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What You Probably Don’t Know about Refrigerants

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What you Already Know

I think most people can relate to the refrigerants used for a car’s air conditioner. You might have heard someone saying that the refrigerant needs to be recharged, especially with an older car. What they mean is that the freon (or refrigerant in newer cars) needs to be replaced because the pressure is too low. The refrigerant might have leaked, which is kind of scary when you think about the environmental implications. Most people know that they have to take a car to a repair shop to get this kind of work done. That same system and components are in your home’s heating and cooling system. If you have a heat pump, this refrigerant is used for both heating and cooling.

A Recent Change

A change just recently happened in January 2020 where a refrigerant called R-22, or freon, is no longer being produced. (It’s still available for a high price, but it’s being phased out.) A refrigerant called R-410A is being made now, and it’s much more environmentally friendly than R-22. HVAC units older than 2010 year models more than likely use R-22 refrigerant. So, if one of these older units has a leak, you’re not going to be able to recharge it any longer simply because the Freon/R-22 isn’t going to be available anymore. In other words, you’ll have to shop for a new HVAC system.

Proper Care and Handling of Refrigerant

Not just anyone is capable of having a refrigerant in their custody or using it to recharge a system. These substances are not meant for use by anyone except those with proper certification. Our technicians are EPA certified, and we are required by the EPA to track the use and storage of all refrigerants. That’s something we take extremely seriously because refrigerants shouldn’t get out into the environment.

If anyone has an HVAC system and thinks it might need to be replaced, repaired, or checked for refrigerant levels, reach out to us today. Request an appointment, contact us, or give us a call at 540-483-9382. We can set up a cool or heat check, depending on the season. We’ll also be able to check that the refrigerant levels are properly aligned with that particular piece of equipment.

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Everybody loves to save money, but sometimes we don’t really connect how much money our homes are actually costing us, especially when it comes to our utility bills. We just tend to pay our monthly bill without giving it too much thought. However, a home’s heating and air comprises 40%-50% of the utility bill. If you add up the dollar amount over a year or more, it’s a significant expenditure. I’d highly recommend that you think about the efficiency of your HVAC system, whether it’s been maintained, how old it is, and whether it’s recently been checked by a professional. From there, you can take a few steps on your own to get the most efficient use out of your system.

 

Change Filters

By not changing the filters in your house, you’re slowing down the airflow to the HVAC system. It can only put out as much cold or warm air as it’s able to take in. So, if the filter is clogged up and there’s not much air getting in, you won’t have very much conditioned air or heat coming out of your vents, either. Dirty, clogged, or even the wrong kind of filter will harm the system both in the short term and long term. The system might even starve for air to the point that it could overheat or freeze up. All of these issues can be prevented by simply changing the filter.

Gas or Electric?

Most people don’t think about whether they have gas in addition to electric as an option in their home. If you have gas availability, it’s much more efficient for both HVAC and water heating. Whenever it comes time to replace a water heater or an HVAC system, gas is something you should definitely consider because of its efficiency.

 

Flush the Water Heater

In terms of plumbing, flushing your water heater can have a significant impact on efficiency. (Hard water causes buildup on the heating elements at the bottom of the heater.) The US Department of Energy says that ¼ inch of scale buildup caused from calcium or hardness in the water reduces the efficiency of an appliance by 30%. It’s very important to make sure your water heater is flushed so that any sediment buildup is removed.

 

Address Water Hardness

A water softener or water treatment system is probably the most significant step you can take to improve efficiency in your home. (Not to mention, you’ll have to use less soap with soft water.) Think of it this way: if you’re putting fuel adulterated with water into your car’s gas tank, the poor fuel quality will make its way through your car’s internals and mess everything up. A car just isn’t made to run off of fuel with water in it. The same thing goes for your plumbing system—water would be considered poor quality if it has hardness (calcium) in it. As it makes its way through the pipes, water heater, faucets, and drains, it’s going to cause problems in the system. It might lead to buildup in appliances like the washing machine or dishwasher and cause them to fail quickly.

