The Hot Water Choice

Seldom does a customer put thought into what hot water system suits their needs the best. The usual routine is their existing heater bursts and then they need a new one in a hurry and plump for replacing their heater with the same one.

When asked what the best solution is we are biased. Our bias is based on years of experience, we see which styles and brands don’t last long, and we see which styles and brands don’t suit a certain application. So our number one recommendation is always to go gas and to go instantaneous or constant flow. All of the major brands have a version of this style, the Rinnai infinity being the most well known.

The reasons we recommend this style are simple:

• They last longer – Rinnai are putting a 25 year lifespan prediction on their Infinity models, with only minor maintenance required in between. Electric storage tanks average 11 years.
• They are energy efficient. Some instantaneous models now have a 6 star energy rating. Electric mains pressure mains power heaters are among the most costly to operate.
• They use less space. If you would like to free up space on the side of your house or your backyard an instantaneous heater is like having a large brief case stuck on your wall. A large storage tank can be as big as a large man.

So do some research? Rinnai infinity, Rheem Continuous Flow, Bosch 26 Eco all great machines. Remember – and this is important! Your gas meter regulator will usually need to be upgraded for these heaters to work properly and to prevent unnecessary hot water repairs. They only use gas when the tap is turned on, but they need a lot of gas in a hurry. Too often we see cheap installations that messed up this crucial step.

If we were pushed on our second choice of style, we would recommend the gas rapid recovery storage units. The main choices here are the Rheem Stella’s and The Everhot range. These units can still perform with a 5 star energy rating and can deliver huge first hour performance by using the flue to help heat the cylinder.

Your Sydney Plumber is brought to you by Highlander Plumbing, Sydney plumbers with the experience & know-how to handle all your plumbing needs. Whether you need help with clearing a blocked drain, hot water systems & tanks, gasfitting, rainwater tanks or many other plumbing services…Highlander are Sydney plumbers you can trust!

The Jetter Versus The Eel.

We are asked on a daily basis, what’s the best way to clear a drain? As far as we are concerned, it’s no contest. We use Water Jetters for 100% of our drain clearing. We have an old Electric Eel sitting in our shed covered in cobwebs, it cost us a fortune to buy at the time too! ( I better put it on E-bay now). You may be thinking this comparison is biased, well it’s not. For years we used Electric Eels, lugging around big drums of metal sprung cables that we slowly wound into the sewer. Thrashed them around inside the pipes, leaving mess everywhere and most importantly – leaving a lot of the blockage behind in the pipe we were supposed to be clearing.

Then we had an epiphany. We invested money into purchasing Drain Cameras. Our first cameras were black and white had terrible picture quality but they showed us very clearly how many roots were being left behind after an Eel was used. At the same time we invested in our first Water Jet machines. We repeated this process and saw entirely different results. The inside of the pipes were crystal clear, all of the roots were gone and the inside diameter of the pipe was back to what it should have been.

So what exactly is a Water Jetter you ask? A water jetter is a drain clearing machine that combines the use of a motor and pump to deliver water at very high volumes and pressures to cut whatever is in its way. There are many variations on Jetters. Some expel more water per liter than others, other expel a lower quantity of water at a higher pressure to cut. We prefer the high pressure machines. They are perfectly suited to domestic applications. Coupled with the correct cutting tips and used with well trained technique these machines can be undefeated at clearing drains. Note how I said used with correct technique, as our marketing states – “Not all plumbers were created equal”. The use of these machines is something that takes years of practice. Don’t get me wrong, a poor operator can still do a poor job at clearing a drain with a jetter – we see this all the time.

A word of warning: If a plumber is advertising to clear a sewer with a jetter for $99 or a price that seems too good to be true, then beware, because they are not even going to try to clear your drain. They’ll put a camera in your pipe and then try to convince you to renew it and charge thousands. Even if it didn’t need replacing. A proper attempt at clearing the drain would have fixed the problem and saved you thousands.

The moral of the story is to choose a plumber who is genuinely going to try their hardest to clear your drain. If it is found then to be broken, then that’s a different story.
Every Highlander Plumbing truck you see around Sydney has a Water Jetter built into it. Our entire fleet uses Honda motor jetters running at 4500psi. We find this to be the perfect pressure for our day to day drain clearing. All of our trucks are also fitted with 100 meter long self levelling colour drain cameras as well. We can clear drains and view them all in one visit.

Your Sydney Plumber is brought to you by Highlander Plumbing, Sydney plumbers with the experience & know-how to handle all your plumbing needs. Whether you need help with clearing a blocked drain, hot water systems & tanks, gasfitting, rainwater tanks or many other plumbing services…Highlander are Sydney plumbers you can trust!

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Sydney Building Inspections Don’t Cover Plumbing!

Building inspections are always advisable before purchasing a property in Sydney, but did you know they don’t include plumbing?

