Residential & Commercial Plumbing and Air Conditioning Specialist (480) 332-6589

We hope these FAQs help you determine when you can you take care of something yourself and when you need to call in professionals to service your plumbing or air conditioning. If you don't find your specific problem here, please call Frederick & Sons LLC Plumbing and AC repair and service at: (480) 332-6589 and we will help you decide if you need professional help.

A. No! Don't vent it to the attic. All that moisture decreases the lifetime of your roof and attic insulation. When temperatures drop moisture will condense and rain down on insulation making it much less effective. Bathroom fans should be vented out an eave vent or through the roof. Unless you have good construction experience you should probably have this done by a professional.


Q. At night water runs out of the flush handle in my toilet, but not during the day. What's going on with this and how can I fix it?

A.Take blue food coloring and put it in the toilet tank making the water blue. It may take a few minutes of waiting but, if the water in the bowl turns blue, then your flapper is leaking. If no blue water is visible in the bowl, then the water is running into the overflow tube in the center of the toilet. In either case, the toilet is partially clogged or the vent is clogged because the bowl should not fill up and overflow even if the flapper and fill valve leak.


Q. The kitchen sink has a terrible smell coming into the house.

A. It could be a clogged vent or a clogged drain, both will produce the same condition that allows sewer gas to come into your home. Frederick & Son fixes these types of plumbing problems all of the time. When you think of residential plumbing, you may not think of vent pipes. Call Frederick & Son to clear the vent and / or drain.


Q. Help! There's a sewer smell in the wall behind my bathroom sink.

A. Many times in older homes soil will settle under the concrete causing piping to break under the floor. The force and pressure of the soil is enough to sever plastic and pull cast iron pipes out of the fittings. In older homes with steel piping, the threaded joints can be eaten away from corrosion and from acid-type drain cleaners. In both cases, the sewage can flow out under the concrete and create smells around and through the pipes and through cracks in the concrete.


Q. How often should I have my drains cleaned?

A. The length of time between each drain cleaning depends on how often you put grease and greasy food down the line. Never pour grease down the drain and use a paper towel to wipe grease from pots and pans prior to washing. Grease washed down plumbing will coagulate on the inside of the pipe, eventually clogging the drain line. Using a garbage disposal increases your sewer cleaning frequency. Hard, stringy or fibrous food (such as celery, poultry skin, carrots, pumpkin pulp, etc.) should never be placed in the garbage disposal. Enzyme drain cleaners help lengthen the time between cleanings. Especially if you begin using these drain cleaning products immediately after your sewer cleaning.

Q. My Air Conditioning cycles on and off every 5 minutes or so. What could be wrong?

A. Cycling A/C units can be caused by a variety of reasons. Your thermostat can be defective, however, the most common reason for this is a worn cycle valve on the unit itself. We recommend calling someone for full diagnostic test and necessary repairs.


Q. My A/C runs all the time but I don't feel any air coming out of the vents? What can I do?

A. Your HVAC unit has two parts, the cooling part and air handling part. In situations where you don't have any air coming out of your vents, you most likely have a bad fan motor. Frederick & Sons LLC recommend you have your fan motor looked into and have your HVAC unit serviced at the same time.


Q. I am having a new roof put on and they said they would put foam on my ducting for AC. Will this help me save energy?

A. Insulation on an HVAC unit's duct work will help avoid heat exchange, but don't look for a large reduction in your energy bill. The air coming out of a well serviced Air Conditioning unit is cold when it leaves the A/C unit and enters the duct work. The amount of time the air is in the ducting from the unit, to the top of your house, is very small so there really isn't much heat exchange occurring.


Q. This winter when I turned my HVAC unit to heat, it smelled like something was hot or burning. Is this just dust in the ductwork?

A. If you have a furnace and you haven't run your A/C or furnace for a while you may get the faint odor of something hot, but this is NOT something you should just assume is happening. You should always be safe and have your unit serviced before you will turn on your A/C in the summer and before you turn on your heater in the Spring/Winter. We will be glad to take a look at your unit and let you know if anything is starting to wear or if there is nothing wrong at all!


Q. I've heard programmable thermostats can save me a lot of money on my energy bill. How?

A. Programmable thermostats automatically take the place of what my father used to do before he went to bed and when he woke up in the morning. You can set the temperature to be higher or lower while you are sleeping and then have if change again before you wake. If you have an empty house during the weekdays while you are working, you can also have the temperature change during that time to help with your energy bill.