Piping quick fix

If there is a leak in your piping, whether copper or PEX, a coupling is a quick fix. Just cut out the part of the pipe with the leak, and insert a coupling to join the two pieces of pipe back together. You can even use a SharkBite coupling, which is a push-to-fit fitting that doesn't even require a tool.

PEX Fittings such as SharkBite Fittings can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Thermostat for baseboard?

If you need a thermostat to control the temperature of your baseboard heaters, why not get one specifically made to do that job? Honeywell makes the TL series of thermostats designed for use on baseboard heaters. Pick up a TL8230A1003 to control one heat source with 7 day programmability.

Honeywell thermostats and baseboard heaters can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Keep your pipes from freezing

Easy Heat pipe tracing products can prevent your pipes from freezing over the winter. You can install heat cables or heat tape along the length of your water pipes which will keep them warm. If you have copper pipe, freezing is always a concern, but with heat tracing tape or cables, it doesn't have to be.

Easy Heat Tape and Easy Heat Cables can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Burnham Steam Boilers

The vast majority of boilers are for hot water, but Burnham makes a line of Steam Boilers if that is what you prefer. Even with steam, you still need a fuel source, so Burnham Steam Boilers come in either natural gas or propane. These boilers are heavy, so getting a lift gate is often a good idea so that you can ease the boiler down from the freight truck that it will be delivered in.


Burnham Independence Steam Boilers can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Glycol for cold weather tubing

As the weather gets cold, you want to introduce glycol into your radiant heat PEX tubing. While PEX tubing itself is freeze resistant, the water inside of your tubing can freeze if the temperatures drop low enough. To prevent this from happening, you can add glycol to the system. The colder it gets, the more glycol you can add. With glycol, your radiant heat system will run smoothly with no threat of freezing all winter long.

Radiant heat supplies can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Fire Sprinklers by 2011

As of January 1, 2011, all homes will need a fire sprinkler system in place. While the majority of American homes have a smoke alarm, this is only an effective tool if someone is around to hear it. If no one is home, your smoke alarm will not be able to put out a fire. A fire sprinkler can. Fire sprinkler heads can be installed using fire sprinkler hangers and must be installed by a licensed professional.

For reference, the official International Code Council (ICC) code states: "Effective January 1, 2011, an approved automatic fire sprinkler system shall be installed in new one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses in accordance with NFPA 13D".

Fire sprinkler heads can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

High temperature controls

Johnson Controls thermostats have the capability to control the temperature in an area up to 550° F, which is much higher than a standard unit. The A19AAB-10 Remote Bulb Temperature Control can control temperatures from 200 - 550° F. This unit features switch action that opens on rise and a 10 degree differential. Other Johnson Controls thermostats can be used in industrial applications and for agricultural usage.

Many Johnson Controls thermostats including the A19 Series Utility Thermostats can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Separating supply and return

An ox box allows you put the supply and return lines for a washing machine, ice maker, or lavatory outlet into separate stud bays. Since the ox box is mounted on a stud, you can install the supply line in one stud bay, and the return line in another stud bay. This way, you will save installation time and reduce the number of joints behind your wall, which also reduces the risk of a leak behind your wall.
Sioux Chief Ox Boxes can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Soldering Torches

If you'll be doing a lot of soldering, you will need a soldering torch. Turbo Torch soldering torches make soldering faster and easier. Heat is generated incredibly quickly with a Turbo Torch for faster brazing times and less gas consumption. Self lighting triggers are also available on some torches. For under $100, a Turbo Torch can be invaluable.

Soldering torches can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

A Fast Way to Find PEX Fittings

Finding PEX fittings is now easier than ever with SupplyHouse.com's new Fittings Finders. Scroll through different fitting types to see for yourself. Click on elbows, and add the sizes you need in whatever quantity you need, then go back to top and click on couplings, or any other style. The Fittings Finders allow you to place an order for all of the fittings you need from just one page. Take a look at Rifeng Fittings, ProPEX Fittings, or SharkBite Fittings and give it a try.

PEX Fittings can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Fall Heating Special Items

The SupplyHouse.com Fall Heating Special is here! Get our lowest prices of the year on pumps, flanges, switching relays, valves, expansion tanks, and so much more. Sale prices are good through 10/29/09, so stock up now and save big on the heating supplies you will need all winter long.

Taco 007-F5
Taco 007-F5-7IFC
# 15 Extrol Expansion Tank
# 30 Extrol Expansion Tank
Grundfos UPS15-58FC Circulator
1/2", 3/4" and 1" Solder Ends Ball Valves
1/2", 3/4" and 1" Threaded Ball Valves
SR501-4 Switching Relay
TH4110D1007 PRO 5-2 Programmable Thermostat
TH6110D1005 FocusPRO Programmable Thermostat
V8043F1036 3/4" Sweat Valve

These popular items are on sale at SupplyHouse.com. Other sale items include backflow preventers, boiler drains, radiator valves, check valves, black fittings, Gorton air eliminators, and thermocouples.

Fall Heating Special

The SupplyHouse.com Fall Heating Special is here! Get our lowest prices of the year on pumps, flanges, switching relays, valves, expansion tanks, and so much more. Sale prices are good through 10/29/09, so stock up now and save big on the heating supplies you will need all winter long.

The Fall Heating Special and thousands of heating supplies can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

What kind of pump?

