Archive for September, 2011

Consider for a moment the cost of fixing a leaky pipe or a burst water main in your West Vancouver home. Imagine how much money goes down the drain (so to speak) if you don’t have someone on call to come and fix the problem whenever you notice a drippy faucet or see a wet patch on your ceiling. This stuff will add up fast.

That’s why so many West Vancouver plumbers offer extended maintenance agreements to keep your fixtures and pipes on track. In most cases, these maintenance agreements are assigned to specific pieces of equipment such as your water heater, your toilet, your sinks and showers, or your pipes. However, there are many plumbers who offer full coverage of your home for a set annual fee. Let’s take a closer look at what that would do for you.

Full Annual Coverage

If you pay for a full annual maintenance plan for your home, it would cover yearly checkups of plumbing and drain safety inspection.

Now, imagine how many years go between checkups of these things normally. When was the last time you had someone visit your home and check your drains for clogs or inspect your water main for stress and wear? Have you ever had it inspected?

Most homeowners forget about their plumbing for years until it needs a repair or replacement. Replacing a toilet costs $400 or more. Replacing a water line in your house costs upwards of $3500. And if you need pipes replaced, it can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the size of your home.

The Annual Savings

For a small investment in the Ashton Value Plan, you prolong the life of your plumbing by years and the cost of replacement will be negated by having small repairs completed on an annual basis. Simply having a leak patched or a clog cleared costs $100-$300 versus the thousands of dollars it will cost to replace something – all fantastic reasons to consider an annual maintenance plan.

Just like any piece of equipment, your furnace needs some regular attention and maintenance to keep it running right. And one of the most important parts of the furnace to pay attention to during these service visits is the heating coil.

Without the heating coil, your furnace simply won’t be able to put out heat to keep your house warm. That’s because the combustion in the furnace is used to heat the coil. Air is then blown across the heating coil so that it can be warmed before being circulated throughout the house.

If your heating coil isn’t kept clean, it’s easy to see how you could wind up with all types of problems down the line. And since air is constantly being blown across the coil when the furnace is at work, it’s particularly susceptible to accumulating buildups of debris and sediment.

When this happens, there are several consequences. First of all, your furnace will have a harder time heating your whole house and heating it evenly. As a result, all of the parts of the furnace will have to work overtime to keep your home warm and this can cause them to wear out and break faster. Of course, when that happens, you’ll need professional repairs to get you back on track and you may have to go without heat for some time in the coldest part of the year.

Also, a dirty heating coil won’t be as efficient at transferring heat to the air blowing past, meaning that you’ll be getting less heating power out of the fuel your furnace is consuming to heat your home. Essentially, this will mean your furnace is not functioning at peak energy efficiency and that will certainly be reflected on your monthly heating bills.

But all of this can be avoided by keeping your heating coil clean and in good repair. You will likely need to have a professional take care of this for you and it is a standard part of an annual maintenance visit. While you may have to pay a bit each year for that regular maintenance, you’ll be much better off and save a good deal of money in the long run by having it done and your coil cleaned.

If your furnace is 15-20 years old, it may be a good time replace the furnace with an energy efficient unit which will save money, improve air quality and reduced environmental footprint. With the government rebates available on the federal and provincial side, it would be a great time to give Ashton Service Group a call 604-283-2383