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Helpful plumbing and HVAC guidance for Santa Fe homes.
Seasonal tips, troubleshooting guides, and practical repair advice for Santa Fe homeowners.
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Troubleshooting, maintenance, and seasonal advice.
Is a Swamp Cooler Right for My Home?
In dry climates like Santa Fe, swamp coolers (also known as evaporative coolers) are a popular alternative to traditional air conditioning. But are they the right choice for your home? At James' Plumbing &…
2 min read
Can I Use Chemical Drain Cleaners?
When faced with a clogged drain, many homeowners in Santa Fe reach for a bottle of chemical drain cleaner. But is that actually a good idea? At James' Plumbing & Heating, we get this question a lot—and the…
2 min read
Why Is My AC Blowing Warm Air?
It’s a hot day in Santa Fe, and instead of a refreshing blast of cool air, your AC is blowing warm air. What gives? At James' Plumbing & Heating, we know how frustrating this can be. Here are the most common…
2 min read
Is a Smart Thermostat Worth It?
Smart thermostats are becoming more common in homes across Santa Fe, but are they actually worth the investment? At James' Plumbing & Heating, we’re here to break down what a smart thermostat does, what…
2 min read
Common Heating & Cooling Problems and How to Fix Them
When your HVAC system isn't working properly, it can be frustrating and uncomfortable. At James' Plumbing & Heating, we want to help homeowners in Santa Fe stay informed about common heating and cooling…
3 min read
Do You Really Need to Change Your Air Filter That Often?
It’s one of the most common pieces of HVAC advice you’ll hear: “Change your air filter regularly.” But how often is really necessary—and what happens if you don’t?
2 min read
How Snow and Ice Affect HVAC Systems
You may not think the ice and snow outside impacts your HVAC system inside. The truth is ice is problematic for the HVAC components outside of your home. This isn’t even a winter-specific issue. There are…
4 min read
How Do I Know if My Sewer Line is Clogged?
A clogged sewer line is a red flag for bigger problems. If left alone, a small clog grows into a big clog, and the bigger the clog, the bigger the maintenance bill.
4 min read
What to Do When Your Water Heater Leaks
Water dripping from a hot water heater is a bad sign. Hot water heaters work in our homes all day without a second thought. Sometimes a leak can go on without even being noticed. As soon as you recognize…
4 min read
10 Signs You Need to Repair Your Home Heating System
Home heating systems are a necessity, especially during the cold seasons. If your furnace stops working, it can be costly to repair it. This is one reason we at James Plumbing & Heating always tell clients in…
4 min read
Is It Better to Repair or Replace My Furnace?
The furnace—a household necessity and a pain in the wallet. When the furnace stops working, things get expensive. Between repairs and parts, the question eventually arises, “should we repair or replace?”
4 min read
How to Know When It’s Time for a New Toilet
Toilets go through a lot. It’s no surprise that eventually our toilets need to be replaced. In fact, most professionals recommend swapping out your toilet once every 10 to 15 years. It may last longer if…
4 min read
5 Things Your Plumbers Don’t Tell You About Hot Water Tank Repair
Hot water tanks are integral to comfortable and hygienic homes. They help with everything from washing dishes and laundry to washing yourself. For some buildings, hot water tanks also regulate heat in the home.
4 min read
Are Dirty or Clogged Filters Making You Secretly Sick?
The air in your home is full of microorganisms you may not even realize exist. On top of these organisms, we also deal with dust, pollen, pet dander, fungal spores, and a variety of other floating debris.
4 min read
How to Remove Rust from Bathroom Toilets & Sinks
Rust is unsightly and a pain to clean. As a leading plumbing service provider in Santa Fe, our team at James Plumbing and Heating receives plenty of questions about removing rust stains from plumbing. Here…
4 min read
2022 Fall HVAC Maintenance Checklist
Fall is quickly approaching, and with it comes a myriad of household checks and maintenance. HVAC systems are built to last, but they need a little help along the way to perform at their best. Here in Santa…
4 min read
Why Does My Garbage Disposal Smell? Get Expert Solutions Now!
Garbage isn’t associated with good smells, but if your garbage disposal smells funky, there could be a problem. At James Plumbing and Heating, we deal with our share of garbage disposal issues in Santa Fe. We…
4 min read
Why You Need a Heating Inspection
Home heating is an essential part of your property. It controls the temperature in your home, as well as the airflow and ventilation. As a leading HVAC company in Santa Fe, James Plumbing and Heating often…
4 min read
What Does a SEER Rating Mean?
