The top three things every homeowner should do in order to ensure their natural gas or electric water heater is working properly.
As temperatures around the Valley are starting to drop making sure a home’s water heater working properly is becoming increasingly more important.
1. Visually inspect the water heater every month. Take note of any new rust spots, water heater problem, discoloration, etc. If the outside of a water heater has visual changes, the interior is changing as well.
2. Check to make sure the water heaters on / off valve is working properly every month. If a homeowner has a small water leak and they go to turn it off and the valve breaks in place it can result in a terrible water leak. It’s best to check the water heater valve regularly and practice turning the valve to avoid problems when you need it.
3. Have the water heater flushed once a year, make sure any and all built up inside is removed annually to prevent water leaks and retain great hot water.
It is always recommended by all water heater manufactures to have a licensed plumber check it yearly and make sure it is working safe and properly. There are many parts inside the water heater along with parts that keep the water heater working safely to protect the home and everyone around it.
Looking for a little pop of glam in your accessories for the holidays? Try something unexpected like this…
You may have seen the hints of gold and copper accessories hitting the runways this fall and we’re here to tell you theres a very simple and affordable way to do it yourself.
Did we mention it was actually pieces of piping? Not all plumbing pieces are used for plumbing repair only
You can head to your local home improvement store and pick piping pieces in all shapes, sizes and metals. Once you pick out your pipe ask for a piece cut between one and three inches – depending on the size you’re looking for.
Then all you have to decide is whether or not you’re going to go for a sleek or casual pony tail, a cute braid, or experiment with different updo’s.
To insert the clip into your hair, just twist the hair style and slip the clip up to the spot you would like it in. If you’re worried about it staying put just wrap a small elastic hair band under the clip.
Whichever way you decide to incorporate the DIY hair cuff you can be guaranteed the cuff itself will be the easiest part. We would love to see your styles. Check out our facebook page: and send us pictures that we can feature on our next DIY Blog!
Thanks to our friends at glitterandpearls.com for sharing DIY Plumbing inspired fashion tips!
If you’re looking for a centerpiece that you can use well past the holidays then we suggest this DIY project. These earthy tones can be used all year long depending on the color themes in your house. You can even take the basic concept and switch out the color themes to give the center piece a more festive feel when wanted.
In this example wooden spools were used so that we could cut them down to different height ranges in the center piece. But you can also use one of our favorite pieces of supplies… plumbing hardware! Both have the perfect opening when using them vertically to slide in candles, an essential element to any center piece.
If you’re using wood, you can use a glue gun to fasten them to your base. In this example the spools were glued to the lid of a large round box. You can find similar items at your local craft store, or mix it up by going with a unique shape. Maybe you even have something lying around your house that you could recycle?
After it’s glued together slide in the candles. For this one we chose tea lights. But you can play around with colors, scents, sizes and even battery operated ones.
Next, start choosing what you would like to fill the center piece with. This example uses a mixture of spools, ornaments and decorative balls (dig into those christmas storage bins and i’m sure you’ll find something. If not take off to your local craft store or Ikea)
Throw in some big pine cones to be reminded of the holiday season, weave in a string of battery operarted lights and it’s as simple as that!
Enjoy this easy project and if you have any tough plumbing projects, save time call the punctual plumber Benjamin Franklin Plumbing 602-485-1111.
Today’s Do It Yourself Project is a Holiday Wreath.. and it happens to be made with plumbing materials! If you’re looking for one of a kind holiday decor or just a fun holiday do it yourself project then this is for you! Most of these things you can either find lying around your house, tucked into holiday decoration boxes in your garage or pick up at the store for under ten dollars. Click HERE for some Christmas music while you CRAFT!
The Square Christmas wreath is assembled out of:
5 – 6 feet of thick garland or 12 feet of cheap, sparse garland (double up the cheap stuff)
66 inches of 1/2 ” plastic plumbing pipe
4, 1/2″ 90° plastic elbows
(The plastic pipe will run you about $5
and the elbows around 50 ¢ each.)
First start with the piping. Cut your plastic pipe to 4 lengths of 16.5 (if you don’t have the tools to do this at home you can have the hardware store cut them for you)
Then insert the pipe into your 4 elbows
After you connect all the pieces you should have a square frame for your wreath.
Next you’ll need your garland. We took the traditional green, but feel free to experiment with glitter garlands or even feather boas if you plan on using it for inside holiday decor in a kids room. You can even skip a step by getting garland that already has lights woven in. (But technically your garland should not have the lights on it at this point so that the lights are easier to replace if broken later on) Next, lay your garland around your frame. Remember you can double up on the garland if needed!
After you lay the garland around the frame, attach it to the plastic frame with wire. Twist ties work best because they’re pre-cut and fairly inexpensive. Do this all around the wreath until all of the garland is secured.
From here, all you have left is to add the lights (if your garland didn’t come with them) and your add on holiday do-dads.
TIP: It’s easier if you hang the wreath up to do this. That way you can see exactly how it’s going to look. You can hang it with an old wreath hanger or pick one up at the dollar store.