If you looking to replace an old bronze pump and are looking to replace it, you might have to look at stainless steel. Taco has discontinued several of their bronze pumps and replaced them with stainless steel pumps. Taco stainless steel pumps are just as good as the bronze in every way, and are usually better than the bronze in terms of price! Get a stainless steel pump if you are using tubing without an oxygen barrier or if the pump is being used for plumbing work. If the pump is for heating and your PEX tubing has an oxygen barrier, you can use a cast iron pump.

Heating pumps such as Taco pumps can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Grease Trap Sizing

Need to know exactly how long, wide, or tall a grease trap is? What about how many inches before the no hub coupling or what size no hub coupling to use? The Zurn Grease Trap spec sheet (also found on all of the grease trap product pages) clearly diagrams all of the GT2700 series grease traps with all of the dimensions you need to know before an install.

Grease traps can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Flow switch options

Flow switches such as the McDonnell Miller FS4-3 are able to have an optional time delay of either 5 seconds or 20 seconds. This feature does not come standard and will not work without additional parts. To get this feature, you will need to purchase a separate relay in either 24 volt or 120 volt specified for the 5 second delay or the 20 second delay.

Flow switches such and McDonnell Miller flow switches can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Winter prep for plumbing

What's the number one concern for winter plumbing? Frozen pipes! The fastest way to frozen pipes is to leave water exposed to the elements outside of your house when the temperatures drop. To protect your pipes, it's a good idea to get a frost proof sillcock. Frost proof, or frost free sillcocks allow you to have access to water outside of your house (for a hose, sprinkler, etc) but keeps the water between 8 and 14 inches inside of your house through a long stem, so the water (and the pipes) won't freeze when it gets cold outside.

Sillcocks and frost-free sillcocks can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Maintaining your boiler

It is important to do general maintenance on your boiler on a regular basis. Check the condition of your vent connection pipe and chimney because parts of the venting system can deteriorate over time. Chimney problems can be expensive to repair, and may help justify installing new heating equipment that won't use the existing chimney. Next, check the physical integrity of the heat exchanger. Leaky boiler heat exchangers leak water and are easy to spot. Furnace heat exchangers mix combustion gases with house air when they leak—an important safety reason to have them inspected. Adjust the controls on the boiler or furnace to provide optimum water and air temperature settings for both efficiency and comfort.

Boilers and other heating supplies can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Where to place an outdoor reset

Install the outdoor sensor for your boiler reset control on the North side of your house, and be sure that it is out of the sun. If you don’t have a good place to put it on the North side, just be sure to keep it out of direct sunlight so that it can send accurate outdoor temperature readings to your boiler regardless of the time of day.

Boilers and boiler resets can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

How is water directed in a pump?

Circulator pumps have a moving water wheel called an impeller. The impeller uses the force from its rotation to get water to go in the desired direction. Since everything swirls away from the center, the curved components of the impeller are able to direct in one direction.

Heating pumps such as Taco Pumps, Grundfos Pumps and Bell & Gossett Pumps can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Do you need baseboard brackets?

Wall brackets do not come with Baseboard Heater Covers' branded baseboard heater covers. These units do not require brackets since for the majority of jobs, brackets will still be in the wall from the old baseboards that you are replacing.

You WILL need brackets (WB001) if any of the following conditions are true:

1) If you are installing these units for a new construction
2) If you ripped out old baseboard heaters, including their back plates
3) If the old brackets are shorter than 7 1/4"

The baseboard brackets come with a screw, and it is highly recommend to screw the brackets into a stud. You will need to purchase 2 brackets (put one at each end) if the baseboard heater cover is 3 of 4 feet long. If you are purchasing a 5, 6, or 7 foot baseboard heater cover, you will need 3 brackets per unit (one for each end and one in the middle of the unit).

Baseboard heaters and baseboard heater covers can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

When to clean a heat exchanger

For the best efficiency, heat exchangers should be cleaned about once a year. Instead of waiting until there's a problem, giving your heat exchanger an annual check up will extend its life and save you money over time. To properly clean a heat exchanger, you should install strainers in your system. These strainers can be easily removed and rinsed out with water to remove anything that might be inside. This is better than flushing out the whole system because you won't have to waste a day bleeding and refilling your entire heating system.

Heat exchangers and other heating supplies can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Outdoor Reset in a Mixing Valve

Replace your old valve with the new Taco I-Series Mixing Valve. Taco's new I-Series universal modulating zone valve has a weather-sensitive head and a ball inside that will give your boiler different instructions based on the conditions and temperature outside. Outdoor reset controls can save between 5 and 30% of your fuel costs. Instead of your boiler turning on at full blast whether it's 60 degrees outside or 6 degrees outside, the outdoor reset allows your heating system to adjust based on external factors and only turn on the amount that you need.

Taco I-Series Valves and other heating supplies can be found at www.supplyhouse.com

Heat Transfer Plates

Radiant heat systems are often installed with PEX clips holding the tubing to the underside of the floor. This prevents the tubing from ever having direct contact with the surface that it is heating, but can cause “striping.” Striping is an effect where you can stand with your feet in two places on the floor and feel noticeably different levels of heat in the different spots. To keep your tubing off the floors and maintain an even temperature across the entire floor, you can use heat transfer plates. Aluminum heat transfer plates attach to your tubing and create a medium for direct contact with the floor and simultaneously act as a conductor. This not only makes more efficient use of the heat you are producing, but also spreads it more evenly across the surface you are heating.

PEX Tubing and other supplies for radiant heat can be found at www.supplyhouse.com