Do You Need Assurance You Will Not Die This Winter From Your Crazy Furnace?

November 10th, 2011

Many of us save money and buy a nice old house to fix up or move into some apartments that are not the trendy ones in the good part of town. What happens is you end up living with some rather outdated appliances, not so insulated walls and windows, and perhaps a furnace that looks a bit like an antique.

If you are in this situation you need to go out to Lowe’s, Home Depot, or Ace Hardware store and get yourself a carbon monoxide detector. You can also shop online for a good cheap home security company that installs a system that detects break-ins, fire, and deadly gases all for around $20 a month. You really shouldn’t pay more than $20 a month for a home protection system and these things are great because your fire and deadly gas protectors are not battery powered but hook up to your electrical system.

If you want to install a carbon monoxide and deadly gas detector yourself you can buy these at Home Depot and Lowes. They are about $40 a piece and I recommend getting about 5 of them.

Most come with the option to install them as a battery powered system or allow you to hook them up to your electricity in your home. It may cost you a little bit to get an electrician to set this all up and for that reason a home security system may be a better choice for you.

This winter do not wait but go ahead and install something if only battery powered as most deaths in the winter do not happen from the cold weather but by carbon monoxide poisoning from a broken furnace leaking this deadly gas into your home.

I personally know of a few different people who have had close calls with carbon monoxide poisoning in Tyler Texas. One family actually past out a couple times, woke up and crawled out of the house on their hands and knees just barely escaping death.

It is common to not recognize the hints of carbon monoxide poisoning. Many people will pass out, hallucinate, and complain of headaches only to go back to sleep. If you have any signs like these go ahead and get out of the house and ask questions later.

The reason people get carbon monoxide leaks is that they do not hire a heating service technician to come into the house every 6 months to 1 year and service the HVAC system including the furnace. The HVAC tech will check for furnace leaks and if they find one by law they must condemn the unit.

I have seen a company in Tyler that actually got mad that a heating repair company was condemning their furnace instead of repairing it but when the furnace is leaking it becomes a safety hazard and could actually kill their employees and customers.

Eventually if a company or home refuses to get their furnace replaced the natural gas utility will turn off service until they get a new furnace.

What To Be Mindful Of Once You Have to Replace That Leaking Death Trap

In one situation I am aware of a new furnace was installed by a certain HVAC company in town that will remain nameless. A cold front came in and lasted 3 weeks. During this time the house was not being heated and so the calls started coming in for the service company to come back out to check on what could be the problem.

The first call it seemed to be simply that the pilot light had gone out. The pilot was lit and the technician left. The calls kept coming in and after the 4th call the furnace techs began to realize it may not just be a pilot light issue.

Now with each new call the technician would replace a different part on the furnace. The gas valve was replaced, then it was a switch, and the incompetence just kept getting worse. The problem eventually settled down but it stopped simply because they cold snap left the Tyler area for a short while.

You guessed it, the cold came back as it usually does in Tyler during the winter and the furnace was once again cold. A supervisor at the HVAC company was finally told of the problem house and the question was raised, “What is the gas pressure at this unit?” None of the furnace techs had a clue. Someone decided to speak up and say, “It’s natural gas, it likely has about half a pound of pressure.” The supervisor retorted, “Get your butts back out there and check it.”

So what did they discover? The gas pressure basically didn’t even exist. The techs called the city of Tyler gas utility only to discover the demand for gas in the area because of the cold was so great that there was low pressure in this area of Tyler at the time.

In summary with a quick glance at a manometer all of this work could have been avoided. This HVAC company could have saved about $800 in parts and labor from all the service calls they did for this one issue. Point being, your furnace repair company should always check for the basics to start off with. For a recommended heating repair company in Tyler please check out Aire Serv Heating and Air Conditioning

Furnace Tip: How Do I Turn On My Pilot Light?

Turn black knob to “pilot”, about 15 degrees counterclockwise from assumed position. As you turn the black knob press the red pilot button down. When the black knob gets to the right spot the red button will depress further. Hold the red button down and light the pilot. Continue to hold the red button down for 60 seconds before releasing it. You have to hold the red button down until the pilot remains lit on it’s own after the thermistor has heated up. Turn black knob to “on” and everything should be cozy. You won’t hear the gas flow to the pilot. Some gas utilities will actually come out to your house and light your pilot for you for free if you feel uncomfortable doing these instructions. You will need to call Centerpoint Energy to see if they offer this free service.

