No one wants to deal with clogged drains.  Not only are they messy to deal with, but they damage pipes, flood homes, and potentially create health concerns for your family. When clogs pop up, you might be tempted to dump drain cleaner into the sink or toilet. Before you take this route, reconsider your options.

The Truth About Chemical Drain Cleaners Revealed

Chemical drain cleaners are not good for your pipes. Think about how these cleaners work. They use chemicals to dissolve the debris built up in the pipes. If the chemicals can break apart years of buildup, what are they doing to your pipes?

Chemical cleaners are caustic by nature. It’s not unusual for chemical cleaners to melt through PVC plumbing and corrode copper pipes. The more you use chemical drain cleaners, the greater chance there is of your home’s plumbing system weakening over time.

Chemical drain cleaners have toxic ingredients that make it unsafe to handle. Not only can they pose a threat when being applied, but once they get into the water stream they affect wildlife and vegetation. Additionally, homes that operate on a septic system risk damaging the system.

The bottom line is this: Chemical drain cleaners are a big no-no. Luckily, there are alternative drain cleaning methods that work better and that are safer.

Safe Drain Cleaning Alternatives

For small drain clogs, try using a plunger or a drain snake. You can also use boiling water, vinegar, and baking soda solutions. These tools work great on clogs that are shallow. The vinegar solution is also handy for solving clogs caused by sediment buildup. The vinegar and baking soda react with the minerals and break them apart.

If these options don’t work, it might be time to call in the big guns. We’re talking about professional drain cleaning services using a tool called a hydro-jetter. We describe hydro-jetting as power washing for your drains. The results from hydro-jetting are incomparable. In fact, in most cases, hydro-jetting leaves your pipes looking as clean as the first day they were installed.

How to Prevent Clogged Drains

Want to avoid the hassle of a clog all together? Take preventive measures right now. Here are a few tips to keep drain clogs from affecting your home:

• Don’t pour grease and cooking fat down sinks
• Throw feminine hygiene products in the trash
• Install toilet lock to keep children from flushing toys and other items
• Run hot water, vinegar, and baking soda through drains once a week
• Put small amounts of food at a time in the garbage disposal
• Install hair catchers on shower drains

Another way to prevent massive clogs from forming includes yearly hydro-jetting. Investing a small amount of money into preventive drain cleaning services saves money over the long haul. It keeps your pipes healthier and gives you peace of mind. You won’t have to worry about unexpected clogs or busted pipes.

To schedule a service, contact the local plumbers in Mission Viejo with the expertise and drain cleaning tools to clear clogs fast. Call Mission Viejo Best Plumbing today!

Did you witness black water spitting from your bathroom or kitchen sink faucet? Obviously, this shouldn’t be happening, but what is it? As weird as black water seems, it’s not always a dangerous situation.

Of course, with any water discoloration, we always recommend having one of our professionals take a look to figure out what’s going on.

Common Causes of Black Water

When black water spews from faucets, you need answers right away. Here, at Mission Viejo Plumbing, we strive to give you those answers. Usually, there are three reasons why black water happens. They are as follows:

There’s magnesium in the water. It’s not unusual for this mineral to be in the water supply. It’s harmless, but when it mixes with oxygen, it turns black.

Do you have steel or galvanized piping? If so, when these pipes rust, the flakes get in the water. When the flakes mix with magnesium, you get black water.

Water softeners can also cause black water problems because the natural resin beads can be this color. As the resin beads break down, they discolor the water.

Getting to the bottom of black water means hiring your local team at Mission Viejo Plumbing to test the water. This is the only way to know for sure your water’s quality. Our plumbers will get the results from their testing and discuss the findings with you to come up with a good solution.

Concerns about Black Water

Even though you know what causes black water doesn’t make it any less comforting when it’s dripping from your taps. Many of our customers want to know if it’s safe to drink or bathe in black water. The answer is usually yes. That it’s harmless and won’t cause problems if you consume it. However, we know drinking black water isn’t going to go over well with most people. To be on the safe side, it’s always better to call a plumber in Mission Viejo to diagnose the problem exactly.

Contact Us Today

Mission Viejo Plumbing is committed to delivering quality plumbing services in Mission Viejo, CA, and surrounding neighborhoods. Our team of experts have decades of combined experience and can help you with all residential plumbing repair, replacement, maintenance, and installation. When you need an emergency plumber in the neighborhood, we’re here to take your call!

How can we help you today?

Clogged toilets, blocked sinks, and obstructed sewer lines are problems that property owners face every day. Small clogs can usually be fixed using a plunger, but what about those large clogs that won’t budget? When faced with stubborn clogs, it’s not uncommon for property owners to purchase chemical drain cleaners.

