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As much as we would love HVAC systems to be "set it and forget it" types of things, the truth is regular maintenance and even the occasional repair are essential when it comes to getting the maximum life out of your system. Ensuring a professional sets eyes on the system once a year, in addition to performing any heating and air conditioning repair that comes up before it balloons into a bigger problem, can actually save you money in the long run by extending your system's life and preventing you from having to replace it too soon.

What kinds of heating and air conditioning repair might be needed over the life of your system? Here's everything you need to know about HVAC maintenance and repair.

Routine Maintenance

Even if your system is in good repair, you can keep it in even better shape by doing regular maintenance. Each system needs to be checked once a year, so ideally you should have your furnace checked in the fall and your air conditioner checked in the spring. Checking the systems before the demand on them ramps up will get any problems taken care of early and ensure you stay comfortable all season long.

Here are a few things that typically get checked during routine maintenance.

Other Repairs

If you neglect routine maintenance on your HVAC system, you'll likely develop problems sooner, but even regularly maintenanced systems can require repairs throughout their lifespan. Sometimes doing a repair is considerably cheaper than replacing the entire system, and can enable you to get a few more years before having to do a complete overhaul. Here is some of the most common heating and air conditioning repair work that needs to be done as a system ages.

Should You Repair or Replace?

Often heating and air conditioning repair requires only minor work, making it more cost effective than replacing everything, but at what point do you decide to replace? The general rule of thumb is to replace the system if the repairs are going to be 50 percent or more of the cost of a new system, but this answer may change depending on your situation. Your best bet for making a decision is having your system looked at by a professional. Whether you just need seasonal maintenance, suspect you need heating and air conditioning repair, or need to decide whether to replace your HVAC system, call Maeser today and we'll help you every step of the way.

Air conditioning can be an expensive component to your home, and not something you'd want to entrust to just anyone. If you need work done on your cooling system, it's important to make sure you find an air conditioning contractor you can trust. Here are six tips to help you find a reliable contractor.

Ask for Recommendations

The best way to start your search is by asking for recommendations from friends, family, coworkers, and anyone else whose opinions you trust. Ask about things like whether the final cost was what they were quoted, whether the air conditioning contractor was friendly and reliable, and whether they were satisfied with the work. A personal recommendation is always worth more than one given by someone you don't know or can't verify, such as an online review

Check Online Reviews

Sometimes personal recommendations may not be an option, at which point you might have to start with a local Google search. Be sure to check reviews of any company you are considering using, but take online reviews with a grain of salt. Remember that disgruntled customers are much more likely to leave reviews than happy customers, and also that some review sites may use algorithms or business practices that skew the overall review score. To avoid being misled, check reviews from a variety of sites.

Look for an Established Company

If you're considering a company seriously, it's time to do a little research beyond a personal recommendation or a favorable review you read once. Avoid startups or companies that appear to lack experience and expertise. Instead, look for an air conditioning contractor who has been in business for a little while and has a good reputation. This will ensure that he has experience and a track record of producing happy customers.

Avoid Anyone Who Gives Quotes Over the Phone

When you start making phone calls, the last thing you should expect is to be given a quote over the phone. If anyone tells you how much the work you're requesting will cost without first seeing your air conditioning system, view it as a red flag. There are too many variables to make a valid estimate over the phone.  Any reputable professional should hold off quoting you a price until they've seen your system and your home for themselves.

Get a Written Quote

While we're talking about quotes, let's talk about what is an acceptable practice in the industry. When an air conditioning contractor comes to your home to give you a quote, you should always get that quote in writing. Providing you with a written quote is a professional practice that protects both you and the contractor by preventing any misunderstandings later on. If a contractor is reluctant to provide a written quote, this is another red flag that the work might end up costing more than what you're being told.

Prioritize Quality Over Cost

A common practice is to talk to mroe than one air conditioning contractor in order to compare prices, but resist the urge to automatically go with the least expensive contractor. While price must of course be a deciding factor for most homeowners, there are other considerations. A contractor that quotes you bargain basement prices is likely to cut corners in order to keep costs down. You may even end up paying more later on as a result of trying to cut costs now.

A Name You Can Trust

These days it seems everyone has a story about contractors not doing their work or showing up when they're supposed to, which can make the search for a reliable contractor especially nerve-wracking. Are you still on the hunt for a contractor you can trust? With our focus on customer service and a track record of quality work, Maeser won't let you down. Spanning more than four decades, Maeser has grown from a small plumbing company to a family of companies covering all of your plumbing, HVAC, and remodeling needs. Contact us today to schedule a quote.

