Recognizing the signs of a failing water heater. Here’s a guide to help you identify when it's time for a replacement and tips for maintenance to extend its lifespan.

Running hot water in your home or business can add up to higher monthly bills. We use hot water for a lot of things on a daily basis such as showering, laundry, dishes. Here are some tips to use less hot water and save more money. Drainpro is always here to help with any plumbing issues and recommendations. Don’t leave the water running It’s easy to leave running water while washing our hands, brushing our teeth, cleaning dishes or warming up the water before a shower. All of these end up costing you more on your water bill. Remind yourself to turn off the water that you aren’t using and it will ultimately reduce your water and energy bills. Use your dishwasher, but only when it’s full A dishwasher is a part of our lives now and most of us couldn’t live without one. One thing you should never do is run your dishwasher unless it is 100% full. The amount of hot water being wasted will reflect poorly on your bill. Wash your clothes in cold water Nobody enjoys doing laundry, at least many of us aren’t particular fans. Washing your clothes in cold water will save you more money and can actually help your clothes last longer. Matching your laundry soap for cold washing is also recommended. Turn down the temperature Factory settings on your hot water tank are set to a higher temperature than is necessary. Don’t go and set it too low, it’s recommended to keep your hot water tank at 60 degrees celsius to eliminate bacteria in the water. Energy-Star rated water heater The best way to ensure that you are not wasting hot water is to buy a new water heater with a high efficiency rating. Buying a tankless water heater is also preferred and will save you money in the long run. If you need recommendations or advice regarding your plumbing, contact the professionals here at Drainpro.

Home buyers today are more educated than in previous years. We would be happy to say that phone calls are coming in to have the plumbing inspected before buying a new house, but this is not happening. If you’re planning to buy an older home (any home built more than 15 years ago), you really should have the plumbing checked. Here are things that you should be looking for or considering before finalizing the purchase of your home.. What kind of pipes does the house have? Our Drainpro professional plumbing technicians can help identify the types of pipes that your potential home has. We want to check the pipes because: – Pipes can deteriorate and need replacement when you’re dealing with old pipes. Galvanized steel or iron pipes would probably need to be replaced. – If the pipes are made out of polybutylene, you will want to have them replaced without any hesitation. – If the pipes are made from lead or copper, you may need to have them replaced because of the potential deterioration. Video Inspections Drainpro technicians use video inspections to inspect sewer pipes and help diagnose potential plumbing issues. We service the Ottawa, Kanata, Orleans and all surrounding areas. Video inspections can find: – Cracked, broken or collapsed pipes – Foreign objects blocking pipes – Leaking joints and offset joints – Blockages and Corrosion – Sewer taps and much more Toilets Here at Drainpro, we highly recommend simply flushing toilets before purchasing a home. We also recommended having a more thorough inspection done to ensure there is no signs of rust, discoloration or potential blockages. Under the Sink Pipes Along the same lines of toilets, you want to have the pipes under the sink inspected. A build up of foreign material can cause backlogs and ultimately lead to leaks. Water Pressure Turning on all the faucets in the house at the same time will help us determine the water pressure in the faucets and showers. Older homes typically have problems with water pressure in comparison to newer homes. If you are in the process of or considering the purchase of a home, call us today at 613-233-7586. We are more than happy to help with any plumbing inspections, installations or repairs.

Canadian winters can be harsh and very cold at times. Your plumbing also feels this extreme weather and below are some steps that you can take to avoid any costly plumbing issues. Drainpro is Ottawa’s leading plumbing service provider and we are always ready to help if your pipes do freeze. We also service Kanata, Orleans, Nepean and many other regions within Ottawa and surrounding areas. Love The Heat – Keep It Warm Are you planning a vacation during the winter and your home will sit empty for a few weeks or months? If you are planning a vacation, remember to leave your heat on while you’re away. Nothing would ruin a great vacation like coming home to frozen pipes. Avoid thousands of dollars of damage and repairs and leave your heat on before going on vacation. If you’re not vacationing, you still will need heat to keep your pipes warm and cozy. Afraid of pipes freezing? Let it drip! The water pressure that is building in your pipes is actually the reason why vulnerable pipes may burst or freeze. If you are aware of a vulnerable faucet that you are scared may freeze, open the tap slightly and the faucet will drip and relieve the pressure build up in your pipes. Another tip could be to simply leave interior doors open to help spread the heat to the vulnerable areas. Finding and sealing cracks and holes Do you feel a slight draft or cold air coming in through a crack that it shouldn’t be coming from? Finding and sealing any cracks or holes that directly allow cold air from the outside is essential. This air flow will create a cabinet compartment system that is usually colder than the air coming in. Using caulk or spray foam insulation is the recommended solution to seal holes and cracks. Insulating to avoid freezing Many older homes do not have the proper insulation when it comes to the plumbing. Frozen pipes are a costly problem which can be avoided by fitting problematic pipes with rubber or fiberglass sleeves to help diminish the potential of freezing. Insulation itself will not heat the pipe but instead will keep the water temperature inside the pipes stable. Contact Drainpro today if you’re concerned or worried about some of your pipes that might freeze. Drainpro offers plumbing services in Ottawa, Kanata, Orleans and surrounding areas. You can count on us to the job right the first time.

