Best Of

I have added a full ounce of water to that solution and found the measurement to be accurate with one that is freshly rebuilt with the diaphragm, gaskets and new bottle of the chemical.  

I also find that when the chemical is almost spent, you can get a few more tests out of it by mixing the CO2 sample several more times. The instructions say invert the bottle 2 times to get a good mixture of the gas sample with the fluid. When you are at the end of the solution's useful life, just mix the sample 3 of 4 times. Every time you mix, the fluid rises a bit more. After you mix it one more time and the fluid does not rise in the tube, that is your CO2 reading.

When you are doing up to 20 tests a day (maybe two to four tests on several customers a day) You find out about these little tricks.

Compare the cars we drive now to what we drove 50 years ago. The mechanics 50 years ago couldn't even begin to work on todays cars….maybe they could change the tires.

I can relate to this as can many others

I started when everything was relays no microprocessors or circuit boards.

I was 40 years old before I turned on a computer. I moved back and forth between office work (looking at jobs and estimating) and doing some service , install and pipefitting along with running jobs

At the beginning the thought of a microprocessor or circuit board was awful.

But, you learn as you go and absorb it all by osmosis.

Many times I found I could fix modern equipment that the younger guys didn't have a clue. You break the circuit board down into checking the inputs and outputs and usually find the problem.

I just am not in favor of the "new way" which seems to be the "parts cannon" or "just replace the equipment"

I still like to fix thing that's where the satisfaction comes from.

i'm considering buying a sheet of epdm and some hollow punches to make my own since they seem to only be available in some flavor of neoprene which doesn't do so well in water or teflon which is too hard for use in a faucet.

Indeed. But they're based on the size of the opening on which they seat, not on the size of the washer.

Bottom line, if you are adding a tank, or upsizing error on the high side. The high static fill of 18 psi is sending the tank capacity up also.

With those online calculators you can play what if calcs. Try different fill pressures, different high temperature, system volume. See where it makes a jump in tank capacity. If you fall on the line, I would go up a size.

You want wiggle room if you do need to exceed the 160 SWT on a below design temperature period. So run the numbers with 180 as the high temperature also.

In some cases boilers with an indirect the boiler ,may boost to 180 or higher durning a DHW priority call.

I suspect the volume numbers may not be that far off. More to the point, this is one place where the ONLY downside to bigger is that it costs more. Don't skimp!

I'll be brief as I do not have the time. If we are going to have service industry capabilities, it must come to the Master's to take responsibility. Apprenticeship has always been taught by the master. Many got lazy or feared if they even licensed their apprentices, they would lose them. Well look where we are now. We gave it to the education system and they blew it off and sacrificed the very incubator of shop class and Votech training.

I recently sought out my local high tech school and met with two instructors, principal. I offered a partnership with them to provide a future for those students. They have done a good job, but they agree with me, it is often too late to send a graduate into a trade, they have little experience in based on one 1 hour class a day which is never enough. That a career path in our trades needs a commitment to place all their training staring no later then 11th grade. Especially when so many have fewer experiences due to lack of shop classes, which must be brought back to our schools starting in 7th grade! Its time to put our tax dollars to invest in shop training to rebuild our work force.

I learned education begins after high school graduation. In our trades it is always changing. if we are to save our service economy in the US we must take charge. Following the Parrado rule and realize college is for the top 20% who can pay cash and the rest of us, the 80% needs to use our skills and on the job training as we have learned with night school to a path whereby companies pay the tuition and the grad graduates again with a journeyman license. All while making a living and with no school loan debt. It takes a 1,000.00 sale to make 50.00 on a 5% net profit. Imagine a 10,000.00 debt is just 5% of a 200,000.00 sale. Remove the debt expense and earnings can better afford a living. I have been a member in several organizations. We business people learned we had to grow our own, we built the programs, changed the law in Maryland, and this works!

Training your people will not lose them but it will retain them. Without training you will lose them anyway.

I succeeded because I took charge of my own education at grade 11. It changed me for the better. I realized my time was more important then my instructors / teachers. How dare they miss a class when I was ready to learn. I learned as if to teach it. It made me rise to the top. This is what we must offer to the youth if they truly want to set goals to live a good life. and we want to keep our customers happy and our profits worth all the efforts.

Lance