Your water heater provides you with the comforts of modern life, but it can also feel sometimes like having a ticking time bomb in your house. You don’t know when it’ll go off, but it’s almost certain to be at a time that’s inconvenient for you.

There is a way to prevent the mess and fuss of your water heater’s demise, however, and that is to identify the early signs that it’s time to replace it. Here are a few indications that it might be time to get a new one.

Leaks
The most obvious sign that it’s time for a new water heater is of course finding water everywhere, but (thankfully) most of the time they develop small leaks first. Check around the base of your water heater regularly. If you start seeing moisture, look for the cause. You may simply need to tighten one of the connections to the tank, but if that doesn’t help, the tank most likely has a crack in it somewhere and will need to be replaced. Don’t wait! If that small crack becomes a big one, you could be facing a lot of damage toyour home and personal property.

Noises

Do you ever hear noises coming from inside your water heater, particularly as it is heating up? These noises are caused by buildup of sediment inside the tank from the hundreds or thousands of gallons it has heated over its lifetime. Annually flushing your water heater will prevent this buildup, and if your water heater isn’t more than a few years old, it might be worth having it professionally flushed to see if this eliminates the noises. If you have it flushed and it still makes noise, it’s time for a new one.

Rust

Another indication that your water heater needs to be replaced is the presence of rust, whether inside or outside the tank. You may notice that the water inside the tank is rusty when you drain it for its annual flush. Rust indicates that the tank is corroding inside. Not replacing it at the first sign of rust could lead to a mess if the tank springs a leak, not to mention no one wants to bathe or cook with rusty water.

Not Hot Enough

Have you noticed that your hot water isn’t getting hot enough? Especially in a busy household that uses a lot of hot water, any reduction in temperature can lead to a lot of frustration. The culprit could be a problem with the thermostat or heating element, which might not mean the entire water heater needs to be replaced. If the water heater is more than a few years old, however, you might still consider replacing it, especially if this is an opportunity to upgrade to a larger or more energy efficient model.

Age

Maintaining your water heater by doing things like annual flushes can help it age more gracefully, but even then, water heaters typically only last about a decade, give or take a couple years. Check the manufacturing date on your water heater. If it’s approaching the 8 to 12 year lifespan of most water heaters, you should consider replacing it anyway, or at the very least, watch it closely for any of these signs of an imminent failure.

Avoid a Mess by Replacing Early

No one likes coming home to water everywhere, or not having any hot water for your morning shower. Luckily most water heaters don’t fail out of the blue. By watching for these early warning signs and replacing your water heater at the first sign of trouble, you’ll likely avoid the inconvenience and potentially even a lot of water damage to your home and your things.

Do you suspect your water heater is on its last leg? Contact Maeser today and we’ll handle everything, from inspecting your current water heater to installing the new one.

Your furnace and air conditioner aren’t the most expensive part of owning a house, but they represent some of the more common routine maintenance homeowners face. What’s more, they can dig a hole in your pocket pretty quickly if left neglected for too long.
Regular maintenance is an important part of ensuring that your furnace and air conditioner continue operating at peak efficiency for as long as possible. But how often must maintenance be done on these systems? Here are a few guidelines for keeping your home’s heating and cooling systems running smoothly, as well as some tips for what you can do yourself.

Visually Inspect Outdoor Unit: Once a Week

One of the most basic parts of taking care of your air conditioning you can actually do yourself. The outdoor unit of your air conditioner, called the compressor, needs good air flow in order to work properly. This means making sure the unit is clear of debris and that the landscaping isn’t encroaching on it. It’s best to check the compressor regularly. Your best bet is to make it part of your weekly yard work routine.

Change the Filter: Once Every 1-3 Months

Your furnace and air conditioner have a filter that is designed to clean the air circulating throughout your house, blocking dust, hair, and other debris. Over time, this filter will get dirty and need to be changed, or it’ll start blocking the air’s flow through the filter. Fortunately, this is usually an easy task that you can perform yourself.

How often does the filter need to be changed? If you look online, you’ll find answers ranging from once a season to once a month, but realistically it all depends on how dirty the air in your home is. People who have shedding pets or live in more dusty regions will have to replace their filters more often. For most people, however, replacing your filter once every couple months should be sufficient.

Schedule Professional Maintenance: Twice a Year

Aside from the simple things you can do yourself, things like keeping the compressor clear of debris and changing the filter regularly, it’s a good idea to have a professional set eyes on the system once a year, usually at the beginning of the season. In the fall, for example, you’ll want to have maintenance done on your furnace, making sure your heating system is ready to keep you warm all winter. Likewise, if you have air conditioning, you should have the system inspected in the spring to ensure the system is capable of cooling your home all summer.

