Diamond Certified Blog

Learn what you can do to get a rebate on a new, high-efficiency toilet. Read more

Do you have small children? Watch this video for some helpful tips on making sure they’re safe in their car seats. Read more

You can shop smarter at the supermarket by having a basic understanding of marketing techniques. Read more

Learn how an organized home office can help you be more productive. Read more

If you install a soft water system in your home, you can expect to save money in a number of ways. For one thing, soft water protects pipes and water heaters by removing scales (a mineral build-up). John Baranzelli, general manager of Puronics Service, Inc., a Diamond Certified company, says scales can wreak havoc by sticking to the sides of your pipes. “Think of it like your heart—if you have plaque in your blood, it sticks to the sides of your arteries and eventually causes a heart attack. It’s the same concept with water. The scale builds up and eventually causes the pipes to burst.” Read more

While they may be best known for their allusion in the famous bedtime children’s rhyme, bed bugs are a real and rising concern in American households. Primarily nocturnal and parasitic, bed bugs are so named because of their preferred habitat: warm houses, particularly around and inside bedding. What the name doesn’t signify is the fact that bed bugs feed exclusively on blood, usually from a sleeping human host.

Although nearly wiped out in America by the early 1940s, bed bugs reemerged in the mid 1990s as a legitimate concern. While it remains unknown why and how they made a comeback, the subsequent rise in home infestations has led to exponential increases in bed bug bites and related health conditions. Read more

Watch this video to learn how you can avoid exposing your children to common household poisons, as well as what to do in case of an emergency. Read more

Do you know all your options when it comes to repairing or replacing a used car? Watch this video for some helpful tips. Read more

Many parents want help teaching their children about using technology safely, so Google has created a Family Safety Center to address that need. One section explains Google’s safety tools, including “Safe Search,” which allows you to eliminate sexually explicit content from search results. You’ll also find a detailed explanation about sharing controls and privacy settings for YouTube, Google Talk and Picasa Web Albums.

My favorite part of the site is “Tips From Parents at Google,” where engineers, executives and other employees talk about their own challenges managing their kids’ Internet use. Here are two suggestions: Keep your home computer in a central place so you can monitor your children’s online activity, Read more

Major health organizations agree that radon causes many preventable lung cancer deaths every year. Radon is an odorless radioactive gas that comes from the uranium in rock, water and soil, and it’s especially dangerous for people who smoke. It can be found in every part of the United States and in any type of building, but elevated radon levels in your home are the greatest concern.

Radon levels can vary from home to home. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the best way to tell if your home has a radon problem is to perform a short-term test. Low-cost, do-it-yourself radon test kits are available at hardware stores or through mail order. Read more