Time and again we are now seeing customers moving into new houses and discovering major plumbing defects. The common thread amongst all of these people is that they say they paid good money for a building inspection prior to their purchase. What none of them realised was that traditional Sydney building inspections do not check for plumbing defects. They will never go to the level of detail that a Highlander Plumbing inspection will go to.

In our experience there are a few major defects that do not rear their ugly heads until well into occupying your new house.

The first one is sewer.

If you are purchasing a deceased estate or a “renovator’s delight” then the sewer alarm bells should be ringing. Usually a deceased estate has been lived in for its last few years by a single older person. What is the relevance of this you ask? This person generally has not put the sewer under any load. If the sewer was defective, the person probably got away with it through minimal usage. What do you think will happen  when a young family with a few kids buys the house and moves straight in, planning to renovate as they go? All of a sudden the sewer now has four or five people using it instead of one. What happens? You guessed it, a big mess, a panic and a great deal of frustration from the owners who honestly didn’t see this situation coming.

This could have been avoided with a plumbing inspection prior to purchase. The Highlander Plumbing Inspection includes the CCTV inspection of the sewer as a part of the inspection. Sometimes one little defect such as a broken pipe could have been identified and repaired prior to the problem causing a flood.

Some larger old properties may have long sections of sewer that are a hundred years old. If those long sections are beyond repair it would be a good idea to know if you were facing an expensive renewal of the sewer prior to purchase.

Hot Water is another regally overlooked item that is taken for granted. Hot water heaters in concealed places that burst can cause huge amounts of damage. Is the heater going to cost you a fortune to run? Is it gas, is it electric? Constant low or storage tank? Mains pressure or restricted?

If we had a penny for the number of times a customer says “the hot water system at our old house didn’t do this!”

Shower water proofing is another thing worth testing. Before you get out the colour charts and start planning your colours we think you should make sure the shower isn’t leaking into the walls. If there is leakage into the walls, the paint will peel and you will be very annoyed.

Landscaping is another common thing done as soon as people buy a house. It is a way of stamping your own individual flair to the property. We think if you are going to spend $100-$200 p/sqm on pavers, then you better have 100% confidence in the pipes below.

We have had to dig up many beautiful backyards to replace broken sewer pipes. This could have been very easily avoided.

Having the information from a professional plumbing inspection from Highlander Plumbing Sydney could save you thousands of dollars. As we say: “Do it once, do it properly”.

Your Sydney Plumber is brought to you by Highlander Plumbing…Sydney Plumbers with the experience & know-how to handle all your plumbing needs. Whether you need help with clearing a blocked drain, hot water tank installations, gasfitting or rainwater tanks…Highlander are Sydney plumbers you can trust!

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Green Plumber

Green Plumbers is an initiative by the Master Plumbers and Mechanical Services Association of Australia (MPMSAA). The purpose of this initiative is to create awareness about the environmental considerations pertaining to their work. Green Plumbers also helps enhance the skill and knowledge of plumbers to help them create more environmentally economical solutions for their clients. The Green Plumber initiative has now spread to New Zealand, USA, Mexico and Canada.

The goal of the organisation is to have plumbers across the world trained in the science of energy conservation. If we can make changes in our plumbing systems to make sure that they are energy efficient, we could be saving our world a lot of precious natural resources that otherwise get wasted due to inefficient plumbing structures.

Green Plumbers are trained to take into considerations the following criteria:

• Short term and long term costs vs. benefits
• Long term servicing, maintenance liability
• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Latest energy saving tools and technology
• Government regulations as well as energy saving incentives
• Environmental safety as well as health and hygiene

As you can imagine, a Green Plumber is trained to not just provide the most immediate solution, but a solution that is carefully thought out and designed, keeping in mind energy efficiency.

Any licensed plumber can take the Green Plumber training. The complete training consists of 5 different courses and typically lasts for 32 hours. These are the 5 training modules:

• 1. Climate Care: This training covers heating and cooling devices, energy efficiency and abatement of greenhouse gas emissions.
• 2. Caring For Our Water: This training covers water efficient products and the latest technology surrounding water efficiency, efficient storage and sewerage systems as well as solutions to reducing household water consumption.
• 3. Solar Hot Water: This module covers technology surrounding solar hot water, information on government regulations and incentives, fitting and installation of solar water heater.
• 4. Water Efficient Technology (WET): This module covers reusable, recyclable water, rain water harvesting, greywater, septic tanks, treatment systems for waste water and sewage, etc.

The Green Plumber is a bottom-up organisation that is starting to make a difference from the grass root level. This initiative allows homeowners, builders, contractors and other plumbers the opportunity to create more environment conscious, energy efficient plumbing and water systems. Green Plumbers is attempting to create a complete shift in the role and responsibility of the plumbing community in managing the environment crisis we are faced with.