When you schedule professional maintenance on your furnace or air conditioner, our technician will check a number of things, often catching and correcting minor problems before they become big problems. For instance, maintenance includes:

The Benefits of Regular Maintenance

Keeping your air conditioning compressor clear, replacing filters regularly, and performing annual maintenance do more than just keep your system running in tip-top shape. A well-tuned system doesn’t have to work as hard to do its job, so you’ll pay less on your utilities. Identifying problems when they are small may also save you money by enabling you to repair instead of replace. In addition, you’ll maximize the life of your furnace and air conditioner by doing a good job of maintaining them. But perhaps most importantly, you’ll keep you and your family safe by catching dangerous leaks and other problems early.

Ready to schedule maintenance on your furnace and air conditioner? Contact Maeser today and we’ll send out one of our qualified, experienced, and compassionate technicians.

3 Tips To Make Your Home More Energy Efficient

Whether it’s because you’re trying to cut costs or you just want to minimize your carbon footprint, improving your home’s energy efficiency is a lofty goal. There are many ways to do this and numerous checklists available online to help you in your journey, but sometimes the amount of information on this subject can be overwhelming. While ideas like changing out lightbulbs and unplugging appliances when not in use definitely have their merits, the crux of the problem is that many homes are simply not energy efficient. Here are three tips for improving your home’s energy efficiency so that you stop wasting energy.

Insulate, Insulate, Insulate

The importance of insulation cannot be overstated. You can have the most energy efficient furnace and still not have a very efficient home. Lack of insulation and other leaks mean letting heat out in the winter and in during the summer, requiring your furnace and your air conditioning to work that much harder in order to maintain the desired temperature. The same goes for your water heater and pipes. Heat transference causes you to turn the hot up higher and the water heater to work harder to keep up.

There are many places you should consider insulating in order to make your home more energy efficient.

Have insulation blown into the walls to compensate for no insulation or settled insulation in older homes. Lay about a foot of insulation in the attic to prevent heat from escaping through the ceiling in the winter. Caulk cracks or gaps in corners and along window and door frames.
Use weather stripping in windows and doors to improve seal. Insulate your air ducts, water heater, and/or pipes to prevent energy loss.

Watch Out for Your Windows

Besides a lack of proper insulation, windows are one of the primary sources of energy inefficiency. Most people assume the only way to rectify this is to get all new energy efficient windows, but this may not be the case. If improving energy efficiency is the only reason you are replacing your windows, it might not be as cost effective as you think. If you have cracked or damaged windows, or are replacing them anyway, then by all means look for more energy efficient replacements.

If you aren’t replacing your windows, there are still ways to prevent energy loss. It might seem obvious, but of course you’ll want to keep the windows closed when you’re heating or cooling the house. In addition, energy saving curtains can slow or prevent heat transfer, keeping rooms warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. You can also use heat transfer to your advantage in the winter by opening curtains when the sun comes in and taking advantage of the sun’s natural heat. Just don’t forget to close them again as the sun moves or sets!

Upgrade to Modern Appliances

One of the significant sources of energy inefficiency in most homes is the use of old, outdated appliances, furnaces, and air conditioning units. Older units weren’t designed with modern standards of energy efficiency, for one thing, but also may have become even greater energy hogs over the years due to age and lack of maintenance. Frequently people continue using these older appliances, thinking they’re getting their money’s worth by using them until they die, but older appliances could actually be costing you significantly more in energy costs, not to mention expanding your carbon footprint.

When you go shopping for new appliances, put energy efficiency at the top of your priorities list. ENERGY STAR appliances will give energy specs and examples of the kind of savings you can expect, so that you know how much you’re saving by upgrading. A high efficiency furnace and a modern air conditioner will also go a long ways toward cutting your costs. Finally, consider exchanging your older thermostat for a programmable or even a “smart” thermostat, which will help you save money and increase efficiency by prioritizing heating and cooling for times when people are home and awake.

An energy efficient home is easier on your budget and the environment, making it a win-win. For more information about how we can help, call Maeser at (502) 206-4192 or schedule service online.

We always seem to be in search of things that make our lives easier, more convenient, safer, healthier, more efficient or just more fun. Some have been around for awhile and are still worth mentioning and some are quite mind-blowing. There are gadgets, appliances and products that make our homes smart, thereby making us work smarter, not harder.

If germs and contaminants are something you wrestle with, these four products will interest you:

Tired of throwing away rotting fruits and vegetables?

Want to have a cozy, cool house when you return home from work?

Want a smart yard?

As Abraham Lincoln said “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” Knowing what is out there and available makes our home improvement process easier. We don’t have to change all of the products to smart products at one time, but as we need them, we have the option to choose the products that make life “smarter”.

