Tureks Plumbing Services Blog: Archive for August, 2020

Tankless Wate Heater Savings

Wednesday, August 26th, 2020

Will a Tankless Water Heater Save Me Money?

Tankless Water Heater Savings - Tureks Plumbing Services

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, American homes spend an average of $2,060 each year on energy bills. Approximately $268, or 13% of the annual energy bill, goes to heating water. This doesn’t include the cost of the water itself, so it isn’t surprising that many homeowners in Appleton, WI, are looking for ways to cut costs. One of the avenues they consider is a tankless water heater. 

Can a Tankless Water Heater Result in Cost Savings?

Tankless water heaters are also referred to as instantaneous water heaters, on-demand water heaters or simply demand heaters. This type of heater has seen a spike in demand because the heater heats water just when it is needed.

This instantaneous availability of hot water, rather than having gallons standing by just in case someone needs a supply of hot water, has led many homeowners to believe that having one of these appliances will save them money.

Turek’s Plumbing Services confirms that Appleton WI tankless water heaters usually require less energy to run those water heaters. However, having lower energy bills doesn’t necessarily mean you are saving money since the upfront costs of buying and installing the on-demand water heater also have to be accounted for.

Because tankless water heaters are more complex than water heaters with storage tanks, it costs more to install the on-demand water heater. That added cost, plus the purchase price of the heater, means that it will take longer for the water heater to pay for itself. 

These water heaters could deliver savings in your case, and they come with the following added benefits which could outweigh any savings you hoped to gain.

Longer Service Life

As mentioned earlier, on-demand water heaters typically last about twice as long as the heaters with water storage tanks. For instance, while a traditional water heater could last for 8-12 years, a tankless version can work for 20-25 years.

Furthermore, most components of on-demand water heaters can be replaced, so a situation which can result in trashing a traditional water heater merely requires you to buy replacement parts for a tankless water heater.

Limitless Hot Water Supply

In most cases, on-demand water heaters can provide a nearly endless supply of hot water. You therefore no longer have to worry that you will get a jet of cold water in the midst of having a hot shower.

However, St. Paul plumbing company, McQuillan Bros cautions that this endless supply of water is only attainable if you engage an experienced plumber to determine the appropriate flow rate of the water heater needs of your household can be met even if different hot water points of use are active at the same time.

You could also solve the flow rate challenge by installing a smaller on-demand water heater at a point of use that requires a lot of hot water. This will result in even more efficiency as the heat losses incurred while water is transported from the heater to the point of use are avoided.

Space Economy

We live at a time when every square foot of space comes at a premium. It is therefore welcome news to learn that tankless water heaters require very limited space since the heater doesn’t come with a storage tank.

For example, Fox Valley plumbers explain that on average, a traditional water heater (the ones with storage tanks) are approximately two feet in diameter and five feet tall. These huge water heaters aren’t only an eyesore wherever they are installed, but they also take up a lot of space in the kitchen, laundry room, or any other location where they have been installed.

In contrast, tankless water heaters are much smaller and can be tucked away in compact spaces. Additionally, they come in attractive designs which enhance rather than detract from the aesthetics of your home.

Is a Tankless Water Heater Suitable for Me?

As you can see from the discussion above, a lot goes into determining whether an on-demand water heater will deliver savings to a particular home or not. It is therefore advisable for you to contact us at Turek’s Plumbing Services so that a member of our team can visit your home and assess your hot water needs before giving you our considered opinion on whether you may or may not realize monetary savings when you install a tankless water heater. Contact an Appleton WI plumber today for tankless water repair or replacement!

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Home Plumbing Maintenance

Wednesday, August 19th, 2020

All About Home Plumbing Maintenance

home plumbing maintenance - Tureks Plumbing Services

Basic preventative plumbing maintenance in Appleton, WI, for your plumbing system can go a long way. After all, any leak, clog, or dripping faucet that is left unattended only worsens. That’s why we at Turek’s Plumbing Services recommend that regular preventative maintenance is done on the plumbing system of your residential or commercial property. Such an exercise helps professionals to spot and fix problems early. For this reason, we encourage all Fox City homeowners to give us a call anytime you need residential plumbing services.

Drain Maintenance

You wouldn’t be wrong if you mentioned that drains are one of the most vital components of the plumbing system. Without drains, water and other forms of waste wouldn’t be able to flow out of your home. The net result is that the toilet, kitchen sinks, washing machines, and showers wouldn’t work as you expect them to. 

