What's not in stock?

DanHolohan

What isn't your wholesaler stocking that you think they should be stocking? And what are you doing about it?

ChrisJ

Supplyhouse.com is about to be mentioned a few times.

STEAM DOCTOR

American made fittings and pipe

hot_rod

hydronic knowledge!

Although I visit suppliers that do a great job and prioritize training for their staff, dedicate a hydronics division. Dennis B comes to mind:)

There is a lot to know these days with complicated HVAC and boiler technology, many suppliers have multiple boiler and furnace, AC lines that all need dedicated training.
Knowing that hydronics is a small % of the market, they balance time and energy spent compared to all the other products they offer.

Myself and most hydronic manufacturers and our reps have training available, in person, online, at rep locations, via manuals.

rick in Alaska

Anything related to any kind of repair part for any kind of heating unit. Any time I have a unit go down, the typical answer is, we can order it. Usually about $60 for freight. I got a freight charge for a control board out of Canada the other day for $190.00.
But, nothing worse than having a piece of equipment go down, and the supplier carries no replacement parts. I did manage to get most of the parts needed to fix the York furnaces that I was installing, but then my supplier changed brands. Now I have to restock more parts.
Rick

hot_rod

rick in Alaska said:

Anything related to any kind of repair part for any kind of heating unit. Any time I have a unit go down, the typical answer is, we can order it. Usually about $60 for freight. I got a freight charge for a control board out of Canada the other day for $190.00.
But, nothing worse than having a piece of equipment go down, and the supplier carries no replacement parts. I did manage to get most of the parts needed to fix the York furnaces that I was installing, but then my supplier changed brands. Now I have to restock more parts.
Rick

A contractor friend of ours out there on the Kenai, you know him I believe he has more hydronic inventory in his shop than all the suppliers on the peninsula combined.
Your customer should be charged accordingly for you to inventory all the crucial installation and spare parts.

rick in Alaska

hot_rod said:

rick in Alaska said:

Anything related to any kind of repair part for any kind of heating unit. Any time I have a unit go down, the typical answer is, we can order it. Usually about $60 for freight. I got a freight charge for a control board out of Canada the other day for $190.00.
But, nothing worse than having a piece of equipment go down, and the supplier carries no replacement parts. I did manage to get most of the parts needed to fix the York furnaces that I was installing, but then my supplier changed brands. Now I have to restock more parts.
Rick

A contractor friend of ours out there on the Kenai, you know him I believe he has more hydronic inventory in his shop than all the suppliers on the peninsula combined.
Your customer should be charged accordingly for you to inventory all the crucial installation and spare parts.

Must be John. I know he has a LOT more Poly Pro exhaust ( I believe it to be that brand) than any supplier. I did my first radiant job with him on a church here. I wish I could work with him for a year or so. He is very knowledgeable, and is great at innovation.
Rick

SuperTech

My local supply houses are seriously lacking any Caleffi products. I asked one popular plumbing and heating supplier if they had an 1-1/4" dirtmag and he looked at me like I have two heads. Sadly I had to explain it to the guy what a dirtmag is only to get the response "what the hell do ya need that for?"

hot_rod

SuperTech said:

My local supply houses are seriously lacking any Caleffi products. I asked one popular plumbing and heating supplier if they had an 1-1/4" dirtmag and he looked at me like I have two heads. Sadly I had to explain it to the guy what a dirtmag is only to get the response "what the hell do ya need that for?"

And they probably wonder why contractors shop online:)

Hap_Hazzard

Flux capacitors.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor

ratio

Hap_Hazzard said:

Flux capacitors.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor

Not in stock, <sigh>

EBEBRATT-Ed

Mod Con parts are $$$$ and supply house's don't stock a lot of parts. Hard to tell you customer he wont have heat in the dead of winter for 3 days waiting for parts.

Not like the cast Iron stuff if the boiler holds water you could get it running somehow

BillyO

Staten Island very little Caleffi, No one stocks any radiant Manifolds over here

mikeg2015

We no longer even have a local supply house. Just a pipe supply wholesaler, but they have no hydronic parts. Our supply house closed the local shop to save money so only get a truck 2x a week normally.