As energy efficiency becomes more and more prevalent in society, you may notice the abbreviation SEER. This stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio and relates to your HVAC system and a rating which…
4 min read
How You’re Probably Misusing Plumber’s Putty and Caulk
DIY is a fun way to get involved in home building projects in Santa Fe. DIY is a grey area in plumbing. Many plumbing projects are best left to the professionals. Of course, there are some which can be tackled…
4 min read
7 Signs of a Clogged Drain
One minute, everything is nice and dry. The next thing you know, you are ankle-deep in murky water. The culprit? A clogged drain. A clogged drain is a nuisance that can potentially cause health hazards. If you…
3 min read
Most Common Reasons for HVAC Service Calls
Your HVAC system is designed to keep you comfortable all year round, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to work exactly the way you need. When you have issues with your HVAC system, it’s important to call…
3 min read
How to Lower Energy Costs of Your HVAC System
You rely on heating, ventilation, and cooling to keep your indoor space comfortable all year round. But heating and cooling can be expensive. Your HVAC system accounts for about 40% of your utility bill, but…
4 min read
Why Does My Garbage Disposal Smell?
A garbage disposal is a handy appliance that helps make kitchen clean-up quick and efficient. The impellers break down food morsels and scraps and easily wash them down the drain and out of sight. But when…
4 min read
What Causes the Suction Line to Freeze Up?
Refrigerants have two copper lines that connect the indoor evaporator coil and the outdoor heat pump. The suction line is the larger tube that has insulation. It carries cool gas under low pressure from the…
2 min read
Bathtub Draining Slow? Read This
If your bathtub is draining slowly, you’re not alone. Most bathtubs clog for the same reason. And the process doesn’t happen overnight. If you don’t clean your drains regularly, you risk having a serious clog…
4 min read
Do Tankless Water Heaters Really Save Money?
What if we told you that you could cut water heating bills without compromising water availability? That is the proposition of tankless water heaters. For most homeowners, low-cost water heating is a priority,…
4 min read
What’s the Difference Between Evaporator and Condenser Coils?
When you’re AC system isn’t working at full capacity, there are many potential culprits that could be causing the problems. Two possible suspects are the evaporator coil and condenser coils. Most homeowners in…
4 min read
How to Plunge Like a Plumber
If you’ve ever come face to face with a clogged toilet, you know it can be pretty tense. Watching that water rise quickly and knowing you only have a few minutes or even seconds to react can be extremely…
4 min read
How Does an Air Conditioner Work?
As a homeowner, you should become more familiar with the various systems of your home. When you understand how things work, you also start to understand the importance of proper care and maintenance of those…
4 min read
How Does a Tankless Water Heater Work?
Tankless water heaters offer a space-saving option to provide hot water to your home. As the name implies, they do not require a tank which often has homeowners scratching their heads when trying to understand…
4 min read
What Direction Should I Run My Ceiling Fan?
Ceiling fans offer an affordable way to keep your rooms cooler in the heat of summer, and you can also use them to keep your home warmer in the winter. The job of a ceiling fan is to help circulate air. What…
4 min read
Why Is My Toilet Tank Empty?
If you notice your toilet isn’t flushing properly, it could be a tank issue. Lift the lid (if it’s accessible) of your toilet tank and take a look inside. This tank runs clean water, which helps your toilet…
4 min read
Is it Better Financially to Repair or Replace My AC?
Air conditioning is a must-have during the hot summer season in Santa Fe, NM, but it works to maintain temperature year-round. If your air conditioning unit has stopped working, you may find yourself wondering…
4 min read
Plumbing Maintenance Checklist for Winter Months
Before the winter season arrives, it’s important to prepare your home for the cold months ahead, particularly your plumbing system. As temperatures drop and pipes begin to chill, there is a growing risk that…
5 min read
How to Hire the Best HVAC Company
Heating and cooling are important parts of your home, so it’s only logical to want to be careful when choosing an HVAC company in Santa Fe area.
4 min read
Why Is My Tankless Water Heater Not Hot?
During the winter season, a nice hot shower is a perfect cure to a long cold day. There’s nothing worse than when you go to take that shower and find the water is cold. Tankless water heaters are meant to heat…
4 min read
Tips to Prevent Your Pipes from Freezing
When a cold winter’s night is approaching, it is a wise idea to consider if you should do something to prevent your pipes from freezing. While you might go many winters without getting a frozen pipe, a single…
4 min read
How To Make Your Garbage Disposal Fresh Again
Garbage disposals are one of the most common appliances in American kitchens. They help us dispose of food waste, which is a great help if you keep your kitchen clean and organized.