NOW you can put your mini lights on. Instead of running them around and around the wreath, lay the lights on top in a zig zag fashion. That way if your lights need to be replaced you can easily remove them.
Once the lights are on you can add in your birch twigs, leaves and pinecones. To attach the pinecones, just hook some wire around the pinecone and then tie it to the wreath.
You can also pick up wreath add ons at your local super store or craft store for a few dollars that already have wire ties attached to them.
The best thing about making your own wreath is you can reposition things if they don’t look good. You can also reuse the base year after year, and just switching out the add ons if you want!
Did you know that more than 90 million American’s will be traveling over the holidays. Homeowners can expect on average 12 guests at their dinner table for holiday celebrations.
Toilets will have extra use over the coming weeks as we approach Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and New Years. Everyone thinks of baking desserts, making beds and dusting fans but no seems to think about giving their toilet a check up before guests arrive.
The average person uses the restroom between six and eight times each day. Homes with 12 or more guests can expect an increase in toilet traffic during this peak travel season, as many as 96 extra flushes per day.
Plumbers across the country celebrated National Toilet Day on November 19th and Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber was no exception.
In honor of National Toilet Day we wanted to share 19 interesting toilet related facts.
1. The toilet is flushed more times during the Super Bowl halftime than at any time during the year.
2. The toilet is the home appliance that uses up the most amount of water.
3. The most expensive toilet in the galaxy is found in space. Each toilet in space costs about 19 million dollars.
4. Most toilets flush in the key of E flat.
5. The first time male and female toilets were separated was in Paris during a high-class party in 1739.
6. The first toilet ever seen on TV was on “Leave It To Beaver”. The first movie to show a toilet flushing was in the movie “Psycho”.
7. An average person visits the toilet 2500 times a year, about six-eight times a day.
8. The average person spends three whole years of their life sitting on the toilet.
9. The average life expectancy of a toilet is 50 years.
10. Over $100,000 US dollars was spent on a study to determine whether most people put their toilet paper on the holder with the flap in front or behind; the answer: three out of four people have the flap in the front.
11. Every year, there are more than 40,000 toilet-related injuries in the US. The odds are 1 out of 10000 that you will get a toilet-related injury this year.
12. There are 333 squares of toilet paper on a roll.
13. On average, consumers use 8.6 sheets per trip – a total of 57 sheets per day. That’s an annual total of 20,805 sheets!
14. The White House has thirty bathrooms. The Pentagon uses about 636 toilet paper rolls per day.
15. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
16. The first toilet cubicle in a row is the least used (and consequently cleanest).
17. The average desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat
18. Car steering wheels carry more than twice as many germs as a toilet seat
19. Lack of suitable toilets and sanitation kills approximately 1.8 million people a year, many of them children.
For more fun facts and information about Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber please visit: http://www.benfranklinplumbingaz.com/.
Thank you for reading my blog, if your toilet is needing some extra attention to make it through the rest of the year, please use our easy real time online booking system or call us at 480-812-1855, mention this blog to receive $39.00 off any toilet repair this week.
The leaves are changing, the temperatures are breaking, haunted houses are dotting the landscape and it’s beginning to look a lot like fall.
Carving, baking and painting pumpkins is an age-old Halloween Tradition. However, it can turn into a plumbing disaster if the excess pulp and seeds go anywhere near the homes plumbing.
With the increase calls to local plumbers due to clogged garbage disposals and backed up sinks Linda Stanfield with Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber is here to share tips and tricks to avoid potential plumbing problems this holiday season.
“We stay busy during Halloween, people don’t realize how stringy, slimy substances from the pumpkin will harden and can stick to the pipes,” said Linda Stanfield, owner of Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber. “Our service professionals are available 24/7, 365, we can repair plumbing emergencies and get our customers back to their Halloween activities and guests with little delay.”
The challenge to keeping pumpkin pulp and seeds from causing plumbing problems is being cautious when removing and disposing of the pumpkin’s remains.
Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber has this advice to offer:
Carve pumpkins away from the kitchen sink, on newspapers, magazines or plastic.
Throw all pumpkin-related material and newspaper directly in the garbage or into a compost bin.
Do not put pulp and seeds into the garbage disposal or toilet.
For the bakers Linda has the following recommendation –use the pulp and seeds for Halloween sweet treats including desserts, breads and muffins. Recipes that use both pulp and seeds are available on several popular cooking websites. Some of our favorites come from www.pumpkinrecipes.org
When you’re stressed sometimes water can be the best relief. Whether it’s swimming, hot showers or just a bubble bath.
However, too many of those high-pressure showers and you could end up paying for more than the increase in your water bill.
Water flows throughout your house because of water pressure. Too much pressure and the faucets can actually begin to wear down, leading to leaky valves and dripping faucets.
You may even have this problem in your home now and have thought:
“Well, it’s just a small drip… how much water can a little drip like this really waste?”
And you’re right. A single drip from a single faucet won’t waste much water.
But did you know roughly 3,000 little drips could equal a whole liter of wasted water and about 15,000 of them could equal a gallon?
Sure you’re probably thinking – “Now that’s a lot of drips! There’s no way my little problem could turn into THAT!”
