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How Homeowners Can Prepare During Fall

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Now that fall is here and we’re heading into the cooler temperatures, there’s no better time to start getting ready for the change in seasons.

Be Vigilant of Debris

If you have an outside stairwell that has a drain at the bottom, all you have to do is make sure that it stays clean of any accumulated debris so it doesn’t get stopped up. Leaves, acorns, or sticks can definitely get stuck in there more easily during the fall.

Outdoor Plumbing

Aside from that, almost everything related to plumbing will really be about staying one step ahead of winter. The best time to be prepared is now that it’s not an urgent issue—that way you aren’t scrambling the day before a cold spell. The first thing to prepare for the winter months is outdoor plumbing (like an outdoor kitchen or shower). You’ll need to winterize it by removing any water. Disconnect any hoses attached to an outdoor hose faucet, especially if you don’t use them. Any water left inside can freeze and cause them to burst.

Check Underneath

Make sure you also focus on getting any crawlspace or cellar doors closed and ready for the cold weather. If there is any insulation that needs to be repaired or replaced, now is the time to get that taken care of, too. You might have had a leak during the summer, or rain might have caused an outside area to become wet. Get it sealed up and replace the wood insulation so you can prevent any freezing of the water lines or drain lines once it gets really cold.

If you have any pressing plumbing issues this fall or winter, you can always reach out to the team at Wisler Plumbing by contacting us online or giving us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

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The Roanoke Rescue Mission’s Story

The most amazing thing about the Roanoke Rescue Mission is its history and how it came to be. The founder, Gus Johnson, actually grew up in Chicago. While suffering from alcoholism, he went to Chicago’s United Mission to get sober and ended up going through a crazy transformation. He soon met the woman he would marry after knowing her for just 8 days.

 

Gus and his wife moved to the Roanoke area specifically to do mission work. When they arrived in 1948 they opened up what is now the Roanoke Rescue Mission. It has been in service and helping the community ever since, and the Johnson family has led the organization up until a couple of years ago.

 

Today, the Roanoke Rescue Mission mainly helps the homeless population by providing meals and emergency shelter, but they also do many other things. They have a free clinic, a drug rehab program, and they offer all kinds of services including training for spiritual growth and employment. They just do a tremendous amount of good for the community.

 

The Rescue Mission is a very sustainable organization with a lot of different avenues to help people. We have been there to help serve meals in the evening, and we plan on continuing to support them in the years to come. If you want to know more about the Rescue Mission, visit their website, where you can find out the organization’s whole story and background. For anyone in the area who wants to visit the mission, head over to 4th Street SE right around the Elm downtown area.

 

For plumbing related questions, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

 

 

 

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The Most Common Issue

Where do homeowners even begin when it comes to choosing a new water heater? The most common mistake that I see in homes is a water heater that isn’t sized properly, or one that wouldn’t be able to meet the demand for water in a household. But how does such a common issue even occur in all these homes in the first place?

What is the Demand on the Unit?

What often happens is, a family will buy a home and the people living there before them might have been an elderly couple who lived by themselves. (This home might have been a bit on the large side, so they moved into something more suitable.) Once the family moves into their new home, what would have been just fine for the elderly couple simply can’t stand up to the large family (especially with teenagers). The water heater may be very undersized and it just won’t be able to handle the demand.

While choosing a water heater, it becomes incredibly important for homeowners to consider the actual demand for hot water. Is the family’s water usage habit resulting in a very large demand? Or is there actually not very much demand? From there, you can determine the water heater that will make the most sense. A household with very large demand would be best served by a tankless or gas water heater, which will help maximize the efficiency of the system. Whereas, if there isn’t very much demand at all, an electric tank water heater or hybrid electric water heater would make the most sense. Ultimately, your choice will really be centered around how much water you need.

What is the Best Kind?

Tank water heaters are not going to be anywhere near as efficient as a tankless water heater, which works on-demand. When comparing a gas water heater vs. an electric water heater, gas is going to be much more efficient and produce more hot water. But the best advice I can give someone when making the decision is to just ask a professional. Water heating is something that takes money out of your pocket—it’s something that you have to pay for on an ongoing basis every single month. Whenever you have to make a decision like that, you don’t want to pick something that is inefficient. It would end up costing you more money, month by month, every single month that you own the water heater.

Get Help Making the Decision

Don’t make an off-the-cuff decision about which water heater to choose. Get a professional involved and make sure they understand your needs for hot water. They will know the various different brands and equipment, including what would make most sense for longevity over a period of 10 years. That’s going to save you a lot of money in the long run.

If you’re in the market for a new water heater and want the assistance of a professional, get started today by reaching out to the team at Wisler Plumbing. Contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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Top Considerations When Choosing a New Faucet

 

It’s not very often that someone shops for a new faucet. Here are four important things that everyone should pay attention to when choosing one.

 

How is it used?

 

Make sure you consider the use of the new faucet. For instance, if you do a lot of cooking and use your kitchen heavily, the kitchen faucet is not a place to skimp when it comes to your budget. Something that you might use up to 10 or 15 times a day needs to be able to hold up to that kind of demand. If you install a low quality or cheaper faucet in that kind of environment, you’re definitely going to be disappointed.