It is, therefore, vital that you do what you can to avoid having to deal with a clogged drain. Fortunately, periodic drain maintenance is usually sufficient to prevent most drain issues. For those that do occur, our plumbers in Fox City are available to address those defects, so you don’t have to.

How do you keep drains working? One way we recommend to keep drains working properly is by being conscious about the things that go down the drains. For example, getting rid of feminine hygiene products in toilets is a sure way to clog up the toilet drain in just the same way as dumping grease down a sink will eventually clog it up. You can also buy a biodegradable drain cleaner and regularly use it to keep your drains clean and free from deposits. Contact a plumber in Appleton for help in choosing the best product since many on the market are acidic or caustic and can damage the plumbing pipes.

Plumbing System Inspection

As you may be aware, the plumbing system is a complex network of valves, pipes, taps, and drains. All these components work collectively to keep water flowing through the system. If one of these components develops a defect, the problem is likely to affect other aspects of the system, and soon enough, you will notice that something isn’t right.

To ensure that everything remains working perfectly, it is advisable to get a plumbing system inspection says Minneapolis plumbing company, McQuillan Bros. The plumbers will conduct a detailed inspection of the plumbing system on an annual basis. 

How do you know you need a plumbing system inspection? Our experienced plumbers know what to look out for in order to fix any inefficiencies or developing defects in the plumbing system. We recommend that you invite a plumber in to conduct plumbing maintenance in Appleton, WI for the reasons listed below. 

  • You are about to buy or sell a home
  • You have recently remodeled your home, especially the bathroom and kitchen
  • You want to switch to a different type of water heater, such as a tankless water heater
  • The plumbing system in your home hasn’t been inspected for two or more years
  • You’ve observed problems that seem to be systemic, such as multiple drains that are slow

Get a Home Service Plan

It isn’t always easy for you as a homeowner to remember all the things that you need to do to keep the plumbing system working at its best. That is why we recommend that if you live in Appleton, Wisconsin, sign a plumbing home service plan with us at Tureks Plumbing Services. We will perform all the needed preventive maintenance as well as perform timely repairs as soon as we notice a defect.

Such preventive maintenance will increase water heater efficiency, avert expensive plumbing emergencies, improve plumbing system performance, and improve overall system safety. Get a home plumbing system service plan at Tureks Plumbing Services and take the pressure off your shoulders. Contact a Fox Valley plumber today if you would like to know more about our home service plan, or if you need help with any aspect of the plumbing system.

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What is a Cured In Place Pipe Liner?

Wednesday, August 12th, 2020

What is a Cured In Place Pipe Liner?

  • cured in place pipe liner - Tureks Plumbing Services

Cured in place pipe, or CIPP refers to a technique that can be used to repair storm drains, sanitary sewers, and pressure pipes. This pipe repair Appleton, WI method is so versatile that it is applicable to pipes of all shapes, such as circular pipes, egg-shaped pipes, and box culverts. Turek’s Plumbing Services uses this advanced method to rehabilitate the pipes on your property so that you don’t have to dig out those pipes and install new ones.

The CIPP Liner Process

Preparing the Pipe

First, the personnel from the Appleton, WI plumbing company will remove the pipe from service. If need be, bypass pumping may be arranged so that wastewater can still be pumped while a section of the pipe is being rehabilitated. 

Once the pipe is taken out of service, it will be cleaned thoroughly using hydro-jetting or any other appropriate method. This flushes any deposits, waste, and debris so that the interior walls of the pipe are clearly visible. Thereafter, the plumber will conduct a video camera inspection of the entire pipe in order to ensure its condition and the magnitude of the defect. Localized repairs can be made to damaged sections before the CIPP process continues.

Liner Materials and Design

Each CIPP liner is usually customized for the specific pipe in which it will be installed explains Placerville trenchless pipe repair company, Gilmore Heating, Air, and Plumbing. The liners are made using fiber-reinforced fabric or non-woven polyester felt. Regardless of the specific material from which the liner is made, the common attribute is that a polymer resin is impregnated into the liner so that once the liner cures, it will form a tight-fitting bond with the pipe being lined.

The resin is impregnated into the liner using some form of pressure, such as gravity or vacuum pressure. The plumbers add that the resin contains a chemical catalyst to make the liner cure or harden faster. The outermost layer of the CIPP liner has a polymer coating to protect that liner during the installation or handling process. To maintain the integrity of the liner while it is transported, technicians keep it chilled so that no chemical reactions are initiated due to the temperature change during transportation.

The thickness of the liner is such that it will withstand any pressure exerted by soil, internal service pressure, external groundwater and the traffic just above the pipe. 