Plumbing can be a part of your house that you may not see, for most of us. We don’t usually spend too much time worrying about our plumbing, or maintaining it. If a problem does occur, or a leak appears, we notice and this can cause serious damage. We’ve compiled the list below of Drainpro’s top plumbing tips that will help prevent future problems and can help with general maintenance of the plumbing inside your house or business. Plumbing problems are no fun to deal with, leave it to the experts here at Drainpro. Be Conscious of What You Flush While general use of your toilet is pretty straight forward, there are many things that should not be flushed. When starting to flush things other than toilet paper and bodily waste, you could cause some serious blockages. These actions can lead to potential flooding of your home or business. Drainpro is ready to help if your toilet becomes clogged or blocked. Avoid potential flooding and contact us today or visit our Toilet, Faucet or Sink Repairs for more information. Take Care of Your Pipes: Don’t Pour Oil or Grease Down the Drain Just finished cooking a big meal and have a pan full of grease? Whatever you decide to do, make sure that grease does not make it down your drain. Over time, the grease and oil will build up in your drain pipes and will clog and block the water flow. At first, you will not notice and think that everything is fine with the oil or grease going down the drain but serious problems can arise. Avoid a disaster by disposing of your oil and grease, safely might we add, in order to maintain clean pipes and drain. Visit our Blocked Sewers and Pipes repairs page for more information. Prevent Freezing in Your Plumbing: Avoid Serious Problems As a homeowner or business owner, your plumbing is typically out of sight and out of mind. Due to Canada’s harsh winter conditions, taking preventative measures will ensure your pipes do not freeze. Nobody wants to deal with frozen pipes, especially not when it’s -30 degrees outside. Any outside wall plumbing lines should be insulated as much as possible to avoid a potential disaster. Your pipes like to be cozy and warm to keep the water flowing, in all weather, whether summer or winter. Air circulation is also crucial, and a very important plumbing tip when it comes to well maintained pipes and drains. Diagnosing and analyzing potential problem areas in your plumbing is essential to avoid a catastrophe. Give us a call today if you feel like there might be a potential problem with your pipes freezing during the winter. Visit our Frozen Pipes page for more information. Knowing Where to Find Your Main Water Valve As mentioned before, the plumbing inside your home or business isn’t something that you think about every day, usually never, unless a serious problem arises. Knowing where your main water valve can help our [...]

The last thing any of us wants to be doing when summer arrives is mucking around with the plumbing. It’s true, summer may not be as harsh on your plumbing as the depths of winter, but there are still some issues to keep an eye out for. If you are properly aware and prepared you can avoid any problems before they ever begin. Below you’ll find a list of some of the most common plumbing issues to happen in the summer. If you know what they are in advance, maybe you can prevent them! Bummer, A Blocked Toilet: With increased time off, the kids home from school and everyone being more out an active, it’s inevitable that your plumbing fixtures will see more action than in the winter. Be conscious of the extra volume your plumbing has to handle and careful of what you and your family are flushing down. Only natural and decomposable waste should go down the toilet. Avoid flushing things like paper towel, baby wipes or sanitary products. Small blockages can usually be tackled with a plunger, but larger blockages may require you to call your handy Ottawa Plumber! Sprinkler’s Sprung A Leak: Summer is a time for sprinklers – there’s no doubt about it. From keeping your gardens watered to providing your kids with a backyard water park, sprinklers are definitely hard at work over the summer. So, needless to say, a busted sprinkler can be a problem. Sprinklers may not be used to months on end, so if there is wear and tear you may not notice it until your water bill starts to climb! Before the season starts make sure your sprinkler system is clean and free of damage. If you notice any issues it’s good to get a plumber like DRAINPRO in to check it out before summer properly arrives. Over Worked Washing Machine: Just like with your bathroom plumbing fixtures, over the summer your washing machine is likely to get more of a work out. With more people home, playing outside, and warmer temperatures there will be more dirty clothes to take care of. It’s possible, with all the extra washing, for the hose at the back of your machine to spring a leak. Fortunately, DRAINPRO can be there to fit your washing machine with a new hose in a jiffy! Even if the hose isn’t leaking yet, but it’s looking old and worn out, get your Ottawa Plumber in to replace it with a shiny new one. That way you can dive into all that summer laundry without a worry!

