More Winterizing Tips from Ricotta Heating & Air

At Ricotta, we’ve been blogging about helpful winterizing tips for your home.

First and foremost, have an expert from Ricotta check your heating unit to be sure it is clean, has a new filter, and is in top shape for the cold season ahead.

Here are some more ways to save energy, stay safe and warm, and keep your home operating at its peak.

4) Check the Exterior, Doors and Windows

• Inspect exterior for crevice cracks and exposed entry points around pipes; seal them.
• Check weather stripping around doors and re-caulk windows as necessary
• If your home has a basement, consider protecting its window wells by covering them with plastic shields.
• Switch out summer screens with glass replacements from storage. If you have storm windows, install them.

5) Service Weather-Specific Equipment

• Drain gas from lawnmowers.
• Service or tune-up snow blowers.

6) Install Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

• Buy extra smoke detector batteries and change them when daylight savings ends.
• Install a carbon monoxide detector near your furnace and / or water heater and test all detectors to be sure they work
• Buy a fire extinguisher or replace an extinguisher older than 10 years.

7) Prevent Plumbing Freezes

• Drain all garden hoses.
• Insulate exposed plumbing pipes.
• Drain air conditioner pipes and, if your AC has a water shut-off valve, turn it off.
• If you go on vacation, leave the heat on, set to at least 55 degrees.

At Ricotta, we’re here to help you get ready for the cold weather ahead.

Now is the time to winterize your home

Your home is probably your most valuable asset. The better you maintain it, the more it holds its worth. Here are 3 timely tips to get you started this November:

1) Furnace Inspection

• Stock up on furnace filters and change them monthly.
• Consider switching out your thermostat for a programmable thermostat.
• If your home is heated by a hot-water radiator, bleed the valves by opening them slightly and when water appears, close them.
• Remove flammable items from the area surrounding your furnace.

2) Inspect Roof, Gutters & Downspouts

• If your weather temperature will fall below 32 degrees in the winter, adding extra insulation to the attic will prevent warm air from creeping to your roof and causing ice dams.
• Check flashing to ensure water cannot enter the home.
• Clean out the gutters and use a hose to spray water down the downspouts to clear away debris.
• Consider installing leaf guards on the gutters or extensions on the downspouts to direct water away from the home.

3) Get the Fireplace Ready

• If the chimney hasn’t been cleaned for more than 2 years, call a chimney sweep to remove soot and creosote.
• Inspect the fireplace damper for proper opening and closing.
• Check the mortar between bricks and tuckpoint, if necessary.
• Remove flammable items from the area surrounding your fireplace.

Let Ricotta Heating & Air help you get ready for the winter season with a fall tune up. Give us a call to schedule that today!

 

Ricotta Heating & Air serves St. Louis from South County to Jefferson County

Ricotta Heating & Air is a family run business that have a 50 year tradition of serving the metropolitan St. Louis area including 15 Missouri counties:

Affton  Barnhart Brentwood Chesterfield Creve Coeur

Eureka  Festus Hillsboro Kirkwood Ladue

Mehlville  Overland Pevely St. Louis University City

With over 100 years combined experience, our staff strives to meet our goal of 100% customer satisfaction. How? One customer at a time.

Service calls are answered by a member of the Ricotta Service Team, 24/7

When we get a customer call, it goes directly to a real person, any time of day or night. Our front desk triages the problem and gets a service tech in one of our 28 fully equipped trucks, ready to take the call, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Besides providing high quality work and honest service to our customers, Ricotta has 
expertise in all types and brands of HVACR equipment, including:

• Boilers
• Commercial / residential central heaters and air conditioners
• Commercial walk-in coolers / freezers
• Furnaces
• Geothermal heating/cooling systems
• Heat Pumps

We are proud of our work and our team of professionals and would be equally proud to have you as our longtime customer.

So no matter where you live in and around the St. Louis area, Ricotta Heating & Air will be there to help you with your heating and air conditioning needs when you need the help most: right away!

Yes, Ricotta Heating & Air services St. Louis Apartment Complexes

Servicing the heating and air conditioning needs of an apartment building or complex can be intense. Sometimes when a unit breaks down, it can leave twenty or more people without heat or air conditioning. That’s a lot of uncomfortable people!