CIPP Liner Installation

There are two key ways through which our plumbers can install CIPP liners:

  1. Winching the liners. CIPP liners can be winched into a pipe through manholes or other access points. Once the liner is in place, we inflate it so that it forms a tight fit with the internal circumference of the pipe being rehabilitated. 
  2. Inversion method. In this method, a scaffold tower is used to help plumbers from Turek’s Plumbing Services to apply water pressure so that the liner is turned inside out while it is pushed into the host pipe.

The methods above apply both for shorter lengths of pipe, and for longer sections spanning hundreds of feet long.

Curing and Testing the CIPP Liner

Temperature is the key factor in determining how quickly the liner cures—chilling it during transportation to keep it stable until installation is complete. Your Appleton plumbers can leave the liner to cure slowly under ambient temperature settings, but it is usually better to speed up this process so that the pipe can return to service as soon as possible.

This speeding up is normally done by circulating inversion water through a boiler, mixing steam with the inflation air, or pulling the liner through an array of UV lights.

When the pipe cures, it is left to cool since the curing process generates heat. Upon cooling, plumbers remove the edges of the CIPP liner and ensure that the ends are flush with the ends of the pipe. The trimmed liner edges are removed for safe disposal.

The last step of the process involves taking samples of the liner and testing them to confirm that the liner meets the specifications indicated by the manufacturer. When it passes these tests, our staff reinstates the rehabilitated pipe and returns it to service. This entire process from start to finish typically takes a few hours so that the pipe will be back in service on the same day.

Benefits of CIPP

Compared to other pipe repair methods, cured in place pipe lining costs approximately 40-60% of what the other techniques would cost. This is a huge saving for you as a property owner. Furthermore, this rehabilitation method doesn’t cause as much disturbance to the environment, property occupants, and traffic around the area, and it is fast. If you would like to learn more about how we can use CIPP liners to prolong the service life of plumbing pipes on your Appleton property, contact Turek’s Plumbing today.

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How Does the Trenchless Pipe Repair Process Work?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2020

How Does  the Sewer Pipe Lining Process Work?

  • trenchless sewer repair in Appleton WI

Having sewer lines replaced or repaired can be difficult. Traditional pipe repair methods require a long, deep trench from your house to your curb to gain access to the pipe underground. This method is costly and can be damaging to your property, says Rancho Cordova Pipe Repair Company, Gilmore Heating, Air, & Plumbing.   

Fortunately, Tureks Plumbing Services now offers trenchless pipe repair so that you don’t have to go through those problems. If the pipes were made from clay, iron, concrete, or other materials, chances are those pipes are worn down. One of our pipe repair professionals in Appleton, Wisconsin, can perform a camera video inspection to confirm that you can benefit from our trenchless pipe relining service, or another method would be better suited to the existing defect.

Trenchless Pipe Repair Explained

First, our pipe repair company in Appleton, Wisconsin will determine if trenchless pipe relining can be done on your property. 

  1. A pipe repair technician will use a sewer camera to identify and evaluate the problem.
  2. An access hole is dug at both ends of the pipe. 
  3. A flexible tube is pushed into the old pipe. The flexible tube looks like neoprene, and it is coated with a special resin.
  4. The technician pumps compressed air into it so that it can blow out and cling to the interior walls of the old sewer pipe. 

After several hours, the resin hardens and then there will be a solid pipe inside the existing pipe. At this point, the pipe will have a slightly smaller internal diameter. This is hardly anything to worry about because the pipe will allow wastewater to flow through easily since the pipe is now smooth, and roots will no longer penetrate it.

No Damage to Trees

When undergoing traditional methods, any trees in the way of the trench have to be uprooted to access the pipes underneath. With point repair, trees can remain intact during the work.

Using advanced tools, Tureks Plumbing Services personnel can map and locate all the underground utilities to avoid disruption of those areas. This is why trenchless pipe repair doesn’t pose threats to anything else underground.

Pipe relining may not be an option if the sewer pipe on your property has a low point where water can pool. Similarly, offset pipe sections also preclude the use of trenchless pipe repair, and our Appleton plumber will recommend an alternative repair method, such as traditional excavation or pipe bursting.

Is Trenchless Pipe Repair Right for Me?

The only way to be certain that trenchless pipe repair is feasible on your property is by having an experienced professional conduct an inspection. If the method is applicable, you will get to enjoy this long-term, cost-effective pipe repair method. Even if trenchless pipe repair can’t be used, we will use the most suitable techniques and tools to restore the structural integrity of the sewer pipes on your property. Contact a Fox City plumber today and learn more about how trenchless pipe repair can be used in your home.

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