 

Set A Lower Water Heater Temperature

I would encourage everyone to know the satisfactory temperature of hot water in their home. It’s pretty simple to find this out—you can even use a cooking thermometer or grill thermometer to take the measurement. Just turn on a faucet or shower, get a cup, and use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water you use every day. (It should be at a comfortable level.) The important thing here is you don’t want your water heater to be set too high. If you don’t ever run out of hot water, there’s no need to turn the water up way hotter than you need. It’s actually better to turn the hot water on or close to all the way on instead of mixing it with a lot of cold water to reach a satisfactory temperature. Remember, you’re paying to heat the water up from its incoming temperature (generally 50 to 60 degrees F). The higher the water heater’s setpoint, the more it’s costing you to heat the water. If you’re not even using water at that high of a temperature, setting it lower will prevent you from overpaying on your utility bill.

If you want a professional opinion, we can send a couple of different people to your home and give you an efficiency report. We have someone who specializes in HVAC, plumbing, and water treatment, and they are aware of how those components affect a home’s overall efficiency. To find out more, request an appointment, contact us, or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

 

 

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Here’s a 5-item checklist everyone can use for heating and cooling each quarter of the year:

Replace indoor air filters.

Everyone’s HVAC system has an air filter somewhere inside the home. It may be behind your return grille, it may be a whole house air filter that’s next to the HVAC unit, or it could be an air filter that’s just right on top of the unit. It’s so important that those filters are changed and maintained. One point I would like to mention about filters is that it’s easy to go to a big box store or hardware store and find filters marketed as being able to trap allergens. You need to be very careful with those types of products because they have very fine filtration, which can get stopped up really easily. Yes, they do catch a lot of stuff, but they’re not going to last anywhere nearly as long as a normal fiberglass filter. If you do get one of these types of products, you’ll have to replace them more often.

Clean and clear outside units.

Most people in our area have heat pumps, which have a unit outside of the house. Generally, it’s located along the outside wall of the house somewhere. In the fall, it’s a good idea to make sure there are no leaves near the unit. In the winter when we may have snow for a long period of time, make sure that there isn’t any snow buildup on or around the unit. Pollen or other debris should also be removed before it has a chance to build up. Additionally, you should make sure not to set objects like water hoses on top of the unit.

Keep indoor floors clean.

The floor around the inside unit—regardless of whether it’s a gas furnace or even an air handler—should be kept clean. This is where the unit draws in air, and sometimes there are leaks around the return air. If this area is really dusty or it has a lot of pet dander, it can get sucked up into the system. That’s why it’s a good idea to keep the floor around the return air grille clean. The filter blocks these things from getting into the system for the most part, but not around the unit.

Turn off water to humidifiers during summer.

The humidifier is an indoor item that isn’t needed during the summer. You wouldn’t want it dripping water, and you also wouldn’t want anything within the unit to malfunction. That’s why turning off the water to the humidifier during this season is a good idea.

Keep an eye on the condensate drain.

Most indoor units have a condensate line. Some units (like gas furnaces) will condensate year-round, while others (like heat pumps or air handlers) will just condensate in the summer. Just make sure that you’re keeping an eye on it because sometimes the condensate drains or the inside pan can get stopped up. If you see any water around the unit, you’ll definitely want to get it checked out before a flood or water damage occurs inside the house.