Ricotta Heating & Cooling provides key service teams that have been specially trained to work on large heating and cooling systems in downtown greater St. Louis apartment buildings. It takes skill and knowledge to work on these large units – and get them up and running as quickly as possible, almost always within 24 hours.

Ricotta also has service teams available in the suburbs of St. Louis for apartment complex unit repair. Our teams know what to look for in repairing the major brands most often used in these complexes. And we have major brand parts immediately available for repairs, as well.

Specially priced apartment complex service agreements are available at Ricotta, too. Our “Landlord Specials” are priced to assure that discounts apply to multiple unit repair and maintenance within an apartment complex. Plus, when you have a service plan in place with Ricotta Heating & Air, you can be sure your service call will get top priority with the repair team in your area, whether you’re downtown or in the suburbs.

Ask Ricotta about our special pricing Bronze, Silver & Gold Maintenance Plans for Apartment buildings.

Another reason Ricotta Heating & Air is a favorite with St. Louis area customers: Flat service rates

If you’ve ever had to call a heating and cooling company for service after hours, on a weekend, or over a holiday, you know how much of a hassle this can be. Usually you leave a message with a call center and wait for hours to be called back. And then pay a premium price per hour for service — when they get around to you.

That’s not the way we work at Ricotta Heating & Air. First of all, when you call us no matter what time of day, weekend or holiday, you speak with a member of the Ricotta team. Not only is that person is knowledgeable about the heating and cooling industry, products and our services, but in most cases, he or she will be able to set up a service time with you while you are on the phone.

 

Ricotta's fair, flat rate service call pricing keeps service rates from skyrocketing like other heating & cooling contractors!

 

Even better, you won’t pay hundreds of extra dollars for a service call “after hours.” When you call Ricotta, you pay only $50 for half-hour standard service calls after 5:00 pm. Other places usually charge $136 for the first half hour.

Additionally, because we have “flat rate pricing,” you won’t pay another $50 for the second half hour or more time needed to fix your problem. The rest of your bill will be for the equipment only. Unlike most other heating and cooling repair companies, we think adding additional service time to your bill is unfair. So if we came out to fix your furnace and the part cost $80.00 and took an hour to install, your bill would be $50 + $80, or $130.00. We won’t charge for the additional half hour it took to install the part.

At Ricotta Heating & Air, we want you to be our customer, for life!

Ricotta Heating & Air does what it takes to keep you comfortable today

At Ricotta Heating & Air, we take our customer service calls seriously, which is why we offer 24-hour, 7-days-a-week emergency service.

If a customer is very old or ill, or has special needs such as very young children at home, we put that customer at the top of our list – especially on hot summer days and very cold wintry weekends. We will make sure we get to them right away and make fixing their heating or cooling unit a priority. It’s what our customers have come to expect and just one of the many reasons Ricotta Heating and Air has been around for 50 years.

Ricotta’s expert staff is trained in preventative maintenance, service and installation – and going the extra mile to help our customers in whatever way they can. Which is why when we had to back order an air conditioner part for a family with 3 very young children in a Chesterfield community this past July, we provided the family with a free temporary window air conditioning unit until their larger unit could be completely repaired. Our service tech just couldn’t imagine letting the family suffer in St. Louis’ high 90 degree heat wave for three days without relief. They were grateful and we knew we had done the best we could for them.

Last February, a Creve Coeur woman confined to a wheel chair lost her heat when her 30-year old furnace stopped working. A new Lennox furnace was ordered to fit the small space her home required, and the unit had to be special ordered. There was no way the woman could live safely in her home without heat, so we brought in several space heaters for the time it took to get the new furnace installed.

At Ricotta, we want our customers to be our customers for life.

Ricotta Heating & Air, a 50-year St. Louis tradition

Ricotta Heating & Air is a family run business that has a 50 year tradition of serving the metropolitan St. Louis area including 15 Missouri counties:

Affton  Barnhart Brentwood Chesterfield Creve Coeur

Eureka  Festus Hillsboro Kirkwood Ladue

Mehlville  Overland Pevely St. Louis University City

With over 100 years combined experience, our staff strives to meet our goal of 100% customer satisfaction. How? One customer at a time. When we get a customer call, it goes directly to a real person, any time of day or night. Our front desk triages the problem and gets a service tech in one of our 28 fully equipped trucks, ready to take the call, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Besides providing high quality work and honest service to our customers, Ricotta has 
expertise in all types and brands of HVACR equipment, including:

• Boilers
• Commercial / residential central heaters and air conditioners
• Commercial walk-in coolers / freezers
• Furnaces
• Geothermal heating/cooling systems
• Heat Pumps

We are proud of our work and our team of professionals and would be equally proud to have you as our longtime customer.