Might as well use Supplyhouse.com. They are usually cheaper and often quicker. Plus it;s quick to just do it electronically and not talk to a person that 1in10 will screw up my order anyway.

JohnNY

Acid neutralizer media.
Solid concrete blocks

BillyO

zilmet tanks, anything Viega

GroundUp

Pretty much anything I need, they don't have it or only have half the quantity. I've got to travel 100 miles for a supply house that has anything. Boiler of any brand? Gotta order it. 1" sweat 90's? Sorry we only have 2. Three way thermostatic mixing valve? What's that? Lucky for me I don't do service, besides for my own home and rental properties, but even that's a problem. I had a Goodman furnace crap out an inducer motor a couple months ago and I was able to find one in the back warehouse of a tiny little hardware store 50 miles away, but otherwise there wasn't even one in the state. I made at least 100 phone calls trying to find it and nobody had one, and they sure weren't going to take one off a new unit in stock. I paid double to get it from that hardware store versus online but of course it was -20F when it failed and I needed it NOW, not 3 days from now

unclejohn

I think I posted this before but back in the day when there were only about 6 supply houses in the DC metro area they had what you needed and would often bring it to you. A belated thank you to Gus and Herman at G&H Supply.
PS. My credit application back then was a talk with Gus. John are you going to pay your bill at the end of the month in full? Me Yes. Ok you have credit.

Gordo

unclejohn said:

I think I posted this before but back in the day when there were only about 6 supply houses in the DC metro area they had what you needed and would often bring it to you. A belated thank you to Gus and Herman at G&H Supply.
PS. My credit application back then was a talk with Gus. John are you going to pay your bill at the end of the month in full? Me Yes. Ok you have credit.

Ah, credit applications! One local/regional supply house handed me a 6 page credit application. One of the questions was: What was the name of my spouse? I wrote in "She, Who Must Be Obeyed".
We got the credit line okayed with no questions.

RayWohlfarth

I think if you sell a piece of equipment, you should have the repair parts in stock. For example inducer fans or control boards

rick in Alaska

I guess the big question is, who is the seller? You, or your wholesaler. I think it should be the wholesaler, but it looks more and more like they think we should be the ones. When I put something in, I have a hard time getting that extra $1200 or so to stock the parts for it. Especially when the wholesaler keeps juggling lines around. Now you have a massive amount of money sitting in spare parts for all the various units out there. I wish I could, but just don't have that kind of available cash flow.
Rick

Gordo

...And haven't we all heard this line from the wholesaler:
"We're not stocking those parts 'cuz you're the only one asking for them."?

Intplm.

Trained and knowledgeable employees............sigh......

Mike_Sheppard

I keep lists of vendors and what they stock. And parts I need for different commercial boilers / water heaters and where I could find them. It’s not uncommon to have to drive a few hours to find something. Sometimes have to hit multiple supply houses to get the parts for one job. Also lots of the time have to overnight ship parts.

hot_rod

rick in Alaska said:

I guess the big question is, who is the seller? You, or your wholesaler. I think it should be the wholesaler, but it looks more and more like they think we should be the ones. When I put something in, I have a hard time getting that extra $1200 or so to stock the parts for it. Especially when the wholesaler keeps juggling lines around. Now you have a massive amount of money sitting in spare parts for all the various units out there. I wish I could, but just don't have that kind of available cash flow.
Rick

I've been to wholesalers that sell 6 different brands of boilers. Imagine across all the models and vintages, and how many parts like circuit boards and inducers, gas valves would need to be stocked!
When I finally settled in on a brand and model, I kept a complete boiler as a parts back up. It would be helpful for common consumable parts to cover an entire size range of a boiler model.

SeanBeans

They barely have anything in cast near me, also reducing 90s seem to be hard to come byin The bigger sizes

SeanBeans

Drop cloths, magnetic dirt separators, no one has even heard a Gorton vent or big mouth.

PerryHolzman

I'm a homeowner... who has had to find where to find parts. So my experience is limited. However, may I offer "Common Sense" as the most common thing not in stock?

Perry

Larry Weingarten

Hi, I used to be unable to find anodes anywhere, so helped a friend start up an internet business selling anodes and such. Now I can always get them!

