Showering Solutions - 6 Tips for Maintaining a Hot Water System
- Written by News Feature Team
Hot water systems, much like laptops, smartphones, and flat screen TVs, are one of the most commonly found benefits of a first-world society. Who doesn’t love getting under a warm shower and washing away the day in a matter of minutes?
These days, finding a decent plumber to install a hot water service in Melbourne is easy, but knowing how to maintain that hot water system is another problem entirely. Do you call out a plumber every time anything happens with your hot water? Do you never call one no matter what? Taking care of your hot water system can be tricky, but we’ve put together a list of tips for maintaining your hot water system, in the hopes that it will dispel some of the complexity for you.
Check Water Hardness
Many people don’t know what water hardness is, and how it affects their pipes and hot water systems.
Most of the time, when confronted with the term “water hardness”, people will assume that it refers to the physical solidity of water, but in fact it refers to the mineral content of the water itself.
Water that is considered to be “hard water” has a high concentration of minerals, specifically Calcium and Magnesium. These can begin to build up on your seals and in the mechanisms of your hot water system, slowly chipping away at it’s longevity until it needs to be replaced. Check the hardness of your water at your house regularly, and speak to your local council about it if it is too hard for regular use in a hot water system. You might need to get a special kind of filtration system fitted to your property to ensure you don’t end up ruining your water pipes and your filtration system at the same time.
Replace Seals Regularly
As with any machine that operates with liquids, there are many seals involved in a hot water system.
Seals that keep the water in, seals that keep the water out, and seals that connect pipes securely to each other, and all of them are crucial in the function of the hot water system.
Seals are usually made of rubber or silicon, and as is the case with these products they expand and contract based on how hot or cold they are. This means that over time your seals will harden and crack, no longer forming a seal. Replacing these regularly is the key to keeping your hot water system functioning effectively.
Annual General Check
As a general rule, if you haven’t yet had to perform any maintenance on your service after 12 months, it’s a good idea to have a look at it and assess how it’s doing. This can be done by hiring a professional, or just doing it yourself. However, you need to investigate what you’re looking for before taking the case apart. Otherwise, you may not find the problem staring you in the face.
System Replacement
If you are working with an old system in your home, and maintaining it is keeping it alive well enough but not improving it at all, then it might be time to upgrade. Installing a whole new system should be fairly straightforward, but for a more complex process it can be a good idea to call in a professional. Your new system should be far easier to maintain with more readily available parts and a longer life expectancy too.
Check Water Levels
If you don’t seem to be getting enough water pressure after a service or an overhaul, something is probably amiss. Checking the levels of pressure at each junction, work your way backwards from a faucet or showerhead to your hot water system, and beyond. The leak should become apparent without having to dig into the ground at all, and once patched it’ll be just about good as new.
Hire a Plumber
This might seem to be an odd suggestion, but every once in awhile you should hire a plumber to come out and just have a quick look over your entire hot water system. Over time, things can get clogged with dirt and dust, switches and sensors can get worn out, and electrical components can expire without any visual cues to speak. Whether you’re currently in a plumbing bind, or trying to avoid potential problems down the line, hiring a plumber is only going to be beneficial.