For homeowners who want an easy way to keep their heating and cooling systems well-maintained, we offer a Diamond Club membership. Included with the membership is one free annual plumbing visit where a technician flushes the water heater and inspects the plumbing. It also includes two free maintenance checks for the HVAC: one for the heating and one for the cooling. This is an ideal plan to check the system and make sure it won’t encounter problems in the future. If you have any questions, contact us, or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

☐ ☑ ☒

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Right now, we’re really focusing on bringing on apprentices onto our team. We do hire people with no experience in all areas of the field, whether that be water treatment, plumbing, HVAC, HVAC/plumbing installation, or HVAC techs. Although someone might not have any experience or have absolutely no idea what they’re getting into, we can put them through a training program specifically suited for what they’ll be doing. One thing every technician within our company is definitely going to experience is a lot of training. It’s centered around the technical aspects of the job, but it also covers soft skills like how to communicate important details to our clients in an effective manner. The training process will take a different amount of time for everybody, but it generally takes around 6 to 8 months for someone starting at a very low skill level.

 

People coming from factory or assembly line work regularly tell us that they were tired of doing monotonous tasks. Some people just don’t thrive in an environment where they do the same thing over and over, every day. Fortunately, a tech’s day-to-day activities are very diverse. Our technicians visit one or more homes on a daily basis. The job could involve a shower faucet one day, then a toilet or a water heater on the next. The customer’s needs always keep things interesting and fresh.

 

Almost every aspect of a homeowner’s life is tied to relying on working plumbing (like running water, a working toilet, a working kitchen sink, etc.). Sometimes they can be upset about a problem or fearful about what it might cost to have it repaired. When we repair one of those fixtures to make them functional again, or even when we upgrade them to work much better, the job that we’re doing is extremely fulfilling. This is truly a customer service industry, and we sometimes say that we’re here to repair the client. I think we have the opportunity to really impact people and build relationships while we fix their plumbing problem.

 

One of our main values is family. (You can use the word team here whenever it’s in a professional setting). Whenever I think about family, what comes to mind is the people who have my back, those who I can count on, and those who I can be open with. But the idea of family also comes with expectations, tension, challenging times, and tough conversations. Those things exist in healthy families, and they are imperative for growth. I think it is very rewarding to be part of a family/team with all these qualities. If you get stumped on a plumbing problem as a technician, you can call another technician or manager for guidance and support. Our service managers have technical ability because they’ve been in the field themselves. I think that’s what brings the family atmosphere together.

 

For anybody interested in learning more about joining the team at Wisler Plumbing & Air and perhaps becoming an apprentice technician, visit WislerJobs.com. Once you apply online, Maryanne will field the application and start you through our process.

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The structure at our company brings a lot of value to our clients and employees, but sometimes structure can snub out some of the fun. It’s incredibly important for our employees to really enjoy coming to work every single day. That’s why we’ve recently been focusing on cultivating a welcoming and family-friendly culture.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve been taking a short amount of time every morning to have breakfast together during what we call a morning huddle. During some of these huddles we might do trivia or play other short games that only take a few minutes. In one of our recent huddles we played Minute to Win It: Face the Cookie. (The goal is for the player to move a cookie from their forehead to mouth in a minute or less without using their hands.) Sometimes we all need to have these kinds of fun little activities to lighten up the environment. They definitely allow us to build closer relationships with the people we work alongside every day.

 

During our morning huddles we also take time to recognize both professional and personal accomplishments. We like to read out loud any positive feedback a client gives to one of our team members and give them some well-deserved kudos. It’s definitely something that should be shared, because this person worked very hard to serve the client and meet their expectations. Overall, our morning huddles are a lighthearted time we use each day to rally everyone together, have a little bit of fun, and lighten the overall mood.

We do water events in the summer, which gives us a chance to bring family members along to help take part in the fun. We also go to Rail Yard Dawgs hockey games each year (usually in February), which is a really fun time for our organization. The whole family can go watch the game, and we also get to serve the community. Just recently we had a company dinner at Center in the Square in Roanoke. Parents could drop off the kids at the Kids Square to enjoy some fun activities for a few hours. We also had an arcade and pinball for the adults, so this was a very fun event for everyone.

