Is Your Water Heater Beyond Repair? Let’s Help You Find Out?

June 25th, 2021
water-heater-tank

A water heater is a major purchase to make for a home, and nobody wants to replace their current water heater until they need to. The tricky part is understanding when that “need to” time arrives. We don’t recommend you continue to run and run an older water heater until it fails completely and breaks down. For one, that will leave you unexpectedly trapped without hot water and a longer period to wait until a new one is installed. For another, the dying water heater will waste tremendous amounts of energy as it declines and probably deliver less hot water than it used to.

It’s best to get in front of a water heater replacement by understanding when to have a new system installed rather than continue with water heater repair in Fresno, CA. We can provide you with some important info about when a water heater has gone beyond repair, but please don’t make a decision until you’ve worked with our team—we can help you find out when it’s time for a new water heater.

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There’s No “Expiration Date” for AC Maintenance: It’s Not Too Late to Schedule!

June 1st, 2021
service-blue-marker

Although spring doesn’t officially end until June 20, people tend to think of summer as starting when the calendar flips over to June. Since we recommend people have professional maintenance done for their air conditioning systems in spring, it may sound like the time is almost up to get it done. This isn’t the case at all!

Regular maintenance is one of the most important services you can have done for your AC, and it doesn’t have an expiration date. It has a “recommended” date, but the only requirement is that professionals do it once a year. 

We Still Recommend Spring or Early Summer for Maintenance

We do want to be clear about the ideal time to have air conditioning system maintenance, which is fall or early summer. You’ll receive the most benefit from maintenance when you have it done before the major heat waves arrive and you use the air conditioner on a regular basis. And because it’s not even officially summer yet, you’re right on time if you schedule maintenance now.

Why Maintenance Needs to Be Done Annually

The big takeaway from this blog post is that maintenance done later is still far better than skipping it for a year. We don’t want our customers to decide that they might as well abandon maintenance for a year if they haven’t gotten it done by mid-July. Maintenance is both a long-term and short-term investment, and those long-term benefits are among the most important.

Here are reasons maintenance should be kept up with each year, even if it’s done later a few of those years:

  • It keeps the warranty valid: Equipment warranty for your air conditioner is an essential consumer protection. A small percentage of AC units leave the factory with faults, but the warranty will cover parts repair and replacement in case something goes wrong. Lack of maintenance may void the warranty and leave you paying for parts that would otherwise have been covered.
  • It helps the air conditioner last for as long as possible: The average service life of central air conditioners is 10 to 15 years, but only if the ACs receive annual professional maintenance. Skipping maintenance gives wear and tear a chance to take hold and cause the system to age faster. Your AC will need to be replaced years earlier without routine maintenance.
  • It catches repair issues before they can become serious: Maintenance gives our technicians the opportunity to examine an air conditioner closely and find where there are potential problems. It’s similar to your annual visit to the doctor. Early detection for ACs means fewer and less expensive repairs.
  • It stops a decline in AC efficiency: When an AC misses maintenance, the wear on the unit will cause it to lose energy efficiency and cost more to run.

Right now is a great time for this air conditioning service in Fresno, CA. Reach out to our team to get on the schedule for your AC’s annual inspection and tune-up.

Call Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning to schedule AC maintenance today. “Quality Is the Cornerstone of Our Success” since 1952.

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My AC Isn’t Cooling the House Enough—What’s Wrong?

May 17th, 2021
flueshed-man-before-fan

Now that we’re experiencing major heat in the Central Valley, home air conditioning systems are putting in steady work. You almost certainly run your AC on most days. But something isn’t right—you’re handling your AC the same as you normally would, but the house won’t cool down enough. You’re worried: what’s causing the air conditioning system to fall behind?

Below are some reasons you may have a struggling AC during our early wave of hot weather.

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What Is “Puron” and Is It Different From Freon?

May 3rd, 2021
refrigerant-from-AC

When you’re looking for a new air conditioning system installation in Fresno, CA, you’ll have many questions about cooling power, energy efficiency, and cost. There’s plenty to consider when planning for a new cooling system, and you want to make sure you get the right air conditioner. We recommend you work with our professionals from the start so we can answer your questions and ensure you have a properly sized new AC.