Your Sydney Plumber is brought to you by Highlander Plumbing…Sydney Plumbers with the experience & know-how to handle all your plumbing needs. Whether you need help with clearing a blocked drain, hot water tank installations, gasfitting or rainwater tanks…Highlander are Sydney plumbers you can trust!

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Find a Reputable Plumbing Company in Sydney

If you are looking for a plumbing company Sydney based, or otherwise, it is important to make sure you have explored all possible options and researched all the plumbing companies in the area to make sure you’ve found the best one. A lot of plumbing problems in newer houses are very easily fixed with a little DIY, and are usually superficial in that there is no real problem, other than a recent high level blockage.

For example, if a kitchen sink has become blocked within the last few days, simply turning off the water supply in the unit under the sink and unscrewing the piping can reveal any problems that can be cleaned yourself, without messing up the main system. These usually occur when excess food or oil has been forced down the drain and become clogged.

If the problem appears to go deeper than that; this is when you should call a professional plumbing company. Equally, blockages in the bathroom can be a bit trickier to fix without help, due to the complex under floor piping systems. Blockages in bathrooms usually occur from excess toilet paper being flushed or a gradual build up of hair in the shower/bathtub system. To stop this, simply buy a drain gauze to catch any bigger debris.

Finding a plumbing company Sydney based, or anywhere else in Australia is fairly simple. You can look in the business directories, in the local newspapers, or now commonly online. To ensure the company is reputable it pays to check a few of their credentials (do they have a premises, have logos and company vans, use newer looking tools? etc) and try and work out a fixed price before letting them start work. If they want cash in hand, this can often be a sign on unprofessionalism. It’s also a good idea to ask them for a few testimonials.

Sydney is of course a very large city, and whether you have a drainage issue, blocked drain or sink, need a hot water system installed or need some plumbing repairs…with a little research you will find a reputable plumbing company in Sydney who can help.

Your Sydney Plumber is brought to you by Highlander Plumbing…Sydney Plumbers with the experience & know-how to handle all your plumbing needs. Whether you need help with clearing a blocked drain, hot water tank installations, gasfitting or rainwater tanks…Highlander are Sydney plumbers you can trust!

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Tips for Finding a Sydney Plumber

Need a Sydney plumber?

Maybe you have a leaking toilet? Or perhaps a blocked drain in the bathroom? Maybe the hot water system is on the fritz?

OK, you know your plumbing problem is beyond DIY help and you need a professional plumber in Sydney, but how do you find a reputable & reliable plumbing company?

Here are a few tips to help you find the best Sydney plumber in your suburb…

Firstly, is your situation a real emergency? Perhaps you have a broken pipe and the possibility of water damage to your property is very real. If so, you will be looking for 24 hour emergency plumbers if it just happens to be 2am!

On the other hand, if you just have a leaking tap and there is no immediate danger of water damage then you might be prepared to wait a little longer before your plumber arrives.

Do you know someone who has recently used a plumber? Word of mouth is very powerful and nothing beats a personal recommendation. This person should be your first contact. A friend will give you an honest appraisal of the plumber and you’ll soon know if they weren’t up to scratch. This will be a far better strategy than choosing a plumber in Sydney at random from the phone book.

It’s a good idea to agree on a fixed price before work is started. Be wary of plumbers who aren’t prepared to give you a plumbing price guarantee. You certainly don’t want any nasty surprises after the work is done and you’re handed the invoice.

When the job is complete keep any parts which were replaced just in case you need them for evidence if the plumber claims they were broken, and you were not happy with the quality of their work.

Do a quick background check on your plumber. Make sure they aren’t a “fly by night” operation using only a mobile phone. Make sure they have a physical address, land line telephone and professional website. Also, check how long they have been in business and if they can provide you with testimonials.

Are they a member of the Master Plumbers Association and a recognised Enviroplumber? Both of these are strong indications of their professionalism and concern for the environment. Ask your Sydney plumber for copies of any other qualifications they may have.

Be wary of plumbers who say they will only do the job for cash-in-hand. This is would be an indication that they may not be registered and are avoiding paying tax. Professional plumbers do not operate this way.

Ask your Sydney plumber to provide some case studies for jobs similar to the problem you have now.

And finally, make sure your Sydney plumbers are clean and tidy, arrive on time every time, and are fully equipped to deal with any plumbing job.

Your Sydney Plumber is brought to you by Highlander Plumbing…Sydney Plumbers with the experience & know-how to handle all your plumbing needs. Whether you need help with clearing a blocked drain, hot water tank installations, gasfitting or rainwater tanks…Highlander are Sydney plumbers you can trust!

Technorati Tags: Bathroom Plumbing, Blocked Drain, hot water systems, Kitchen Plumbing, plumbers Sydney, Sydney Plumber