Well Ottawa, you may not believe it, but summer is on it’s way! It can be hard to picture it amongst the continuing snow and frost, but soon the weather will change to sunny days, warm nights and summer rain storms. A change in season brings with it changes to your plumbing. You may not have to worry about frozen or cracking pipes anymore, but new challenges like excessive rain or flooding can become an issue. Fortunately, your Ottawa Plumber – DRAINPRO – knows about the plumbing problems for every season. If you take action to improve your plumbing now, you may be able to avoid issues later on. This means your summer can be spent enjoying the warmer weather, not wrestling with faulty plumbing. With the arrival of summer and the possibility of summer deluges there will be even more water for your sewer drains and pipes to deal with. You want to ensure that your fixtures are up to date and well maintained. For example, DRAINPRO has a NEW component that you can add to your existing plumbing that will increase its efficiency and save you hassle. It’s Bruno’s Backwater Trap! It’s a combination of a trap and valve that can be installed where a conventional basement drain would be. Traditional drains may work for draining excess water away from your home, but they do very little to stop water from seeping back up. In some cases, this water can be sewer water accompanied by sewer gases and some seriously offending odors – no one wants that in their basement! Since Bruno’s Backwater Trap pulls double duty, it will drain water away as well as preventing the backup of sewer water into your home. Your Ottawa Plumber can install this innocuous water trap and save you from ever getting that ‘plumbing-problem headache’ in the first place! If you’re interested in learning more about Bruno’s Backwater Trap check out the link below! http://backwatertrap.com/

It is almost a guarantee that Ottawans will deal with some kind of plumbing problem around their home. Some issues are minor and can be dealt with on your own. However, there are some problems or projects that may be beyond your ability. It’s times like this when you should call your Ottawa Plumber! Trying to tackle a plumber level problem on your own can sometimes make matters worse. Some issues require more specialized training and specific tools than you may have access to. This is why DRAINPRO is available for the entire greater Ottawa area. There are always there to help and sometimes can come in and fix a problem in less time than it would take for you to do it yourself. Here are some examples of potential situations where it would be wise to give your Ottawa Plumber a call: No Running Water: Having no running water in your home can lead an array of other problems – not to mention it can be a major pain in the butt! A lack of water can be caused by a variety of issues and it’s daunting to know where to begin looking. Home plumbing systems are intricate and complex, so it’s not a great idea to just start blindly digging around. Your Ottawa Plumber, DRAINPRO, has knowledgeable technicians who will know where to start looking for the issue and how to fix it when they find it. Broken Handles: Nothing is made to last forever. It’s inevitable that over time and through excessive use fixture handles will loosen or break and, sadly, no amount of duct tape can fix it. Unlike a door or cupboard handle, plumbing handlings can be trickier to install. So, that’s a time to call DRAINPRO and before you know it the handles will be replaced and looking better than ever! Installation: Just like with a plumbing handle, plumbing fixtures are much more involved and difficult to install than other household furnishings. Anything that will include running water will always be more of a challenge to install – and more crucial that it’s done right! Luckily, this is exactly one of the things DRAINPRO is here for. Your Ottawa Plumber will handle your installation with ease and have access to all the best brands. You’ll get the appliance you want and know it’s been installed correctly. List or no list, any time there is a plumbing issue you don’t feel comfortable tackling give DRAINPRO a call and they will happily handle it for you!

It’s easy to think ‘out of sight, out of mind’, but with plumbing sometimes it’s the things you can’t see that can be most on your mind. Issues that aren’t immediately obvious can become a much bigger problem without you even noticing. Even if you only suspect a problem contact your reliable Ottawa Plumber – DRAINPRO! They’re always happy to investigate a suspected problem and potentially stop it from turning into something worse. Better safe than sorry! Imagine you dropped a toothpaste cap down the sink drain, a nuisance at the moment, but then easily dismissed. Unfortunately, that toothpaste cap can continue to collect debris around it and over time become an even larger blockage. This can cause your sink drain to drain more slowly or cause the water to stop draining all together! By the time the drain is blocked enough for you to notice you may have completely forgotten about the toothpaste cap. Call in DRAINPRO and they will examine and fix the issue, regardless of its cause. Low water pressure is another example of a problem that may not have a clear cause. There may be build up in your shower head, corrosion in the pipes or maybe even a break in the water main. With so many possible sources it’s impractical (and sometimes even dangerous) for you to go rooting around in your plumbing. It’s better to contact the expert root-ers! Your Ottawa Plumbing technicians know all the ins and outs of plumbing systems and can pinpoint the source of the problem in no time. There’s a reason why DRAINPRO are the professionals. They have the experience, skills and resources to expertly handle any plumbing problem you have. Next time, don’t worry if you can’t see what’s wrong. As long as you can see DRAINPROS contact information you’ll be just fine!