So no matter where you live in and around the St. Louis area, Ricotta Heating & Air will be there to help you with your heating and air conditioning needs when you need the help most: right away!

Amana & Ricotta: Outstanding greater St. Louis warranty protection

At Ricotta Heating & Cooling, we’re big fans of Amana® brand heat pumps. Why? Because heat pumps are a great investment in your home because they provide both cooling and heating comfort from a single system. And Amana heat pumps have one of the best warranties in the industry.

 

Amana Air conditioners & heat pumps come with one of the best warranties in the business

 

Ricotta offers a full line of Amana heat pump systems in sizes and ratings that offer the best possible match for your family’s needs. Plus you’ll get even more comfort knowing that Ricotta and Amana offer one of the best warranty protection in the heating and cooling industry.

For the greatest energy efficiency savings, Ricotta recommends you select a heat pump system with the highest possible SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratio) and HSPF (HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Factor) ratings.

Many of our heat pumps feature what we believe to be the most comprehensive warranty coverage of any air conditioner or heat pump on the market. They offer Lifetime Limited Warranty (online registration is required within 60 days of installation) protection for the compressor to the original, registered, single-family, homeowner of a properly matched system using these high-efficiency air conditioners and heat pumps. Our service doesn’t stop with installation. If the original owner should have a compressor failure, Ricotta and Amana will replace the air conditioner or heat pump with a comparable Amana® brand product.

Providing outstanding standard warranty coverage and highly rated consumer products like Amana heat pumps, is just one way Ricotta Heating & Air goes the extra mile in consumer satisfaction, whether you live in Godrey or Festus, or anywhere between.

In St. Louis, Amana is the name homeowners depend upon

If you’re like most St. Louis area homeowners, you depend on the gas furnace in your home and pray it will last forever. If you already have an Amana gas furnace, you already know that prayer is granted!

Choose from a variety of high-efficiency and standard efficiency Amana gas furnaces

Amana-owners are almost always Amana-lovers. They love their furnaces because they last forever and require very little repair. Amana is the go-to brand for gas furnaces, air conditioners and heat pumps.

When Ricotta Heating & Air installs an Amana high efficiency or standard efficiency gas furnace, the unit comes complete with one of the best warranty programs in the heating and cooling industry: A ten-year warranty that includes labor (you just pay for the service call).

Several Amana furnace models offer variable and multi-speed performance providing enhanced indoor comfort by slowly ramping up to your thermostat setting rather that simply starting at full speed. This alleviates the ‘cold air-blow’ often associated with single-speed furnaces. To find the highest level of energy-efficient gas furnaces, ask your Ricotta representative for the highest “AFUE” ratings.

If your furnace is on its last legs, now’s a great time to buy an Amana gas furnace. Check your phone book for Ricotta’s installation coupon, and ask your Ricotta service rep about applying for a homeowners energy-saving tax credits and rebates. You’ll save hundreds right now – and thousands more during the lifetime of worry-free service your Amana furnace will provide you with!

Give Ricotta a call to find out which Amana unit is right for your needs.

Fall “Physical” for your heating system

You might consider a Ricotta visit as a “physical” for your furnace – the “heart” that keeps heat pumping through your home, maintaining your home’s health. In the St. Louis metro area, Ricotta Heating and Air can help you with this “complete physical” by changing your furnace filter and checking on (and cleaning) your entire heating system. 

Just as a you periodically needs a physical to stay healthy and assure your body is running in peak condition, so does your heating and air conditioning system! The more efficiently your heating system operates, the more time your system can “rest”, which uses less energy, thus costing you less in the long run! Ricotta Heating and Air can keep your system in tune through regular wear and tear, weather, incidents, and seasonal changes—such as leaves and debris in and around your exterior system.

Even if your furnace is in fairly good shape, you may be able to improve its overall efficiency through adjustments, regular maintenance or repair to the distribution system.

Having annual maintenance to your heating and air conditioning system is a part of your long-term strategy for a healthy, efficient heating and air conditioning system.  Invest in yours!

-Lew of the Ricotta blog team