 

Every summer we try to do a cookout with lots of fun food-related things to do. We eat breakfast together and several of our team members make different kinds of dishes that show off their barbecuing and cooking skills. At the end of the day, it’s really about building support and camaraderie with each other. There are times when it’s not always fun, but that’s just real life. Then there are the times when you have to be intentional about making a fun environment to build deeper connections and relationships.

 

There were a few occasions when I’ve had service personnel in my home who were negative from the moment they came in the door. They were complaining and had an unfavorable attitude, which was just not fun for me as a homeowner. The bottom line is, our attitude—whether negative or positive—will carry through to others. We think it makes the most sense to have a solid, happy family who cares about making a positive impact on the people around them.

 

If you’d like to work with the team at Wisler Plumbing & Air, request an appointment, contact us, or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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There are definitely both pros and cons for one-truck plumbers and larger plumbing companies. At one point in time, I was a one-truck company as well. (Everyone has to get started somewhere.) I think most people initially consider how much it will cost to hire a one-truck plumber versus a larger plumbing company. It is true that larger plumbing companies have higher overhead. Therefore, their rates are going to be higher than a one-truck company. But what does that overhead cover, and what does it provide to homeowners? That will come into play as we review the differences between these two company types.

Availability

First, and foremost, is availability to provide service. When homeowners have a plumbing problem, they usually want it to get taken care of very quickly. Unfortunately, a one-truck company’s lack of resources means they can only be one place at any given time. Although their rates might be lower, it could take them weeks to make the visit. That’s something you might want to consider if you’re thinking about who to choose.

Training

Another difference I think worth mentioning is whether the employees receive ongoing training. A company with one to three employees is often going to be tied up with taking care of daily work. Since they have to wear multiple different hats, they aren’t going to be able to focus on perfecting their craft or keeping current with the times as new products come out. It can be very challenging for a smaller company to have the resources to train on installing, diagnosing, or repairing newly released products. This doesn’t have to be the case with a larger company. We’re very committed to continuing education for all of our technicians. My brother, Brian’s full-time job is to train incoming technicians as well as tenure technicians.

Options

When a technician from a one-truck plumber visits someone’s home—even if they’ve been in the plumbing trade for many years—they might not be trained on how to work with something like a new tankless water heater. If you wanted a tankless system put in your home, they wouldn’t know how to size it properly or install it properly without that training. They probably wouldn’t even suggest it to you as a potential option. Instead, they might say something like, “Well, tankless water heaters don’t work well and they aren’t worth the money,” when that may not actually be the case. (Of course, there are situations where tankless heaters aren’t the best solution, but sometimes they’re a no-brainer.)

Warranty and Service

Another thing to consider is that smaller one-truck operations tend to be priced more economically because they usually base their prices on the volume of work they need to do in a week or a month. (This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it’s usually how one-truck companies operate.) Therefore, they really don’t have the availability to go back for a return visit that won’t pay them any money—after all, they have bills to pay. If you pay an economical price, you’re probably not going to get a warranty, and if you do call the company, it’s probably not going to go well. Everyone should be aware of this added risk as a consumer. Although the price might be less expensive up front, what’s the total cost moving forward?

We’re priced to make a profit so that we can stay in business. That’s important for the security of our employees, but most importantly, it allows us to give warranties for every water heater, faucet, or toilet we put in a client’s home. Clients know they can call us back 8 years in the future if anything goes wrong. It’s well-known that most small businesses fail within the first 5 years, so if a company doesn’t properly set their prices to sustain them well into the future, they might not be around to service the product they installed. The cheapest price isn’t always the best in the long run.

We aren’t everyone’s plumber, and we obviously aren’t the largest plumbing company either. If someone can find a one-truck company that works really well with them, I tip my hat and wish them good luck. Regardless of your choice of a one-truck company or a larger company, it’s a matter of weighing the pros and cons to choose the best option for your needs.

 

If you want to find out whether Wisler Plumbing & Air is the right fit for your home, contact us today or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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