Tags: Ace Hardware Store, Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Monoxide Detector, Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, Close Calls, Cold Weather, Couple Times, Deadly Gases, Electrical System, Electrician, Furnace, Gas Detector, Hands And Knees, Headaches, Heating And Air Conditioning, Home Depot, Home Security System, Lowe S, Security Company, Tyler Texas, Walls And Windows
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Is the Dyson Fan a Scam?

August 13th, 2011

Like everyone else I’ve seen the television ads for the Dyson fan and wondered how the thing works without fan blades. My cousin and I were recently discussing this very thing when we decided to do a little research on the topic.

After visiting a few customer reviews we discovered that there are in fact blades contained in the fan’s base. The air is simply channeled up through the round “air foil.” A couple of days later I examined a display model at my local Home Depot. The commercials have often described the noise generated by a conventional fan as unsettling. “The blades buffet the air creating a pulse, but the Dyson fan creates a constant stream of air…” or something along those lines. Sorry to say the noise level (if that bothers you), is about the same as a conventional, less sexy, general market fan. The air put out by the Dyson fan is not too bad, also about the same as her more average cousins. The Dyson fan is not a scam. For the most part it does what the manufacturer says it does. But nor is it, in my opinion, as cool as they imply either. There’s really no new method of moving air, as the design would seem to suggest. So what’s the draw? Well obviously its aesthetics. The Dyson fan looks like something you’d see sitting on Captain Picard’s desk, particularly the mat grey model with the blue air foil. But good looks are costly. The price on most models has come down to around three hundred dollars… yes down. So you’re looking at paying more than ten times the price of a more plain Jane Wal-Mart fan.

At the end of the day the Dyson fan is a cool product, however how much is your average consumer willing to pay for cool? As for me I’ll stick to my old school oscillating fan that I paid about twenty dollars for, even if it is unsettling.

Tags: Aesthetics, Air Foil, Captain Picard, Commercials, Conventional Fan, Couple Of Days, Cousin, Cousins, Customer Reviews, Desk, Display Model, Dyson, Fan Blades, Home Depot, Noise Level, Old School, Oscillating Fan, Plain Jane, Television Ads, Tyler Texas, wal-mart
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Low cost way to lower your electric bill in the summer

July 25th, 2011

Tyler Texas AC Repair In older houses your attic and doorways are the first place to start to help in lowering your electric bill in the summer.

It really does not cost much to make a significant impact on your electric bill by insulating the attic, duct work, and putting seals on doorways and windows.

In older houses you usually have lower ceilings in the house which ads to the effect when you insulate your attic. It does not take as much air conditioning to cool your house when your ceilings are only 8 feet high.

To begin your cost reduction task go to Home Depot, Lowe’s or any local hardware store and get some weather stripping for doors and windows.

There are also strips that can be attached at the bottom of a doorway that stick on and drag the ground. Ask for the lower strips as well, they take about 30 seconds to put on.

For most people you will be able to glue and or nail the weather stripping on yourself. I personally did a combination of nailing and gluing. Be sure to use the very small tack nails so you don’t effect the structural components of your windows and doors.

Now for the attic you can get blow in insulation from most hardware stores and it comes with a blow in machine. The problem is that if you call the top 3 insulation companies in Tyler TX you will be able to get a cheaper price for insulation and installation than the cost of purchasing the materials at either large hardware store.

It simply makes no sense to insulate your attic yourself when the professionals can do it cheaper than it will cost you to buy the materials.

In older houses sometimes the duct work has not been wrapped in insulation. Also the duct work very well may have no mastic paint sealing the cracks at each connection of duct work.

When it comes to mastic seals and insulating the duct work you are talking about a lot of time up in the attic to do this. This is one of the more costly aspects to attic and ac conditioning insulation.

For those who want to do this yourself it is as simple as getting a paint brush, mastic, and duct insulation. You will also need a cutting blade to cut the insulation.

I recommend getting a licensed ac repair company in Tyler Texas to do the duct work insulating as they can knock it out quick and you don’t have to deal with being in your attic for extended periods of time.

We recommend calling Aire Serv of Tyler Texas for any duct work insulation work you need done. When contacting a Tyler TX ac repair company be sure to get a few quotes and go with the company willing to give you referrals and examples of the work they have done.