Homeowners and businesses are looking for drain cleaning options that get rid of clogged pipes quickly. Often, people think their only option for fast, cheap relief is a store-bought chemical drain cleaner. While the initial results may be satisfactory, repeated usage of chemical cleaners can lead to pipe corrosion, leaks, and flooding.

These products may get results, but at what costs?

The licensed plumbing professionals at Mission Viejo Best Plumbing offer safer, more effective options.

Hydro-Jetting Is the Better Option

Repeated drain clogs can happen for several reasons. These reasons include the following:

• Poor flushing habits
• Rinsing grease and cooking fats down the kitchen sink
• Aging pipes
• Misaligned pipes or other structural problems

But what are people to do when they’re doing everything right and clogs continue to come back?

Sometimes recurring clogs happen because the original clog was never fully cleared. Gunk may have attached to the side of the pipes that a plunger cannot clean. Often, homeowners will use a residential drain snake tool to alleviate blockage, which essentially creates a hole through the clog to allow water to pass. Eventually, though, the clog will return as that hole is refilled with small particles of waste or other inorganic material.

That is why professional plumbers in Mission Viejo, CA, prefer hydro-jetting.

Hydro-jetting is a motorized drain cleaning method that uses a high-pressure water stream of scalding hot water to scour the pipes.

When our professional plumbers use hydro-jetting, our customers’ pipes are cleaner than the day they were installed. With proper care and usage, it’s unlikely that clogs will return again and again.

Can Hydro-jetting Equipment Be Purchased by the General Public?

Unfortunately, this isn’t an option. Or, at least, it’s not a good option. During the hydro-jetting process, water is blasted from the device at 7,000 psi. Only professional, licensed technicians should use this tool. If someone uses a hydro-jetting tool without the right training, injury could occur and damage to piping is likely.

Besides it’s much cheaper to hire a plumber in Mission Viejo to hydro-jet your pipes than to purchase a professional grade machine.

Do You Need Drain Cleaning Service

Stop living with clogged drains. Call Mission Viejo Best Plumbing for affordable drain cleaning services today!

When you have a clogged drain, you and your Mission Viejo plumber have several drain cleaning options from which to choose. From traditional clearing methods like using a drain snake to chemical options, you may not know which is the safest choice that will deliver the best results. Luckily, there is a third option that has a proven track record of excellence. Hydro jet drain cleaning is a state-of-the-art technique that has been used for clogged drain repair for several years and that the plumbers at Mission Viejo Best Plumbing use every day.

If you’re not sure this is the best drain cleaning method for your home, consider the following reasons more and more homeowners are opting for this high-tech service.

Effective on the Toughest Clogged Drains

Chemical cleaners may work well on smaller clogs, but when you have a heavy-duty blockage that has built up over the years, you need something stronger. Hydro jetting is powerful enough to cut through any kind of buildup including tree roots that may be present in your sewer line.

Hydro Jetting Cuts through Grease

A huge contributor to clogged drains is grease. This substance clings to the sides of pipes making it difficult for cleaners and drain snakes to clear the clog completely. The hydro jetter clears every inch of the pipe, including its walls.

Chemical Cleaners Aren’t Safe

While some plumbing companies may use eco-friendly chemical cleaners, the majority of chemical cleaners – those found at your local home improvement store – are simply too toxic to be of any use to your plumbing system. The chemicals in these cleaners corrode piping, contaminate water, and are not a good environmental choice.

Hydro Jetting Prevents Future Clogs

Have you ever had a drain cleaning service in Mission Viejo clear a clog and things work well for a while? After a while, the clog returns though and seems worse than before. This is most likely because the previous drain cleaning method didn’t clear the entire clog. You don’t have to worry about that with hydro jet drain cleaning. You get crystal clear drains that with proper maintenance won’t clog again anytime soon.

The Affordable Drain Cleaning Option

Lastly, as you consider hydro jet drain cleaning for your home, let us assure you that this method is highly affordable for nearly every budget. To learn more about our services, call your friendly Mission Viejo Plumber today!

It’s collective thinking among many people that you only need a drain cleaning plumber in Mission Viejo when a clog forms and makes it impossible to use the sink, toilet, or another fixture. The truth is that you need a drain cleaning expert long before this happens so that you save time and your money. The quicker you react to potential problems, the better off you’ll be. Check out these three warning signs that you need drain cleaning as soon as possible.

Do Your Drains Clog Frequently?

Are you contending with clogged drain on a regular basis? Maybe you find yourself standing in front of the  liquid drainers at your local hardware store too many times. Drains that consistently clog are resistant to your efforts because it’s likely that the problem is a blockage deep within the pipe that can’t be reached with a household plunger or store-bought chemicals. You likely need hydro jet drain cleaning to eliminate the clog.