But think about every faucet in your home dripping a little bit all day long. Soon those little drips would add up. Not to mention if you don’t fix the pipes that those drips are dropping from you could soon end up with an unexpected flood from even the smallest of cracks in the piping.
So now maybe you’re wondering…
“Well how do I make sure this doesn’t happen to me?”
The answer to that is simple! Just make sure to check your water pressure on a regular basis! You can learn how to check your pressure by follow these easy steps:
1) Purchase a water pressure test gauge from a local home supply store.
2) Attach the gauge to an outside water faucet and turn it on fully. Then, look for a reading between _____ psi and _____ psi for the Phoenix area, but that range could different depending on where you’re from.
The easiest way to find out what your gauge should be reading is to check with a local plumber, likeBenjamin Franklin Plumbing, or with your town’s local water department.
3) Then check the water pressure inside your house by attaching the gauge to your bathroom shower, kitchen or bathroom sink. You will want to make sure to test the pressure any where water runs to make sure enough water is reaching every faucet and that there are no leaks!
As always please feel free to call your local Benjamin Franklin Plumber at 602-903-1111 with any questions or concerns or to book your next appointment! Remember if there is any delay it’s you we pay!
There are many reasons to install a water filter. The two most common reasons are to remove odor and improve taste. However, a reason that usually goes unnoticed and yet is one of the most important is a filter that has the capabilities to remove contaminants that resist the city water treatments. Almost all drinking water filters remove the chemical chlorine that is the main cleansing component that our cities choose to filter our tap water with. However, other contaminants may still be present.
Scientists and researchers have stated that prolonged exposure to even a low level of chemical contaminants, which normally passes through EPA standards, can increase the risk of cancer.
Have you read the EPA report of cities in Maricopa County? If not click here to see what the EPA says about what is in our water.
A recent release from President Obama states that a water filter is one of the easiest and most inexpensive steps a family can take towards preventing cancer. The President’s Cancer Panel, made up of scientist and physicians, has released a report on reducing environmental cancer risks. “Filtering home tap or well water can decrease exposure to numerous known or suspected carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals,” states the report.
The panel also suggests switching over to stainless steel or glass bottles because of the contaminants that can leak into the water from a plastic water bottles, whether that bottle is reusable or not. The exposure to these chemicals is also increased by heat so for Phoenicians the best option is a filtered system because of our already hard water, water supply. Then for transporting water around in these last few hot months consider the ease of a reusable bottle in the form that will be sure to last and give you the best health results.
Surpised by all these reports?? Don’t worry, you can protect yourself and your family.
Have you tested your home water lately? Protect your family and yourself, test your water every six months to be sure your showering and protecting your plumbing system with better water.
Our team has many years of qualified water treatment training and experience to be able to test your water and advise you how your current system is performing or not.
Thank you for reading this post, I would like to offer you a free home water test in our service area, contact us today and mention this blog post for your free water test.
Water, whether you drink from your faucet, your fridge or a pre-packaged bottle is not what it used to be. We as consumers can tell by key factors like taste, smell and even appearance.
We have talked about what’s in your water. We have talked about how cities are trying to decontaminate it and what those decontaminates are like chlorine. We have talked about how they are affecting your plumbing and even a few ways to prevent that water from entering your home like with a whole house filter system.
What we haven’t talked about is exactly what contaminates are in your water, let alone what household items are flowing with that water around in your pipes.
A recent article by Readers Digest released what is truly in our tap water. “60,000 chemicals are used across the country—and can get into our drinking water—though the EPA enforces limits on fewer than 100.” Out of what was found, some could be expected like animal waste and pesticides especially around smaller, rural towns. Others, like medical waste, arsenic and rocket fuel were a bit more of a shock. The largest shock was how much was slipping through the checks and straight into our homes.
We’ll tell you here, exactly whats in our water and floating around with it in the sewers…
Have any questions about whats in your water? Call us at Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber today at 602-485-1111. Mention this Blog post, and we’ll even come out and check the quality of your water for FREE!
But the real question is: What would you do if you didn’t have a toilet…
The reality is that billions around the world don’t have access.
Flush toilets are unavailable to a majority of the developing world and over 3 billion people worldwide do not have access to any form of toilet or latrine system. Therefore, these people must result to urinating or defecating in public. Numerous health issues come from the lack of suitable toilets along with safety concerns especially involving women using a public form of bathroom.
Did you know lack of toilets and sanitation kills approximately 2 million people a year most of whom are children?
In order to bring safe, clean toilets to the developing nations the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation along with UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, African Development Bank African Water Facility, Water Services Trust Fund and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and WASH for Life are teaming together for a water and sanitation challenge to reinvent the toilet.
Over 8 different universities worldwide are currently underway to create technology that will reinvent the toilet as “a stand-alone unit without piped-in water, a sewer connection, or outside electricity—all for less than 5 cents a day” according to PRNewswire.
We are here to help you and your family be sure your toilet is safe while keeping you healthy, if you have any concerns please contact Benjamin Franklin Plumbing or call us at 602-903-1672, to help you stay healthy.
