Heating, cooling and water heater repair from our West Deptford base

What breaks most often in West Deptford homes

West Deptford is where we are based, and the township's housing gives us a little of everything. There are ranches and Cape Cods, split-levels with the furnace on the lower level, two-story colonials, and townhouse rows with equipment in a closet or garage. Many homes heat with a gas furnace and cool with central air on the same ductwork. Some older houses still run a boiler feeding baseboard or radiators, and those get the same careful pressure and expansion tank checks we give city rowhomes.

Start with the water heater, because it fails with less warning than anything else in the house. A tank collects sediment on its bottom, and as that layer thickens you hear rumbling, wait longer for hot water and eventually find a puddle where the steel has rusted through. A gas unit that will not stay lit usually points to a thermocouple, a dirty pilot or a failing control valve. We check the anode rod, flue draft and relief valve before saying whether a repair is worth it.

Being based here shapes how we plan the day. A township call is a short drive, so it often fits between jobs on either side of the river. Our trips into the city run over the Walt Whitman Bridge, one of the Delaware River Port Authority's crossings, which comes down in South Philadelphia, the same part of the city as the Pennsport rowhomes we also serve. Gloucester City's Delaware River waterfront sits near that bridge, so the stretch between home base and South Philly is ground our techs know well.