Design Comfort Blog: Archive for March, 2014

Things to Repair Now That Heating Season Is Over

Monday, March 31st, 2014

Spring will bring with it warm weather, ramping us up for another hot summer season. Your home’s heating system is about to go on a sabbatical (with perhaps a few “guest appearances” on select cool days) and you won’t think about it much until the cold weather returns.

But warm weather is an ideal time to take care of any repairs you may have neglected during the winter. You should never let any heating repair go for any length of time, but it’s difficult to face having your heater down during repairs. So if those malfunctions were still occurring when the winter ended, grab this time during the warmer temperatures of spring and before the busy season of summer to have heating services in Salt Lake City, UT for whatever ails your heater.

Design Comfort has NATE-certified technicians ready to assist you when you need help for your home’s comfort system. Here are some repairs to call them for now that heating season has concluded:

Leaking in a boiler

Those water pools starting around your boiler… that’s bad news. You have leaking occurring either in the connections, the valves, or along the tank itself. Water build-up can also lead to damage. Have technicians seal up leaks and find out what caused them in the first place.

Grinding sounds from a furnace

A furnace that starts making unusual noises needs to have professional attention right away. If your furnace was starting to “growl” at you at the end of winter, it could mean motors on the verge of dying… and they’ll like die the next time your turn the furnace on. Have technicians replace the troubled motors before they become worse.

Inadequate airflow from the vents

If you noticed that airflow from your vents was dropping, then there are a number of repairs might help you. Usually, this means a problem in the air handler that contains the blower motor, and under certain conditions you may need the unit replaced entirely.

Corrosion on a furnace or boiler

Rust or corrosion of any kind is something you never want to encounter on a furnace or a boiler. If this develops too far, it usually means you must replace the whole system with a new installation. Don’t hesitate to have specialists inspect the unit and find out what is happening to cause the corrosion and what must be done to fix it.

Prompt and skilled repairs are an essential part of making sure your heating system lives up to its efficiency rating and its expected service life. Catch up on those repairs now with professional heating services in Salt Lake City, UT from Design Comfort.

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Why Are Frozen Pipes So Damaging?

Friday, March 28th, 2014

If you live in a region of the world that can experience sub-freezing temperatures, frozen pipes are among the #1 dangers to your plumbing during the winter. Without proper precautions, frozen pipes can end up causing serious damage to your plumbing that will result expensive replacement work.

What is so destructive about frozen pipes? It’s more than just blocking up the water flow: a frozen pipe can easily cause ruptures… and not for the reasons that you might think.

When you need plumbing repairs in Salt Lake City because of burst pipes or any other damage, turn to Design Comfort and our team of professional plumbers for help. We have around the clock emergency service for whenever you need us.

The dangers of frozen pipes

When water freezes, its hydrogen and oxygen molecules settle into a pattern that creates greater volume than in its liquid state. If you’ve ever put a glass of water in the freezer, you’ll see this in action: the glass will crack because of the increased volume of the ice.

However, this isn’t the reason that freezing pipes burst. The metal and plastic construction of modern piping is strong and flexible enough to resist the swell of size when water freezes to ice. The actual cause of bursting pipes is pressure from the unfrozen water that gets trapped between the ice plugs and a closed faucet. And this happens when the pipes begin to thaw. So technically, the thawing of ice inside the pipes is what makes frozen pipes so damaging.

You can help prevent this problem by letting faucets trickle a bit through the night when you know the temperature will be extremely low; the water movement through the pipes helps prevent freezing. However, the most efficient way of stopping pipe-freeze is with proper insulation along your plumbing. Contact an experienced plumber to help you prep your pipes against the cold. You can also summon a plumber to help you carefully thaw your pipes without causing damage to them.

From winter to spring

Winter is ending and spring has arrived, so make sure that you don’t have any frozen pipes that might turn into burst pipes as the warm weather arrives. For the plumbing repair in Salt Lake City, UT that will keep your pipes healthy, contact Design Comfort. We’ve helped residents solve their plumbing issues successfully since 1982.

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Design Comfort Wants You to Join our Winning Team!

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Design Comfort is looking for honest, hardworking individuals to join our team! Design Comfort is well established HVAC company with an excellent reputation for performance and as a place to work.

Tech Home Visit

Ideal candidates will possess good driving records, excellent communication skills. Candidates should also be self motivated, mechanically inclined, eager to learn and well-groomed. If this describes you and you love to help others, then call Design Comfort to join our team. We have competitive pay and benefits. The work is to perform light duty residential maintenance on air conditioning systems, recognize customers’ needs and discuss solutions Design Comfort can provide to address those needs. All applicants should be able demonstrate competence with all forms of digital modern communication. New hires must provide verification of the right to work in the United States. The company performs background checks on all new hires.