13 min read
Dishwasher Not Draining? This Should Help
How can an appliance that is supposed to be so convenient be so frustrating? That’s probably what our clients in Santa Fe are thinking when they call us because their dishwasher isn’t draining. If you’ve…
4 min read
How To Turn Off Your Water Heater
It might not seem like something as basic as turning off a water heater would be difficult. Many homeowners find themselves scratching their heads when trying to figure out what valves to turn! And because it…
4 min read
What Advantage You Get From Choosing Tankless Water Heaters
Since we all have to drink water and bathe in it, you might wonder how to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to your water system. The answer: a tankless water heater.
14 min read
The Surprising Ways That Plumbing Contributes To Your Everyday Health
Most of us take the readily available water in our homes for granted, whether it is for drinking, cooking, cleaning, or personal hygiene. You can access hot and cold water by simply turning on a tap. However,…
4 min read
The Dangers of Scalding Hot Water (and How To Prevent Scalds)
The risk of burns at home is higher than you might think. Most people have suffered a heat-related accident at home, often as a result of scalding hot water. Burns can be mild, or severe injuring more than one…
4 min read
Why Does My Hot Water Run Out So Quickly?
You know the scenario. You wake up in the morning, turn on the shower and your water is frigid cold. You stand there shivering waiting for it to heat up and it seems to take forever. Or maybe it’s just you.…
4 min read
What Is Aux Heat On My Thermostat?
Are you finding your Santa Fe home just doesn’t feel comfortable temperature-wise in the winter? Is your family constantly complaining about being too cold? If this sounds familiar, you might not be using your…
4 min read
Why Is My Toilet Running All The Time?
Nothing is worse than having someone use the toilet and within minutes of them flushing it’s clear that annoying running sound isn’t going to stop. This is a constant source of frustration as it’s a sound…
4 min read
How You Can Keep Pipes From Freezing Up
The winter season brings with it a lot of things: cold weather, snow, and—most importantly—burst pipes.
12 min read
Gas vs. Electric Heat
It’s that time of year again, and we’re in full-blown fall mode. Lots of things are really great about this season: cool mornings, pumpkin-spice everything, sweater weather, beautiful fall leaves. But you know…
5 min read
Can You Really Unclog A Drain with Cola?
Clogged drains can get the best of all of us. Mystery odors, backed-up sinks, and non-functioning disposals are definitely near the top of the Worst Things about Homeownership list.
4 min read
10 Awesome Plumbing Hacks
Calling the pros for every plumbing issue in your home is time-consuming and costly. Now, don’t get us wrong: We love helping our Santa Fe plumbing customers with problems big and small! But if you’re feeling…
5 min read
4 Main Causes of Sewer Damage
There’s no delicate way to talk about sewage. Sewage problems are just… gross . Ever smelled backed-up sewer pipes? Ugh. Worse yet: Ever had sewer water actually back up into your shower or spill out onto the…
4 min read
What Makes Your Garbage Disposal Back Up
A garbage disposal is a great tool for any kitchen. It can help you cut down on your food waste and make it easier to clean up after cooking. But, like all machines, garbage disposals have their problems.
12 min read
Tankless Water Heater Not Working? Here’s What to Check
Tankless water heaters are energy-efficient, have low maintenance costs, and are reasonably durable. But just like any appliance, they’re not completely immune to issues.
4 min read
Flooded Basement? Steps Before Calling a Plumber
Few things are worse than walking into your basement and finding standing water. Dealing with a flooded basement is time-consuming, exhausting, and—you won’t be surprised to hear this—expensive. Fortunately,…
4 min read
What the Crap is a Bidet?
We’ve all been there. You’re doing your business, and you realize there’s no toilet paper. You start to panic, frantically searching your bathroom cabinets hoping to find even half a roll.
3 min read
How to Hire a Plumber During the Coronavirus Crisis
Here’s the thing about your plumbing: It doesn’t care, at all, about what’s happening in the world. So the reality that you’re dealing with a global health crisis? It simply doesn’t care.
4 min read
How Do I Find the Tonnage of My AC Unit
OK, real talk: As a homeowner, replacing your air conditioning unit is absolutely no fun. It can be expensive, the research is a time-suck, and unless you’re Santa Fe HVAC pros like we are, you’ll quickly come…
3 min read
How to Diagnose Well Pump Problems
It’s 6:08 am, and you’ve hit “snooze” one too many times. With a deep sigh, you stumble to the bathroom, psyching yourself up for the long day ahead. Still half-asleep, you spin the shower handle. Nothing…
5 min read
Why the Thaw Might Not End Your Plumbing Problems
The days are getting longer, and the temperatures are slowly warming—and although winter isn’t officially over for a few weeks, we’re already looking forward to more sunshine and less “blah.” We’re guessing…
3 min read
10 Expert Ways to Take Care of Pipes and Drains
Of all our modern conveniences, indoor plumbing might be the one we most take for granted. Although we use our sinks and sewer system multiple times a day, they simply don’t require a ton of attention. And…
5 min read
How to Avoid Frozen Pipes This Winter
Ten thousand dollars. That’s the average insurance claim related to “water damage and freezing,” according to the Insurance Information Institute . Each year, one in 50 homeowners will file such a claim—and…
4 min read
How to Reset an Electric Water Heater in Two Easy Steps
Picture this. It’s a subzero Monday morning. You’ve hit the snooze button six times—and if it weren’t for your spouse threatening to suffocate you in your sleep, you would’ve hit it a seventh time. Instead,…
4 min read
The Worst Things to Put Down Your Drain (based on actual experience)
OK, friends of James Plumbing and Heating , today’s post on the worst things to put down your drain is admittedly a bit self-serving.
