Do you have a mysterious, unpleasant odor in your kitchen? Something that doesn’t go away, no matter how many times you mop or take out the garbage? Check your kitchen sink.

Your kitchen sink might be the hardest working plumbing appliance in your home. If there’s a problem with it, chances are the food you run through the disposal or the grease you rinse off dirty plates isn’t getting properly removed from your house.

When food or grease gets caught in your kitchen sink’s pipes, it begins to rot. Rotting food or other debris can produce terrible smells and become a breeding ground for bacteria and pests. Even if you don’t have a disposal, the kind of stuff that drops down the kitchen sink’s drain can collect and start to smell surprisingly quickly. If your kitchen sink has a sour odor that you just can’t scrub away, here are a couple possible explanations and what you can do about it.

Grease in the Drain

If you pour cooking grease or vegetable oil down your kitchen sink’s drain, it can congeal to the sides of the drain, disposal, or lower pipe. Then, the grease starts to decompose and trap other falling debris. Soon, an unruly rotting smell wafts back up out of the sink and into your kitchen.

Scoop about a cup of baking soda into your kitchen sink’s drain. Follow that up with about as much vinegar, then let it sit for about ten minutes. While the mixture is doing its thing, boil a pot of water. When ten minutes have passed, pour the boiling water into the sink. The baking soda and vinegar should foam up and eat away the grease in your drain, and then the boiling water will flush it all out.

Dirty Garbage Disposal

Sometimes, scraps of food or other gunk can catch on your garbage disposal’s blades. That food rots and starts to smell. Problems increase if:

You use your garbage disposal often.You run hot water with it.,You run no water.Your garbage disposal is older.

Grab about two cups of ice cubes and a cup of salt. Turn on the kitchen sink’s cold water and run the disposal for about 20 seconds. After that, dump the cups of ice and the salt into the disposal. Let the disposal keep running until all the ice cubes are gone. Cutting up the ice in cold water should have helped clear away the gunk caught on the blades.

For extra odor prevention, drop lemon, grapefruit, or orange rinds down the disposal while you’re running it with the ice. You can also add lemon juice and vinegar.

Problem with the Trap

If your kitchen sink smells more like sewer than rotten food, there might be a problem with its trap. A kitchen sink’s trap is the ‘P’ or ‘U’-shaped pipe directly beneath the sink basin. The trap’s job is to prevent sewer gas from drifting from the pipes back up into your house. It’s also handy for recovering lost wedding rings.

Usually, a sewer smell means that the water in the trap that blocks sewer gas has evaporated. This can happen if the sink hasn’t been used for awhile. If that’s the case, all you should have to do is run the sink and let the water fill back up in the trap. Watch the trap while running the water to make sure it isn’t leaking.

If that doesn’t fix the problem, take the trap out, empty it, scrub it down with an old toothbrush and a cleaning agent, and replace it. Clogs can build up in kitchen and bathroom traps. They may need to be cleaned periodically but if the problem persists, give us a call.

Clogged Vent

If there’s a sewer smell coming from your sink and you don’t think the trap is the problem, the next most likely culprit is the vent. The plumbing drain vent is basically a long, narrow, vertical shaft connecting your main sewer line to the outside air. This shaft vent stabilizes the pressure inside the pipe connecting to your sewer. Without it, water may siphon out of your sink’s trap, letting sewer gas in.

Plumbing vents are located on the roof of the house. When they’re not working, it’s usually because something is obstructing it, such as a bird’s nest or a piece of debris. There could also be a leak in the vent’s shaft, which would interfere with its pressure mitigation or could even let sewer gas into your house. In either case, you may want to consider calling a professional. Clearing a vent obstruction may not sound like a big job, but roof jobs are always trickier than they seem.

 Keeping L.A. Smelling Good

If your kitchen sink smells, hopefully one of these quick fixes solves the problem. If the stench is coming from a simple clog, try plunging with a cup plunger.

If you’ve tried everything and you’ve still got a bad smell, give us a call. There’s more than one reason Mike Diamond is your “Smell good plumber.” With our pipe cleaning technology and years of experience, we guarantee we’ll find and solve your problem and get your kitchen smelling fresh again.