Design Comfort is a company with more than 20 years of history. When you need truly outstanding heating, air conditioning and plumbing services in Salt Lake City, UT, you need to call Design Comfort. Our skilled and highly trained technicians have the expertise and experience required to ensure that your home is as comfortable and convenience as possible. The company cares about its co-workers, and insists that they care about their customers.

Apply Online today!
We look forward to hearing from you.

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How AFUE Ratings Affect Your New Heater

Monday, March 17th, 2014

If you’ve looked at the cabinet of a furnace or a boiler, you may have noticed something called the “AFUE rating.” This is one of the most important stats to know about the new heating system you decide to install, because it will have an effect on your heating bills for many years to come… as many years as you the heating system lasts. We’ll explain what AFUE means and how it affects your new heating system.

Make sure that you don’t purchase a new heater without help from professionals. Design Comfort installs many types of systems and provides heating repair service in Salt Lake City that will keep any heater humming away.

AFUE rating and what it means for you and your heater

AFUE is a way of rating the efficiency of heating systems like furnaces and boilers. (Heat pumps have a separate dual rating, SEER/HSPF.) The initials stand for “annual fuel utilization efficiency,” and is expressed as a percentage. The percentage represents how much of the heater’s fuel supply it changes into heat. For example, a gas furnace with 78% AFUE produces 78 BTUs of heat for every 100 units of gas available. This means it produces a waste of 22 units of fuel, which goes unburned. The higher the percentage, the more completely the heater consumes fuel and turns it into heat power.

For a gas furnace to earn the EPA’s ENERGY STAR label for efficiency in Utah, it must have 95% AFUE or greater. All furnaces produced in the U.S. must have at least 78% AFUE. For boilers to receive the ENERGY STAR label, they must have 85% AFUE or higher.

A furnace’s AFUE rating isn’t a guarantee of heating effectiveness. You may not get the level of comfort you desire from a high-AFUE furnace or boiler, especially if it was installed poorly or sized incorrectly for your home. However, a high AFUE rating does mean lower energy bills. For example, if you changed from an old 70% AFUE furnace to a new model of 90% AFUE, for every 1000 BTUs you burned, you would save $136. The savings with higher efficiency furnaces and boilers can be substantial.

However, higher AFUE models are usually more expensive. When it comes to picking a new furnace or boiler, you’ll have to weigh upfront costs against long-term budget plans. In most cases, you can expect larger savings from a higher AFUE model. But you should consult with an installation professional to help you make the best choice possible.

Design Comfort has a staff with NATE-certified technicians with many years of experience installing heaters and providing heating repair in Salt Lake City, UT. They can assist you with picking a heater with the AFUE rating that will work for you and keep you warm for many years.

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Benefits and Drawbacks of Low Flow Toilet Installation

Wednesday, March 5th, 2014

If you look over your water bill each month and wonder how you can lower it without sacrificing your comfort (you still want to shower each day!), one of your best options is to have a plumber install special low-flow fixtures in your house. At Design Comfort, we often recommend that our customers consider installing a low-flow toilet for their bathroom plumbing. Low-flow toilets cut down on the amount of water used with each flush without significantly lowering performance.

It’s important that you have skilled plumbers perform this installation; otherwise you could end up with a defective, leaky toilet that wastes water instead of saving it. Contact Design Comfort today to talk to our reliable Salt Lake City, UT plumbers about doing an effective installation that will leave you satisfied.

The pros and cons of low flow toilets

Before you decide on installing a low flow-toilet in your home, you’ll need to consider the advantages and disadvantages and also talk to a professional plumber. Here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks of going low-flow in your bathroom:

  • Pros: Standard toilets us approximately 7 gallons per flush, while the regular low-flow toilet model uses 1.6 gallons per flush. (Some models are even more efficient.) This means an automatic reduction in you water bills each month, and over a full year the savings can add up to be tremendous. Conserving water will also benefit the environment.
  • Cons: Like most advanced technology and efficient home fixtures, low-flow toilets cost more to install than standard toilets. They have also been known to have more frequent problems with clogs because they are not as powerful as standard models. However, advances in hydronic power in low-flow toilets, such as pressure models, are starting to make up for this issue.

You will need to discuss with a plumber your choices for low-flow toilet models. In some cases, you can reduce the drawbacks: a more powerful model, and water use reduced to such a level that the installation quickly pays for itself.

Help reduce water use throughout your home

A low-flow toilet is only one of the options you have for water-saving fixtures in your home’s plumbing in Salt Lake City, UT. Call Design Comfort today for help conserving water and cutting down on your bills. We offer quality installation, repairs, and maintenance for the plumbing in every part of your home.

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