WILO Brain Box (ME)

Weezbo

Frontier Plumbing, one of our Home grown plumbing distributors just bought in a Group of Wilo and picked up the Caleffi line as well !

having it where it can be found in the next couple days might help get things across better than i could say it...

[Deleted User]

The Ultimate Technician Training Tool

Wallies, During our trip to WILO in Germany, we were introduced to a "tool" that the Germans are using to train Heitzen Techs in the field. It is known as the WILO Brain Box. It was developed in cooperation with WILO and one of the major universities over in Germany. We had the opportunity to see the actual unit in operation and were given a quick demonstration of its abilities. It was one of the most eye opening things I have ever seen, and I've been doing this for a third of a century now. And we only played with it for less than an hour!

It comes with a 3 ring binder, about 3" thick with different scenarios that the technicians are supposed to simulate with the device, and write down the results of their investigation, what they saw and what they did to correct it.

Briefly, it has two circulators on it, one a fixed speed circulator, and the other a variable spped circulator. It has a watt meter that can be switched between pumps to show current wattage consumption, two clear plastic flow meters, a horizonal air seperator and a vertical vortex style seperator along with numerous TRV's and an PAB, a clear see through expansion tank, and a hand operated charging pump/air compressor.

They take the technician through the whole process of filling, purging and pressurizing the system. THen they turn on the pumps and you can see the fluid and air going through the meters and seperators, and see the air being taken out of the system. Then you lower the pressure of the expansion tank and BOOM, the system becomes air locked, the pumps start cavitating, flow stops and the system gets REALLY noisy. Then you re-pressureize the system with the expansion tank and watch it clear up all over again. EXTREMELY graphic intervention...

There are diaphragmatic pressure differential gauges on the pumps to show the difference between the pumps, and what their power consumption is during various phases of operation.

This training tool wil be distributed throughout the US, and will be rotated between the various levels of distribution. Watch for it to show up at your favorite WILO pump dealer outlet.

One of my suggestions was to place large faced pressure meters around the loop so that the technicans can see the value of "pumping away" from the PONPC, and an easier way to move the PONPC from one side of the circulator to the other so the technician can see the results.

I also think it would be a great idea to put a clear glass "boiler" in the circuit so that the technican can watch micrbubble steam flash occuring at the heating elements interface to the fluid, using a simple 120 volt electric heating element.

As I said, it is THE BEST tool for training technicans I have ever seen. It allows them to actually "SEE" the net results of their actions, or inactions.

One heckuva pump company I'm telling ya...

ME

PS, I intentionally left the picture large so you could peruse the details. Sorry for the extended load time for you non cable folk, but I assure you it is worth the price of admission.

ME

Cosmo_3

Nice, vaaary nice

These are the concepts that are so hard to teach.

Wish I had something like this to play with when I was starting out.

Can't wait to see something like that here


Cosmo

rich pickering

Just like the one at B&G. :-)

Weezbo

Whews,....

B&G showed up with something of a similar nature a few years ago its main claim to fame was to show what was going on in a micro air absorber and one of its Huge mixer/LLH...that thing however, has a copuleafew more dials*~/:)

nice .

two taps comming and leaving a circ with pressure gages is about all the test equipment i have ever dealt with ...

the amp meter is a good thing... it tells another part of the story. i got to run....Glad to see your home and have some cool new gizmoes to open our perspectives ...thanks Mark, for all you do.

man i type slow...dambit...

Richard Mr. Pickering , do you have a relative from Bermuda? i played Mr.Pickering a couple games of dominoes

i promised to go set up a riello gotta go.

[Deleted User]

I seriously doubt that Rich...

They might have some sort of demonstrator, but it ain't NOTHING like this one.

What, are they keeping it a secret or something? :-)

ME

Mark Hunt

Ya' know


after a few seasons "in the field", it takes a bit to get the juices flowing. "Been there, seen that" becomes almost a mantra.

Wilo has some exciting things coming to an arena that has been anything BUT exciting.

Lord have mercy on the reps and suppliers that do not read the writing on The Wall.

For the record, I installed nothing but Taco for years.....GREAT company, GREAT pumps!. My needs changed and I went to Grundfos. GREAT company, GREAT pumps!

