Isom Hill is a heat-and-air technician with an interesting analogy.
“Just think of an A/C system like the human body that inhales and exhales,” he said.
“For instance, there are many different environments we breathe in, and we have hairs – or filters – that clean the air we breathe,” he explained. Dirty filters can lead to numerous air conditioning failures.
A dirty filter in a home’s cooling cycle can lead to freeze up due to poor air flow. Likewise, in the heating cycle, a dirty filter can cause your furnace to overheat due to the lack of air flow.
“There is a high percentage of calls that could be prevented by a routine filter change,” said Hill, who was one of two local handymen who offered us tips on simple home maintenance that may prevent you from having to spend a ton of money.
Changing filters is “the equivalent of brushing your teeth,” said Tony Cooper, owner of Cooper’s Home Repair. “Preventative maintenance is so much cheaper than repairs because who knows what you’re going to run into.”
You should change your air filter each month, Cooper said. He’s forgetful, so he makes sure that whenever he pays his mortgage, he changes the filter.
And cheaper filters are fine, he said. The more expensive ones may last longer, but they clog up faster, reducing air flow.
Here are some other handy tips Cooper offered:
Garbage disposals. Once every three months, empty a cup of ice into your garbage disposal and turn it on. This sharpens the blades, keeping the disposal running well and the blades really sharp.
Caulking. Proper window caulking can prevent water from deteriorating a home’s exterior. (For great tips on caulking, check out the U.S. Department of Energy’s website, tulsaworld.com/usdecaulkingtips
Heaters. If yours is more than 10 years old, have a certified technician come in at least once a year and service your A/C and heater. They’ll check the heat exchanger, which can crack and allow carbon monoxide in through the house. So servicing your A/C can prolong its life and protect yours, he said.
Plumbing. If you have floor drains in your garage or in a bar sink you rarely use, put enough water in there to open the P trap, which drains waste water and seals off vapors coming from sewage. If you haven’t run water down the drain in a while, gases can build up behind it, leading to an unpleasant smell.
Popular Mechanics provides tips on basic plumbing dos, don’ts
First, a disclaimer: We are by NO means suggesting you be your own plumber.
But if you’d care to trouble-shoot some simple stuff and don’t think you know your way around all those pipes and what not, Popular Mechanics’ website has an awesome list of tips.
Here are a few:
Know where your pipes are. Pounding nails and driving screws is all well and good, until you puncture a copper or plastic supply or drain.
What to do: Buy a stud sensor that also detects pipes and wirings. You can also look around in the attic or the basement (if it’s unfinished) to get a sense of where pipes are hiding. Finally, if the wall will be covered by whatever you’re building or installing, you can always carefully cut a test hatch to find plumbing lurking in the walls.
Don’t over-tighten. If tight is good, really tight must be better. Right? Wrong.
What to do: Given what I just said about the hit-or-miss quality of many plumbing components today, you’d think that a generous application of wrench torque is called for. Not so. A clean, properly cut and fitted joint that’s been sealed just doesn’t need to be massively tightened. In many cases, after bringing the parts together firmly hand-tight or using a wrench, often all it takes is another half a turn. In fact, brass–copper gas fittings are particularly vulnerable to wrench damage from over-tightening, while steel pipe is more forgiving.
Leak test. Always. It should be obvious: Make a thorough leak inspection before closing up and moving on.
What to do: When you’ve installed a new valve component (or the valve itself), aggressively open and close the valve, as well as running hot and cold water through it. Do the same when checking drains. Run water down a drain and fill up a sink or tub and then drain it to check for leaks. Check gas lines with a soapy water and detergent solution or spend a few dollars for an 8-ounce bottle of bubble-creating leak detector sold on the Web or at a plumbing supply house. The advantage of this material, as opposed to dish detergent, is that it creates larger, more brightly visible bubbles than detergent does.
Be kind to your septic system. The guys at Popular Mechanics are asked this question all the time: “Should I use an additive to improve the performance of my septic system and reduce the need to pump the septic tank?” An additive can be almost anything from sugar or enzymes to a dead chicken (we’re not kidding about the chicken – we get that one plenty).
What to do: Don’t bother with additives, especially the chicken. A properly designed, built and maintained septic system will last for decades and trying to reduce pumping intervals will more likely lead to a clogged leaching field as solids, not clear effluent, flows out of the septic tank and into the leaching field. A septic-tank-pumping company can advise you on how often the tank needs to be pumped. It will depend on the tank’s size and how many people live in the home. Likewise, avoid excessive use of chlorine bleach or caustic chemicals that can kill off beneficial digestive bacteria in the septic tank.
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