A case for geothermal
Regardless of the weather or season, the ground temperature is a consistent 55º. The ground beneath our feet is cooler than the summer air temperature and warmer than the winter air temperature, so using geothermal as a heat source allows the ground heat to be transferred to and from your home. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the geothermal system is the most environmentally clean, cost effective, and energy efficient space conditioning system available.

The geothermal system is more efficient than traditional systems because the system doesn’t have to work as hard to achieve its set temperature, thereby saving you money. Where a fossil fuel furnace may be 78-90 percent efficient, a geothermal heat pump is about 400 percent efficient. Also, this does not take into account the benefit of the free hot water during the summer months and the low maintenance and long life expectancy. Homeowners can expect to save 40 to 70 percent in heating costs and 30 to 50 percent in cooling costs compared to conventional systems. Geothermal heating and cooling systems not only save money on energy bills but also help create a better world.

Through the use of sustainable energy sources, the warmth of the earth by the sun, geothermal helps conserve our planet’s non-renewable reserves of fossil fuels.

The initial investment of a geothermal system is normally greater than a conventional system. However, when you consider the operating cost for the heating, cooling, hot water, the federal tax credit, and potential utility rebates, this quickly offsets the initial difference in purchase price.

Give one of Maeser’s Home Comfort Consultants a call to learn all the details of a geothermal system and how you can take advantage of the earth to heat and cool your home.

Happy Clog-less Holiday

We absolutely love the holidays! We get to see family and friends that we may not see everyday, get to prepare and eat holiday food that we may only eat once a year and we get to make amazing memories. But unfortunately, this is also the busiest time of the year for plumbers because cooks are unaware of the clog-causing foods that can damage a garbage disposal.

Eliminating a few clog-causing food items from making their way into your kitchen drain can keep pipes flowing freely throughout your holiday season.

This year we urge you to use the oils from your turkey to make gravy (check out the great recipe below!) instead of putting it down the kitchen sink, which will eventually cause a clog. Allow fats to solidify or place the grease in the refrigerator to harden, put it into a non-recyclable bottle, and throw it in the garbage.

We recommend you place the following clog-causing foods in the trash and not down the drain: fats, oils, potato peels, celery, fruit, turkey skin, bones, rice, coffee grinds, egg shells and pasta.

Other tips to avoid garbage disposal problems, follow these simple tips:
• Turn on the tap before, during and 15 seconds after running the disposer
• Use only cold water when running the disposer
• Do not fill the grinding chamber with waste and turn on the disposal. Add waste in
small amounts
• If your disposal is clogged, don’t use harsh chemicals to try to unclog the unit as
that might damage the mechanical parts, shortening the life of the disposal
• Don’t put your hand down the disposal
Call a plumber. They will have the knowledge and the tools to service your disposal.

If baking a turkey is in your plans for the holiday, instead of disposing of your turkey fat, make gravy. Try this simple turkey gravy.

Simple Turkey Gravy
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fat from turkey drippings
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup liquid from turkey drippings
• 2 cups turkey stock
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions
1. Heat fat from turkey drippings in a saucepan over medium-low heat until liquefied, 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk flour into turkey fat until golden, about 5 minutes.

2. Whisk liquid from turkey drippings and turkey stock into fat-flour mixture; increase heat to medium and cook, whisking continuously, until gravy is smooth and desired consistency, 5 to 10 minutes. Season gravy with pepper.
recipe via http://allrecipes.com/recipe/239434/simple-turkey-gravy/

Are you ready to have your toes in the sand or smell the fresh mountain air as you backpack through the mountains? You work so hard all year with your jobs and with your families, you need some rest and relaxation. So, whether you vacation in the summer, fall or you are a snow bird, planning for your trip is a must. We suggest before you leave, you review this checklist for your home so you will have peace of mind while you are away.

Vacation Checklist

• Turn your thermostat up to 80 degrees for a summer vacation. This will keep your energy cost low, but will not damage your plants, food items, furniture, etc.
• Turn your water heater to the lowest setting, vacation setting or pilot.
• Shut off your home’s main water valve.
• Check your sump pump to make sure it is in good working order.
• Let your bank and credit card companies know your travel plans.
• Unplug small appliances and electronics around your home to save energy and for safety.
• Set a lamp on a timer so it looks like someone is home.
• Stop your mail and newspaper.
• Set automatic away reminder on your email.
• If traveling by car, have your auto thoroughly serviced and the tires checked.
• Leave contact information with family, friends or neighbors. Include your plumbing and HVAC service contractor’s name and number in case of emergency.

Of course, everyone’s list is going to be a little different, so choose what works best for you and your family. We hope you have a fun summer and wish you safe travels.