Wilo is coming to the market and they are NOT coming to play "even Steven". They are coming to make money by selling pumps. They want to sell more pumps than all the others. They have some WILD stuff!

It's gonna' get interesting pretty soon!

Mark H

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D107

How about taking these around to primary and secondary schools?

Elementary and HS kids would love this, would really inspire them. In a generation you'd have more wallies than you'd know what to do with. You could teach so many things besides heating with it. Could have ones for steam and FHA systems too.

[Deleted User]

Here Here!!

They are going to change the face of circulation COMPLETELY.

I have a lot of facts that I can not divulge...YET. But one tidbit of public infrmation I can share will shock most of the participants of the wall, except for possibly one. A recent survey of homeowners in Germany found that 95% of them has some sort of "issue" with thier hydronic heating system. These issues typically come from oversizing the circulators, system imbalance and other nagging problems.

Before you get your nose up in the air, the survey they did differs significantly from the one that was done here in North America, where it appeared that only 57% of the people polled were EXTREMELY unhappy with their heating system. I think that if the same question were asked of the people of North America, the results would probably be similar.

Sure shocked the wind out of us. I was under the impression that their systems were far superior to ours, and technically speaking, they are. But when it comes to the residential sector, there are no real "standards" of installation and it results in circulator oversizing, a lack of balancing causing velocity noises and discomfort due to imbalances.


Nice to know our country is not the only one that has to deal with hydronic bozo's...

But when Siggy showed the President of the North American Mexico (NAMEX) division the collection of pictures he has collected over the years of how NOT to do hydronics, he said if anyone in Germany tried pulling that crap that they would be SUED for the cost of reparation. Even though there is no "standard methodology" to the overall installation, there are some OBVIOUS standards the installers must comply to as it pertains to neatness, and order.

Here's a shot of one of the commercial buildings we toured.

Like nothing you've ever seen in North America...

ME

Kevin Koenig_2

I saw this in the mid 70's

It was somewhere in Ill! I think it was the Little Red School House, Yup. There is even a video with a glass Gill Carlson made spacificly to demonstrate these concepts that are so widely misunderstood.
I admire Wilos willingness to educate. However, my hats off to the late and great Gill Carlson and the Little Red School House for for making all ot this information available to all of us back in the 70's.
Just another German.

Christian Egli_2

Thanks for the tourism.

So, that's the machinery behind the scenes that makes the Niagara Falls urinal operate. Impressive. And I'm typing with both my hands

I'm not really surprised 95% of systems have issues. It's not easy getting hydronics all balanced out - the simple fact that every day of every year someone comes up with new and better devices, gadgets and software to smooth out the bumps only means there are lots of problems to solve.

Oversized pumps, I hear humming everywhere, oversized boilers crowd the basements everywhere and overheating makes you open the windows everywhere.

In those three aspects, I really do think (just from my anecdotal observations I've been fortunate to make) that the US market wastes much less fuel on home heating than Europeans do, this in spite of our much colder climate. Our habits of not keeping windows open in combination with low mass homes makes for energy efficiency. Trying to control temperature in a high mass building is a high stakes game, you gamble away a lot of your fuel betting on the wrong temperatures. Casino goers often forget tallying their investments while bragging about the big win - I've always thought there was a bit of that going on when sharing cross Atlantic opinions of home heating.

And those self inflicted problems account for the need for the neat gadgets you took pictures of for our pleasure. Thanks. The same applies to the self inflicted non taper-taper threaded pipe fittings and the need for all forms of fancy alternate joints. The same applies to cars and the self inflicted need for speed, gas guzzling and traffic jams. Grand complication is so typically European.

rich pickering

Jerry Boulanger from Axiom industries has a demo rig too. It is amazing to watch the flow reverse in a primary secondary connection. It's really cool to watch air bubbles move in clear pipe, or not move when the flow rate decreases. Move the PONPC to see what happens.

But the meters on Wilo's rig would be neat.

rich pickering

Sorry Weez, no relation.

hr

That Brain was at ISH

in Chicago this fall.

Switch the gauges to read in English units and it is ready for the road.

I suggested they take, at the Wilo booth it to every OWF manufacture to demonstrate NPSH concepts

hot rod

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[Deleted User]

I remember you talking about the 1 watt pump...

COOL technology...

Thanks HR. We missed ya.

ME