The post What’s That Smell in My Kitchen? appeared first on Mike Diamond Services.

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Wyatt Schmidt

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When it’s cold outside (even in LA), you need the right furnace to heat your home evenly and efficiently. A furnace can only do its job properly if it’s the right size for the space it’s heating. Too big and it will switch on and off frequently, too small and it will run constantly. Neither is ideal.

A small furnace will lead to high energy bills, uneven heating, and a shorter lifespan. Not to mention the fact that you’ll probably still be cold. A furnace that’s too big, on the other hand, might make parts of your home uncomfortably hot while leaving other areas unproperly heated. This constant cycling in short bursts could wear it out quickly. To avoid these problems, learn how to choose the right sized furnace for your home.

How do I determine the right size furnace for my home?

Gas furnaces are differentiated by their BTU capabilities. BTU stands for British Thermal Units. One BTU represents the amount of energy required to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. To determine the proper BTU you’ll need for your home’s heating, you’ll have to do a little math.

First, find out the square footage of your home. 

You should be able to find this number on the paperwork you received when you purchased your home. If you can’t find that, you can calculate the square footage yourself.

Start by measuring the length and width of each room in your home. Multiply the length and width of each room together to get the square footage of that room. Then simply add together the square footage of all your rooms.

Don’t include rooms that don’t have ductwork or rooms you don’t plan on heating, like garages or sunrooms. Most furnace size charts operate under the assumption that your ceilings are eight feet high. If your ceilings are higher or lower, make changes to your calculation accordingly.

Determine which climate zone you live in. 

The United States is divided into different climate zones, each with its own BTU per square foot recommendation. To heat a home in Minnesota takes more BTUs than a home in Florida. Living in California, your furnace won’t have to be heavy duty.

If you’re working with Mike Diamond, then your home lies in Zone 2 – a hot-dry or mixed-dry climate zone. In Zone 2, you need 35-40 BTUs for each square foot of your home.

Calculate the furnace size you’ll need. 

To determine the number of BTUs you need to heat your home: multiply your square footage by the zone heating factor. If your home is well insulated, use the lower number. If your home is not well insulated or has other factors that may make it harder to heat, use the higher number.

For example: in a well-insulated L.A. home that is 2,000 square feet our equation is:

2,000(sq ft) X 35 (zone factor) = 70,000 BTUs

For this home, we need to install a furnace with a rating of 70,000 BTUs. But we have one more step to finding our perfect furnace.

Calculate your new furnace’s actual output.

When you shop for your new furnace, you’ll notice two numbers on it. The first is the amount of heat it will produce in BTUs. The second number is its efficiency rating. To calculate the actual BTU output of any furnace, multiply the two numbers. For example, a furnace capable of 100,000 BTUs at an efficiency rating of 80% will actually produce 80,000 BTUs of heat:

100,000 X 80% = 80,000

Make sure you calculate this properly before installing a furnace that is too small for your space.

Reference a furnace size chart. 

You can also compare your home’s square footage to a furnace size chart. There are a number of different furnace size charts out there. These charts give comparisons between home square footage and the BTUs needed to heat it. It’s not as accurate as calculating it yourself. Most charts follow guidelines similar to these:

A 1,200-square-foot home will require between 35,000 and 75,000 BTUs A 1,500-square-foot home will require between 45,000 to 90,000 BTUs A 1,800-square-foot home will require between 55,000 to 110,000 BTUs A 2,100-square-foot home will require between 65,000 to 125,000 BTUs A 2,400-square-foot home will require between 75,000 to 145,000 BTUs

Expert Furnace Service and Installation in Los Angeles

If you’re interested in updating or upgrading your home’s furnace, give Mike Diamond a call. Our expert technicians can answer your questions about the make, model, and size of the perfect furnace for your home. We’ll be able to get your just right furnace installed quickly and efficiently.

The post How Do I Determine The Right Size Furnace For My Home? appeared first on Mike Diamond Services.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.ab-sessions-plumbing-building-services.com/?p=594

Wyatt Schmidt

www.ab-sessions-plumbing-building-services.com