The question of what “Puron” is and how it’s different from Freon we can answer here. The word “Freon” tends to get tossed around interchangeably, leading to confusion about refrigerants. We’re happy to clear things up.

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Don’t Try to Install a Thermostat on Your Own! Here’s Why

April 21st, 2021

advanced-thermostat-on-hot-dayYou can probably go online and find instructions on how to do a DIY installation for just about anything. That doesn’t mean you should attempt all of them. It’s one thing to follow instructions on how to wire up your home’s new sound system. It’s quite another when it comes to installing a new thermostat.

We know what you’re thinking: “How complicated could putting in a thermostat be? Don’t I just have to wire it into the wall?” It’s more complicated than that, but there are other reasons why we don’t recommend going it alone on this. If you buy your own thermostat and then attempt to replace your old one with it, plenty can go wrong. Expensively wrong.

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Should I Have Custom-Made Ductwork for My New Home Construction?

March 15th, 2021

inside-air-duct

When you decide to build your own home, you’ll face many important decisions. Choosing the correct ductwork design for the ventilation system from an experienced HVAC contractor will be extremely important to your home.

You may not think of ductwork as anything that needs to look “special” because it’s hidden out of sight. But this overlooks the significant benefits of having a ventilation system designed with customized ductwork. We think that when you consider the advantages of a higher rated R-value duct (Flex Duct) you’ll see that it’s the best way to go.

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The Improvements of Getting a New Furnace Installed

March 4th, 2021

furnace-burners-CUIf you use an old gas furnace for your household heating in Madera, CA, have you started to consider getting a replacement? We recommend replacing any aging heating system before it starts to go into a decline. It’s not a good idea to let a furnace run and run until it fails. This is not only inconvenient (nobody wants to have to scramble to replace a dead furnace in the middle of winter), it also means the furnace will waste more and more energy during its final downward spiral.

There are other reasons to go ahead and replace an aging furnace while it’s still (outwardly) working okay. Newer furnaces contain several improvements that can help you enjoy better performance and energy efficiency with your home heating than ever before.

Below are several ways modern furnaces conserve energy. Not all furnaces have these same additions: ask our technicians about the different options available.

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Why Is My Furnace Making That Noise?

February 16th, 2021

woman-listeningIf you’re asking this question, you’re already on the way to solving the problem. That you’ve noticed the furnace is making an odd sound is good news—not for the furnace, but for timely heater repair in Fresno, CA. The sooner you detect a strange sound coming from the furnace, the sooner you can call our technicians to investigate it and find out what repairs may need to be done. It always pays to move fast on potential furnace problems because it helps avoid safety concerns, the trouble getting worse, a more expensive repair, or the furnace breaking down entirely.

A malfunctioning furnace can make several types of noises. Below we’ll look at some of the more common. Please leave the actual diagnosis of the malfunction to our professionals, however.

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Advice on Energy-Saving Thermostat Settings for Your Heating

January 11th, 2021

hand-setting-thermostatWe want you to enjoy the best possible heating in Fresno, CA or wherever you live in the Central Valley each winter. We’ve served the area for many decades and are dedicated to providing the best in heating repair, replacement, and maintenance. But sometimes what our customers need the most in the moment is good, old-fashioned advice about running their heating systems.

For example, we’d like to give you advice on how best to set your home’s thermostat during the winter so that you save money—without having to freeze! Thermostats can be as simple as a manual dial or as intricate as state-of-the-art Wi-Fi “smart” models, but at the core, they are about setting a target temperature in the house for the heater to reach. Let’s look into what settings are best for lowering costs.

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Explaining AFUE Ratings for Gas Furnaces vs. Electric Furnaces

December 28th, 2020

natural-gas-burnerOne of the trickiest parts of navigating a new heating system installation for a house is figuring out energy efficiency ratings and what they mean. People want their heating systems to use less energy if possible, but they may not understand what the efficiency ratings mean and if it’s worth it to pay more to install a high-efficiency system.

Making the choice for a new central heating system is much easier when you have the assistance of our Madera, CA, HVAC experts. It’s our job to see you have the right heating system for your house, and we’ll assist you with figuring out efficiency ratings and all the other important factors that go into new system selection.

In this post, we’ll look at an example of where efficiency ratings can be confusing for homeowners, which is how the AFUE ratings for furnaces differ between gas and electric models.

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