envious, but it’s still cold for us. We imagine you’ve relied on your home’s gas furnace through the holidays and have it going steady most days into the new year. 

Unless, of course, you’ve got a gas furnace that isn’t doing its job. A trouble people sometimes run into with gas furnaces is when they shut off too soon. “Too soon” could mean the heater is running for several minutes, or it could mean the heater is running for only a couple of seconds. Either way, your house isn’t getting warm and you think you need heating repair in Orange County to fix it. 

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