If you perform all of these low cost energy efficiency steps in your house you could lower your summer electric bill by $100 a month depending on how bad your ac cooling is leaking in your house.

Tags: ac repair company in Tyler TX, Air Conditioning, Aire Serv Tyler T, attic insulation Tyler TX, Blow In Insulation, Ceilings, Cracks, Doors And Windows, Doorway, Doorways, Duct Work, duct work Tyler TX, Glue, Hardware Store, Hardware Stores, Home Depot, HVAC repair Tyler TX, Insulating The Attic, Lowe S, Nails, Seals, Significant Impact, T Effect, Tyler TX ac repair company, Weather Stripping, Windows And Doors
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Ace Hardware Store in Tyler Texas

January 8th, 2010

A hardware store is just a hardware store. The people at Ace Hardware would have you believe that their store is more packed full of hardware than any of the other competing businesses, or that their prices are lower, or even that their hardware is of superior quality. The truth is that you could, most likely, find all of the same equipment for the same prices at the Home Depot. This is not necessarily a negative similarity; the theme of hardware doesn’t support a lot of variety. Although in Ace’s defense they do have a formidable paint selection. Ace Hardware also has a little more open space than most hardware stores; it has a breezy expansive center isle with plenty of room to drag your new sundry items, or roller skate down.

Where Ace really stands out is its service, the sales peoples really know how to simply make sure your needs are taken care of. After all basic service is much more than you can ask from Lowe’s or Home Depot’s customer assistance placebo buttons. I have not yet been able to test the employee’s hardware expertise, but they did clear my lawn furniture obstacle course in very good time.

Ace Ritter in Tyler Texas will unfortunately be closing down this year as Lowe’s and Home Depot have proven to be too much competitin for them. I would run by there and see if their smokers are on sale. Ace Ritter has some remarkable meat smokers that are electric and burn small wood pellets. The meat never burns and the amount of electricity needed to ignite the wood pellets is minimal. These smokers are one of the best niche items Ace Ritter sales and since they are going out of business I would look for these to be marked down. Don’s TV and Appliances also sells this brand of meat smoker so if you wanted to price shop you could check out the two stores.

If you enjoy shopping at Ace Hardware you can still find one in the Flint Gresham area at Kirkpatricks Ace Hardware.

Tags: Ace Hardware, Ace Hardware Store, Ace Ritter Tyler TX, Customer Assistance, Going Out Of Business, Gresham Area, Hardware Expertise, Hardware Stores, Home Depot, Lawn Furniture, Lowe S, Meat Smokers, Niche, Obstacle Course, Open Space, Paint Selection, Plenty Of Room, Ritter, S Tv, Similarity, Tyler Texas, Wood Pellets
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Affordable Quality Cabinet Makers in Tyler Texas

November 24th, 2009

Mitch West with Cupboards Plus can be reached at: 903-963-8606

When deciding on cabinets for our home remodeling job I had to decide between those premade cabinets you see at Lowes and Home Depot and the custom ones you see in those fancy Cascade homes. The price difference is dramatic especially when installing them yourselves. Sure Home Depot and Lowes has custom cabinets also but their prices seem out of this world compared with what you can get with local custom cabinet makers. I had no idea about the cabinet making business, prices, and quality of product our there going into this but I quickly found out a lot.

When picking your cabinet company that will deliver and or install your cabinets you really want to do a little consumer research. Thank goodness you came to this article as I will give you my own consumer research and experience from picking and ultimately choosing a custom cabinet maker in Tyler Texas. What ends up being on most peoples minds when going into the cabinet buying process is what about Lowes and Home Depot cabinets?

The main problem I have with Lowes and Home Depot is that you are locked into a set dimension. Sure you can have custom orders with these home remodeling companies but that is when these companies really hit you on price. So lets say you avoid custom orders with Lowes and Home Depot to keep your costs down. If you have a 38 inch wide opening you may end up only being able to buy a 36 inch cabinet and then buy filler strips so it looks a little better. If you were using a custom cabinet builder in your local area of Tyler you could have the cabinet made to exact dimensions.