Do Your Sinks Drain Slowly?

Clogs form over time. They grow larger and larger as more waste and other substances cling to sides of drain pipes. When a sink in your home, stop draining as fast as it used to then it’s time to call a plumber in Mission Viejo. Acting quickly prevents the blockage from completely forming and causing stoppage.

Are Bad Smells Coming from Your Drains?

If your nose is offended by a bad stench, you may have food rotting in the pipes leading away from the kitchen sink or waste building up in a clogged main line. Your first course of action should be to call a drain cleaning plumber in Mission Viejo to come out and use their handy tools of the trade to inspection your home’s plumbing system.

In many ways drain cleaning to Mission Viejo residents is a lot like annual air conditioner maintenance. Will your plumbing or AC work if you don’t have it inspected and maintained annually? More than likely not. Are you causing yourself a world of headaches each year you put off a call to Mission Viejo Best Plumbing? Without a doubt.

An annual drain cleaning of your home’s plumbing system may seem like overkill or at the very least an unnecessary overhead expense but the truth is contracting our service really does pay you back in the long and short run. Simply put, there may be issues developing within your pipes that are basically hidden. You can notice your AC start to bang when it develops problems, but you aren’t going to hear grease and hair building up in your pipes or a tree root slowly make its way through your septic line. Here is why we recommend professional drain cleaning on a very regular basis:

Almost Everything Can Clog Your Drains

If it isn’t water, it has the potential to build up in your pipes. This doesn’t just go for the entire chicken that tries to fit in the garbage disposal or the baby diaper flushed down the toilet, it means hair, skin cells, dead insects, engagement rings, and many other things that you are almost unaware of.

Slow Drains are More Than Just a Nuisance

So your sink doesn’t empty as fast as you’d like, no big deal right? Well there are two things wrong with that statement. One, a slow drain means there is a significant problem developing in your pipes that will likely only continue to get worse. Second, backed up stagnant water can attract bacteria, insects, and leave a foul aroma in your home.

Drain Cleaning Helps Identify Problems

When Mission Viejo Best Plumbing performs an annual drain cleaning, it is also a form of maintenance and inspection. It’s at this time that we can run our cameras through your pipes to identify any corrosion, cracks, tree roots, and other issues forming now or causing problems down the line. It’s this peace of mind alone that makes our service so valuable.

Call today to learn more!

Nothing is as uncomfortable as getting into a hot shower on a cold winter’s morning and being met with icy, cold water. There could be any number of reasons why the water refuses to warm up, but many times it is a sure sign that there is something wrong with your water heater. The best way to solve the problem is to have your water heater inspected by a qualified Mission Viejo water heater repair service.

Poor Heating

There are two types of tank water heaters: electric and gas. Both have a large holding tank filled with water and both types can experience problems with the heating element. Electric water heaters have a heating element in the tank that heats the water. The electric element can sometimes become corroded in the water or the wiring can break down causing a malfunction.

Gas water heaters have a flame underneath the tank that heats the walls of the tank and in turn heats the water. With a gas element, there may be a problem with the gas supply or, in some cases, soot and ash could be clogging the burners.

Bad Thermostat

Water heater tanks are insulated to hold the heat in, but eventually the water will cool, especially when new water fills the tank. Inside the tank, there are two probes connected to thermostats. The bottom probe tells the system when it needs to heat the water up. The top probe maintains the temperature in the tank. As the water cools, the top probe tells the heating element when to raise the water temperature. As with the heating elements, the wiring on the sensors and the relays to the heating elements can be faulty or become corroded.

Pressure Problems

As water is heated, pressure begins to build in the tank. When the water is used, the pressure goes down until new water enters the tank and gets heated. If the water is not used right away, the pressure can continue to build. There is a pressure relief valve on the tank that automatically opens and lets out some pressure. Without this relief valve, the water heater could blow up, causing severe damage to your home and even causing bodily harm to members of the household.

The pressure relief valve should be checked regularly to make sure it is working properly. The valve can be opened by hand to hear the pressure escaping. If no pressure escapes, there may be a problem and you should call a plumber immediately.

Sediment Build Up

No matter how clean your water may appear to be, there are still particles floating in it that get deposited inside the tank. Over time these particles settle at the bottom of the tank and interfere with the heating process, especially in a gas heater. Eventually, the buildup can push the sides out, breaking the seams and cause the water heater to leak. A yearly draining of the tank can flush these sediments out and prevent damage.

Maintenance Programs

Water heaters perform best when they are properly maintained. This is why many people take advantage of maintenance programs that we offer. To learn more about our services, give Mission Viejo Best Plumbing a call today.