Vlog

• Sacrificial Anodes serve an important purpose in a Hot Water System but most people don’t even know that they are there. 
• Many leave their hot water system to run its course without consideration of any form of hot water system maintenance until problems arise. 
• There are plumbers or handymen that replace anodes and that’s all they do. What they don’t do is flush out the tank. 
• Watch the video and learn why it’s important to complete a tank flush when replacing sacrificial anodes in your hot water system. 
• Check out more of our VLOGs & don’t forget to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Replacing Sacrificial Anodes – There’s more to it!

In today’s video, Top Dog Richard is on the mission to replace the anodes in a hot water system and shares with is what it’s all about. He also shows us and explains why simply replacing the anodes alone simply isn’t enough, especially if you haven’t performed any hot water system maintenance since you moved in or bought your hot water system.

What Are Sacrificial Anodes?

Sacrificial Anodes are anodes which are present in the hot water systems made of magnesium. Their purpose is to sacrifice themselves to the water’s impurity instead of preventing the tank from getting damaged. If you wish to prolong the tank’s life, you need to replace these anodes every 2-3 years periodically. When they break down, they settle at the bottom of the tank in the form of debris, and if left unchecked, they can harm the tank base’s quality.

The Video

In this video, Richard carries out Plumbdogs standard procedure of replacing the anodes of these tanks and also flushes out the debris settled at the bottom to demonstrate the proper method.

The Rheem Stellar hot water system has two magnesium anodes and Richard takes them to look at their condition. He shows us what new vs used anodes look like  and we can clearly see the difference. The old ones have entirely broken down, and there’s no magnesium left attached to their body.

Before installing the new pair of anodes, the first thing we need to do is flush out the tank. Check out the amount of residue that comes out. The entire floor is covered in a thick blanket of residue. The dust is present in both forms of sand and solid particle waste.

This tank is as much as seven years old, and seeing the amount of debris, one can predict that this is the first time it has been flushed out. The tank was in dire need of a good service and simply only replacing the anodes wouldn’t have guaranteed good functionality and prolonged life for the hot water system.

If a tank flush is not performed, the debris can potentially stick inside the filters, pipes and even the tempering valve which can cause problems outside of the hot water unit.

If you are facing issues of not getting adequate hot water at your place, then there’s a good chance that your hot water system needs a good service.

If you suspect you have a plumbing issue, give us a whistle!

• On a large property, it can get tricky for the untrained nose to sniff out a water leak. 
• Check out how Darius with his years of experience and our specialised leak detection equipment finds the leak. 
• We have all the gear and every idea!
• Check out more of our VLOGs & don’t forget to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

In today’s VLOG, top dog Darius is on a property whose owner complains of a possible undetectable water leak. Darius uses his specialised water leak detection equipment on the massive driveway and give us a demonstration of how it helps in successfully sniffing out the problem area.

With no clear visible signs of a water leak, having the right gear means Darius is able to easily narrow down the problem area and while not obvious, he then sniffs out the leak and does what our Perth plumbers do best, gets digging.

Findig & Fixing Leaks

We don’t just find the problem, we can fix it too all in one visit. After getting the approval to fix the identified problem, Darius proceeds to fix the issue. With different ways to fix the problem at hand, we know the best way to get the problem fixed to last and Darius explains why.

Using a better adaptor for copper to plastic, some solid welding skills and also working with minimal workspace as you would have seen him done in the past to minimise property damage, our obedient Plumbdog has found and fixed the problem with a long term solution so that this problem doesn’t happen again.

If you suspect a water leak and can’t find the problem then it might be time to give your trusted local plumber a whistle. As you saw in the video this leak would have been at least 5 litres a minute. Imagine your water bill the next time around.

• Do you know where your main access point or inspection opening is?
• Knowing where your inspection openings are can help save time and money
• Check out more of our VLOGS here.

The Job – Signs of a Blocked Drain

We were called out to this job because the customer reported blocked drains. The symptoms started with a gurgling toilet followed the next day by a laundry that presented with the same issue.

Fortunately, the client knew where the main drain access point was and in this particular scenario, the blockage affecting the property was between the access point and the water corporations main.

Do you know where your inspection openings are?

Every property is different and inspection points are not in standardised locations. In some older properties the inspection points may be hidden away or be fully covered over making it even more difficult to locate. While inspection openings are required and are regulated, they aren’t always raised when necessary to make them easy to find.

Why is it good to know where your access point is?

Knowing where your access point is will save time searching which means money. While we are pretty good at sniffing out access points, the longer we have to spend hunting and digging with our paws, means incurring what could be unnecessary charges. You may have come across your access points in obscure places when doing your gardening or maybe getting a patio installed so this knowledge may come in very handy.

The Video

Our obedient Plumbdog knows his stuff and isn’t afraid to get his paws wet. He gets in with some new and old fashioned technology to get the job done with a combination of the drain shaft plunger followed by our CCTV drain camera equipment to clearly identify the problem where you can clearly see the culprit tree roots. Then using our custom made high pressure water jetters, we get the job done!

Well done to our loyal customer too for knowing where the inspection shaft was saving time and money making it quick an easy to get on with the job of detecting the blockage and fixing the problem.

• Imagine horrible sewerage water spilling all over your property. It’s a nightmare come true!
• Only a licensed plumber is allowed to contact the Water Corporation to get an emergency crew out to clear the mains. 
• Water Corp will clear and disinfect the property. 
• Plumbdog are proud to be specialists in blocked drains. Maintenance plumbing finding and fixing problems is our specialty.  
• Check out more of our VLOGs & don’t forget to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel!

Blocked Drain in Kensington, Perth WA

In today’s video, our obedient Plumbdog Perth plumber is on a property in Kensington in Western Australia. The task for today is a blocked drains present in the rear left-hand corner of the property. The first issue in hand is that Richard has to figure out the exact position of the inspection shaft. which is the access point into the mains.

Finding the Inspection Shaft

After a little inspection using the shovel, Richard can determine the correct position of the inspection shaft. But the next issue at hand is that it’s a bit beyond the reach, and it’s almost a foot down deep into the sewage water. If he tries to get hold of it, then the water would go over the top of his glove; hence he has to think of a better way to handle the situation.

To get a better result, Richard instead decides to use a bucket to get all the water out by directly putting the bucket inside the hole as far as possible. He repeats the process around 20-30 times to get the water level down to get the hold of the access point and figure out if it’s a mains blockage or not, but unfortunately, it’s all in vain. No matter how hard he tries, the water keeps refilling at a swift pace, making it impossible for him to accomplish his task.

Reporting to the Water Corporation

After failing multiple times to get the water levels down, the best option is to report to the water corporation. Being quite certain that the issue is in the mains, Richard reports to the water corp to send out an emergency crew to clear the blockage and also a crew to disinfect the property.

Important Note: Only a licensed plumber is able to report to the water corp. A customer simply can’t contact the water corp directly and needs to have a licensed plumber visit the property first.

Providing Long Term Solutions

After the water corp finished clearing the mains and disinfecting the property, our experienced Plumbdog can make recommendations to keep the plumbing in good order going forward. The fact that the property houses a lot of matured trees, tree roots are a most likely cause of the blocked drains. With our specialised equipment, we can complete a full inspection and make recommendations along with a recommendation to bring up the inspection shaft to the ground level which is an ideal position.

For now, the best Richard can do is wait for both the water cooperation and disinfectants to do their job, and then Richard can re visit to see what’s the best he can do to combat the issue at hand.