A big apprehension I had going into this custom cabinet process was just what type of quality could I expect from a local Tyler company to make something that looks as good as what you see at Home Depot? Well have you been into Don’s TV’s and Appliances. If you haven’t you need to as you will see a whole new level of cabinetry that Lowes and Home Depot just can’t deliver on. The custom cabinets in Don’s were made by Mitch West’s custom cabinet company called Cupboards Plus. I did not realize this back in the day but eventually I came full circle through recommendations from people I know that the guys that did Don’s cabinets are the same guys people were telling me to use.

I met up with Mitch West and one thing that immediately had my attention was the amount of choices and detail I could pick from. There was no end to the amount of wood cuts for the doors, cabinet sides and crown molding. Because of the amount of choices you have available you can get real creative with your cabinets. So my apprehensions were laid to rest as far as what the wood would look like but I was still unsure if they could deliver on the type of stain or paint technique used on the cabinets. I went back to Don’s TV and Appliances to get a second look at just what could be done and there are just as many if not more examples of what type of paint technique and wood stain that can be applied to your cabinets as you will see at Lowes and Home Depot.

Another issue that comes into play is the amount of filler joints you will need to make your Home Depot cabinets look like one piece. You will usually have 5 or 6 cabinets from Home Depot screwed together with many joints between each cabinet to make it look like one piece. With a custom cabinet you can usually have a whole piece per wall with no filler joints needed. The subtle difference in having cabinets with no joints really gives off a look you just would not foresee unless you had chosen to go the custom way. With a custom cabinet you simply can build what you want to exactly fit your kitchen. There are no filler pieces and the quality of wood product far exceeds what Lowes and Home Depot uses for their cabinets.

We had a unique custom cabinet situation as our kitchen was built in 1912 and was originally a small farm house. The slab is a very bad pour and so there are some slopes in the kitchen. The ceiling is also a plank board ceiling and isn’t exactly straight either. If ever there was a custom cabinet makers nightmare I believe our kitchen would be that nightmare. Through a measuring technique and crown molding they were able to create an effect that makes the ceiling and floors to appear level. Your eyes are not distracted by obvious slopes and valleys in the kitchen floor and roof. Also the upper cabinets were made at different heights so the bottom level is all the same height where the back-splash comes up to so the line for the back-splash remains level. When using a local Tyler custom cabinet maker you can have weird corners done custom unlike a pricey custom order request that would be required when going with Home Depot or Lowes. Now if you had Lowes or Home Depot cabinets delivered what chance do you think you have of these cabinets being installed with this level of experience? Consider that nothing was custom made for your kitchen situation when using these larger national brand companies.

So lets go through a typical persons experience even like what I had when walking through Lowes or Home Depot and observing their cabinet demos. I am always impressed at these stores with the whole turnkey product you see. The cabinet doors always look amazing and the hardware choices are unique when examining the door handles. I usually pay close attention to the immaculate paint styles and stains on the cabinet doors and sides. The cabinets appear so well done that it would seem impossible for a small customer cabinet maker in Tyler to be able to do the same or better. Well let me tell you my assumption that a custom cabinet maker could not do a better job than what you see at Lowes and Home Depot is way off. If you are a typical Tyler home owner unfamiliar with the construction trade you may fall into this same uninformed category as me.

Here are some questions a real custom cabinet maker will likely ask you to ask a Lowes sales person:

What wood material are the cabinets built out of?
The price per foot says $40 a foot but what is the total package price? (Most people that buy Home Depot and Lowes cabinets do not know what the whole turnkey price will be)
Are they plywood ends, partical board, a special grade of contact paper?
Did you know partical board is sawdust and glue?

Here are some points to consider on why a custom Tyler Texas cabinet maker is a much better choice than choosing stock cabinets from Lowes or Home Depot.

Instead of possibly lower quality materials you get plywood construction with hardwood face frames and doors.
You can usually get custom cabinets back in a little shorter time frame than what Lowes and home Depot deliver in.
From what I understand Lowes and Home Depot usually call in an order to North Carolina and get the cabinets back in 2 – 3 weeks. With a custom cabinet maker you usually have a quicker turn around time than that.
The staining and painting techniques that can be applied to your custom cabinets look the same and better than what you see at Lowes and Home Depot.
Sometimes what you get at Home Depot or Lowes may be built out of partical board or medium dencenty fiber board. The coating is similar to firmica that is poured and baked on.
You get a much better quality cabinet using better materials when going with a custom cabinet maker.
You Keep the money with Local Tyler companies rather than large national brands.
Your not saving a tremendous amount but the quality and customability of your cabinets is much better.