Yours, Larry

Gman66

Whats not in stock??? Eggs, Milk, Meat and Toilet Paper!! The residents of NJ have gone crazy with the pandemic. Stay safe folks.

MikeL_2

Finding those who possess & practice common sense is getting harder; I propose a name change to " uncommon sense ".

bob eck

Some on here say they are installing condensing combi boilers and heat only condensing boilers and you have trouble sourcing parts.
Is anyone that is installing combi boilers also installing a electric water heater. Combi boiler makes domestic hot water then dump it into the electric water heater. When the combi boiler goes down at least the home owner would still have hot domestic water for showering while you get parts to fix the combi boiler.

Some heating professionals prefer to put a boiler in with a indirect water heater. What happens when the boiler goes down the home owners is out of domestic hot water while the contractor finds parts to fix the boiler.

Does any indirect water heater manufacturer build a indirect water heater with electric elements as back up in 40 and 50 gallon sizes?

There are solar water heaters built with one coil and one element but the smallest size I believe is 65 gallon.

hot_rod

bob eck said:

Some on here say they are installing condensing combi boilers and heat only condensing boilers and you have trouble sourcing parts.

Is anyone that is installing combi boilers also installing a electric water heater. Combi boiler makes domestic hot water then dump it into the electric water heater. When the combi boiler goes down at least the home owner would still have hot domestic water for showering while you get parts to fix the combi boiler.



Some heating professionals prefer to put a boiler in with a indirect water heater. What happens when the boiler goes down the home owners is out of domestic hot water while the contractor finds parts to fix the boiler.



Does any indirect water heater manufacturer build a indirect water heater with electric elements as back up in 40 and 50 gallon sizes?



There are solar water heaters built with one coil and one element but the smallest size I believe is 65 gallon.

Yes it is a good idea when shopping indirects to buy one with the electric element installed. We still offer 50, 80 and 119 gallon. single, dual coil with or without element. I think most all the HW tank manufacturers have solar tanks available if you dig deep enough.
Same goes for buffer tanks, add an element for some backup source.

Ironman

hot_rod said:

bob eck said:

Some on here say they are installing condensing combi boilers and heat only condensing boilers and you have trouble sourcing parts.

Is anyone that is installing combi boilers also installing a electric water heater. Combi boiler makes domestic hot water then dump it into the electric water heater. When the combi boiler goes down at least the home owner would still have hot domestic water for showering while you get parts to fix the combi boiler.



Some heating professionals prefer to put a boiler in with a indirect water heater. What happens when the boiler goes down the home owners is out of domestic hot water while the contractor finds parts to fix the boiler.



Does any indirect water heater manufacturer build a indirect water heater with electric elements as back up in 40 and 50 gallon sizes?



There are solar water heaters built with one coil and one element but the smallest size I believe is 65 gallon.

Yes it is a good idea when shopping indirects to buy one with the electric element installed. We still offer 50, 80 and 119 gallon. single, dual coil with or without element. I think most all the HW tank manufacturers have solar tanks available if you dig deep enough.
Same goes for buffer tanks, add an element for some backup source.

This is a great idea and one that we've occasionally been able to impliment. The problem is this: it's usually too expensive to find/purchase an indirect with a back up element. I can buy an additional electric water heater for less than the indirect with a backup element. But doing that would unnecessarily complicate a system.

hot_rod

Menards shows an 80 Rheem Solaraide with element for less $ than the H Depot 45 SSU? I prefer glass lined tanks for DHW these days. Wholesaler prices may be better? Should be able to source that Rheem from any Rheem dealer.

Nice about the Rheem is the coil wraps on the outside, passes the double walled requirement, I think.

bob eck

Vaughn solar tank.

imagejpeg_0.jpg

hot_rod

In my area those older Vaughn or Ford cement lined tanks lasted 30 years. Is the quality and weight the same?

bob eck

http://www.vaughncorp.com/downloads/catalogs/solarbrochure.pdf

Here is the Vaughn Solar water heater.
One coil with one 4500 W element

unclejohn

@PerryHolzman Here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJPX2SpcCqw

PerryHolzman

@unclejohn

HomerJSmith