 

On the other hand, there are places like a half bath that only guests will use. For areas that aren’t going to receive heavy or daily use, you can probably get by with a faucet that looks nice but maybe isn’t the highest quality. The key takeaway here is just to consider how much use the faucet will get. You’ll want to spend more on a faucet in a master bath that gets regular daily use.

 

One handle or two handles?

 

For a faucet that you will use a lot, I would recommend a single handle because it’s easier to adjust the temperature and easier to use in general. However, in most environments, a two-handle faucet will tend to look better. Remember, if you want a functional faucet, then a single handle will be the better choice. However, if you want something that looks nicer, a two handle is probably going to be a better design.

 

What kind of cartridge?

 

On the inside of the faucet, the component that turns the water on and off and keeps the faucet from dripping is called a cartridge. An important thing to remember is that cartridges can have rubber components in them, which can fail and lead to drips. However, in the last five years, ceramic disc cartridges have become a very popular item. They use ceramic components instead of rubber. If you want a faucet with longevity, I definitely recommend a ceramic disc cartridge.

 

Don’t take a faucet for face value.

 

Although a faucet might look really good, or maybe appear similar to another faucet when placed side-by-side, it might be made out of plastic components that have been chrome-plated or applied with a chrome finish. A chrome finish will not last as long on plastic as it does on metal. Check to see if the faucet’s handles, underside, drain, or spray wand are made out of plastic. This is really how manufacturers make a faucet cheaper or more economical, even though they might look identical to a more expensive faucet on the outside. If longevity is important to you, pay attention to what material the components are made of. Metal will always last longer than plastic in terms of functionality and robustness. Plastic will tend to break or chip much faster.

 

If you have any questions or want professional assistance, all you have to do is contact the team at Wisler Plumbing today. Contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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Where to Look for a Sump Pump

A sump pump is usually located in the basement or crawlspace of a home, which is at the sub-grade below the ground level outside. The purpose of a sump pump is to prevent the basement or crawlspace from flooding during heavy rain or any type of flooding event. Generally, sump pumps remove any rainwater from the surface or ground. They could also be used to prevent water from a nearby spring from making its way in. Here are some important things to remember about your home’s sump pump.

Part of Home Maintenance

The time to make sure a sump pump is working is not whenever you already have water pouring into your home. You should always make sure that the sump pump is going to be ready to do its job. There are also backup sump pumps that should be ready to run in the event of a power outage. Most pumps run off of the main electrical power, but there are water driven pumps for community power and battery-powered backup pumps.

Checking the Sump Pump

Sump pump systems are also commonly fitted with an alarm. It is a floating device that detects when the water level rises higher than a certain point and emits an audible alert. These are especially useful for crawlspaces that you aren’t able to see. Another thing to remember is that a basement sump pump isn’t a trashcan—if any type of debris or objects roll or get swept into the area, they can stop up the pump and cause it to become ineffective. That’s why it’s very important to always keep the area clean and clear.

Regular Attention

You might want to introduce water to the sump pump on a regular basis to make sure it works and look in the pit to make sure it’s good and clean. (These are generally the steps we would take if we checked it out ourselves.) It’s a pretty simple thing to do, but I would definitely recommend that it be performed annually, whether by the homeowner or by a professional. For more information, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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Wisler Plumbing uses Evolve SystemsWater Softeners & Septic Tanks

Most people share the common fear that the salt used in a water softener’s regeneration process will be harmful if discharged down the drain and into the septic tank. We have always done our best to combat this untrue, misleading information. It’s obvious that the use of salt can hurt bacteria or concrete, so it’s understandable that someone could come to the incorrect conclusion that it would be bad to discharge salt into a concrete environment that depends on bacteria. Here’s why that’s not actually the case.

New, More Efficient Water Softeners

One of the first things to understand is that there’s a huge difference between water softeners made today and water softeners made 20 years ago. A lot of the information still being circulated is just old and outdated. Water softeners today are much, much more efficient than the models of old. In fact, they only use a small fraction of the salt an old model would have required. Virginia Tech here in Blacksburg is performing an ongoing study about how water softeners affect septic tanks. Experts from both the water softening industry and the septic industry are working together to better understand the interactions between water softeners and onsite wastewater systems. It’s truly a collaborative effort and not just a one-sided view.

What the Study Showed

In the study, they use the terms high efficiency or efficiently operated units. This is an important distinction in which they are talking about new units/technology versus old units/technology, which definitely makes a big difference. According to the authors of the study, the data indicates that the use of an efficiently operated water softener improves septic tank performance. Previous experimentation has shown that the ideal amount of calcium and magnesium are put into the wastewater stream along with the sodium, which actually helps the settling process of the septic tank. In other words, an efficiently operated water softener performs the exact opposite of what someone may fear—it is actually beneficial to the septic system.

How Does this Affect the Septic Tank?

Another thing to understand is that a septic tank is 1,000 gallons or larger, so if you put a little bit of sodium into that thousand gallon tank, it’s going to be extremely diluted, pretty much rendering it ineffective at disturbing bacteria or harming the actual concrete tank. It really is just a drop in the bucket.

 

We share documentation with all of our clients whenever we’re in their home so they can understand exactly how water softeners interact with septic tanks. We also recommend that the softener is discharged into the septic system whether it’s public septic or a private onsite system. For more information, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

 

 

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