C.W. Schultz & Son

09/04/2026

Every year goes the same way. First real cold night, the phone starts before six in the morning, and by lunchtime we are booking a week out. Nothing wrong with that except the people waiting are sitting in a cold house. If your heat has not been looked at since spring, this month is the easy time to sort it. Nobody thinks about heating in September, which is exactly why it works.

09/02/2026

Every year around the first cold night we get calls about a burning smell when the heat comes on. Nine times out of ten it is dust burning off the heat exchanger after sitting idle all summer, and it clears in fifteen minutes or so. Worth knowing before it happens, so you are not standing in the hallway at 2am wondering. If the smell sticks around, or comes back every cycle, that one is worth a phone call.

08/31/2026

Before the heat comes on this fall, flip over your carbon monoxide detectors and check the date on the back. The sensors expire in seven to ten years, and that test button only checks the horn and battery, not the sensor. An expired detector is decoration. One per floor.

08/28/2026

Before the heat comes on this fall, change the filter.

That filter has been working all summer. Every hour the AC ran it pulled air through it, and by now it is loaded with dust, pet hair, and whatever came in the windows. Then heating season starts and the furnace has to pull air through that same clogged filter.

Restricted airflow means the furnace cannot move heat off the heat exchanger fast enough. It overheats, the limit switch shuts it down, it cools, fires again, overheats again. That is short cycling, and it is behind a good share of the no heat calls we run in October. Let it go long enough and it is what cracks a heat exchanger.

The size is printed on the edge of the old one. The arrow on the frame points toward the furnace, not away from it. Two minute job.

If yours has not been changed since spring, do it this week. And if nobody has looked at the furnace in a couple of years, get it on the schedule before the fall rush. (570) 822-8158.

08/27/2026

🌡️ Settle an argument for us.

What is your thermostat set at right now? Be honest.

Half the houses we walk into have the same standoff going. One person wants 68 and a blanket. The other says 74 is plenty, and have you seen the electric bill lately.

Nobody is wrong here. But there is a catch. In humidity like this, set it low enough and your AC never gets to shut off. A system that runs nonstop is the one that freezes into a block of ice and quits on you during the last hot stretch of the summer. 🧊

Drop your number in the comments 👇 and we will tell you if your AC is going to make it to September.

And if yours has not shut off all day and the house still is not cooling, that is not a setting problem. Call us at (570) 822-8158 and we will come take a look.

08/26/2026

Settle an argument for us. What is your thermostat sitting at right now?

We hear the same fight in half the houses we walk into. One person wants 68 and a blanket. The other says 74 is plenty and have you seen the bill. There is no wrong answer, but there is a catch most people miss. In this kind of humidity, a system set well below 72 can end up running almost nonstop, and a unit that never gets to shut off is the one that ices up and quits during the last hot week of the summer.

Drop your number in the comments. We will tell you whether your AC is going to survive it.

If yours has not cycled off all day and it is still not catching up, that is not a setting problem. Call (570) 822-8158 and we will come look.

08/25/2026

Hot water quitting halfway through a shower usually is not the heater dying. It is what is sitting in the bottom of it. Water around here carries a lot of minerals, and every time the tank heats up, some of that drops out and settles on the floor of the tank as sediment. That layer works like insulation between the burner and the water above it. The burner runs longer, the tank holds less usable hot water, and you hear it: a popping or rumbling sound is steam bubbles fighting their way up through the sludge.

Left alone it cooks the bottom of the tank and takes years off the thing. Draining and flushing the tank once a year clears most of it out. If yours has never been done, or it is rumbling and the hot water runs short, call (570) 822-8158 and we will flush it and check the anode rod while we are in there.

08/24/2026

Water on the basement floor around the furnace in August throws people, because the heat has been off for months and nothing up there looks wet. What you are seeing is the air conditioner. Cooling pulls a real amount of moisture out of the air, several gallons a day in a humid stretch, and all of it leaves through one narrow PVC line.

That line grows algae. When it plugs, the water backs up into the drain pan and either trips a float switch that shuts the system down or spills onto the floor. If your air handler sits in the attic, it finds a ceiling instead. If you can reach the outside end of the line, a shop vac held on it for a minute will often pull the clog loose. If the pan is already full or the unit shut itself off, leave it alone and call (570) 822-8158. We are out across Wilkes-Barre and Kingston all week and can flush the line and figure out why it plugged.

08/23/2026

The name on the truck is a family name. Since 1921 the Schultz family has kept local homes warm in winter and cool in summer, passing the trade down one generation to the next.

When we show up, we are looking after neighbors, the way we always have.
Link:

Family-owned HVAC and plumbing in Wilkes-Barre, PA since 1921. AC, heating, boilers, water heaters, and 24/7 emergency service. Call (570) 822-8158.

08/22/2026

Fall sneaks up fast in the Wyoming Valley. Getting your furnace cleaned and safety-checked now means no scramble on the first cold morning.

And no waiting behind everyone who put it off. Book your fall tune-up at cwschultzandson.com.

Link: cwschultzandson.com/furnace-tune-up