4 min read
How Hydro-Jetting Can Help Your Drain Problems
Most homeowners experience “ugh” moments in their kitchen or bathrooms occasionally: slow-draining tubs, gurgling sinks, mystery smells wafting from the general direction of the garbage disposal. Usually, some…
3 min read
Why Water Isn’t Always Good For You
Most of us were taught that we should drink at least eight, eight-ounce glasses of water every day. That’s basically two liters of the stuff. But what if water isn’t always good for you?
4 min read
Worst Plumbing Mistakes DIYers Make
With the dawn of YouTube and Pinterest, most of us have tried— and failed —at a DIY project or two (or 27). Regardless of our past “nailed it” moments, we’re nevertheless tempted to take DIY to a new level…
4 min read
What Exactly Is A “Swamp Cooler”? And Do They Work?
As June begins to give way to July, temperatures are steadily climbing—and so are our energy bills. If you’re like a lot of homeowners, you might be researching ways to keep your cooling costs manageable. At…
4 min read
Stay Cool, Save Money: How to Use Your AC Less This Summer
You’d like to save money on your air conditioning bill this summer, right? But you’re not all that interested in setting your thermostat on “swelter.” And unless you’re trying to shed some pounds to wrestle a…
3 min read
Thinking About a Tankless Water Heater? Read this First.
Oh, hot water, we adore you. The steamy showers, the sanitized dishes, the miraculously-white-again t-shirts. But here’s the deal: We’re starting to think our love is unrequited. After all, you tend to…
4 min read
How to Hire a Plumber on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace Spoiler Alert: Don’t. Don’t do that.
We know you want to be a responsible homeowner who takes good care of your investment. But we know something else, too: When your garbage disposal’s on the fritz or there’s a mysterious water stain on your…
3 min read
DIY Water Heater Installs: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Since you’re reading this post, we can guess a few things about you:
4 min read
Traditional vs. Tankless Water Heaters
On a scale from cold coffee to world hunger, running out of hot water is most definitely toward the first-world-problems end of the spectrum. Still, that doesn’t make the experience any less frustrating or any…
4 min read
The Best Ways to Ruin Your Home’s Plumbing
As your Santa Fe plumber, we typically like to offer preventive maintenance tips and do-it-yourself tricks on our blog. This time, we’re going the opposite direction: We’re going to share some DON’T tips. To…
4 min read
How Home HVAC Systems Work
Maybe you’ve had this experience: You’re running late for work on a dreary Monday morning. You jump in your car and start to back out of the garage… and you hear The Noise. It’s not quite a grinding sound and…
5 min read
How To Warm Your Home This Holidays
It’s the holidays, and that means it’s time to cozy up with a cup of cocoa and a good book! The holidays are the perfect time to enjoy the company of loved ones, and warm home is essential for that enjoyment.
9 min read
Why Thanksgiving Is Not Good For Your Plumbing
Thanksgiving is almost here! It’s about time to start thinking about what you’re going to serve your guests, how many people are coming, and what you’re going to wear.
11 min read
What To Do This Winter With Your Plumbing
Winter is coming. And with it, the seasonal cold and flu bugs can leave you feeling like you’re in a scene from The Walking Dead.
14 min read
DIY Winterizing Checklist
No one loves a plumbing emergency. And while we’re happy to be your Santa Fe plumber when you need us, we’d rather help you avoid a disaster to begin with.
3 min read
Six Signs You May Need Water Heater Repairs
Unless you’re an especially on-top-of-things Santa Fe homeowner, you probably don’t think much about your water heater—until that fateful winter morning when you’re treated to a freezing cold shower.…
3 min read
Energy-Saving Tips for Summer
Summertime is full of fun things to spend money on: Vacations. Concerts in the park. Ice cream. Pricey sunscreen in our shopping cart even brings us a little joy. Know what doesn’t? Using money we’d saved up…
4 min read