Scaling UP! H2O

110 Transcript

The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.

0:08.0

0:14.7
Hello Scaling UP! nation Trace Blackmore
here your host for Scaling UP! h2o
0:14.7

0:20.8
the podcast where we are for every water
treater how is everybody doing out there
0:20.8

0:24.5
I am so excited to bring this show to
you
0:24.5

0:30.4
Who am I kidding I am excited to bring
every show to you folks I love bringing
0:30.4

0:34.6
Scaling UP!
h2o to you I especially love it when you
0:34.6

0:40.9
let me know what you want me to talk
about when you do that it gives me show
0:40.9

0:46.8
content and I can dive right into that
and that is what we are going to be
0:46.8

0:53.5
doing today but before we start I
received so many comments about how
0:53.5

1:00.2
people really appreciated me bringing to
them what is coming up in the world of
1:00.2

1:07.4
water so we are in the month of November
oh my gosh can you believe yesterday was
1:07.4

1:13.0
Halloween
where is 2019 going this year is flying
1:13.0

1:20.1
by I hope you are enjoying your 2019 and
folks we are in the last quarter so I
1:20.1

1:25.8
hope whatever goals that you have set
for yourself you are on track with and
1:25.8

1:33.0
if you’re not don’t give up on them look
at them see what you can accomplish and
1:33.0

1:38.8
folks if it was a good goal last year
for you to set for this year it’s going
1:38.8

1:44.9
to be a good goal for next year if you
haven’t done everything that you need to
1:44.9

1:53.4
do up to this point then figure out what
is in your way and work on that work on
1:53.4

1:57.1
trying to get the things that are
getting in your way of accomplishing
1:57.1

2:03.6
what you said were important and you can
do that for the end of this fourth year
2:03.6

2:08.6
quarter and next year when you start
planning you’re already ahead of the
2:08.6

2:13.5
game because you
experience and you use that experience
2:13.5

2:19.7
to help correct what was keeping you
from starting and now you can get
2:19.7

2:24.1
started for those of you that are on
track awesome you just got two more
2:24.1

2:29.4
months keep going and I love it that
we’re out there and we’re setting goals
2:29.4

2:35.1
and when we set goals we’re measuring
things and when we measure things things
2:35.1

2:40.5
naturally get better Peter Drucker said
that and just think about it when you
2:40.5

2:45.7
are looking at things things get better
when you’re measuring things they just
2:45.7

2:51.1
have a tendency to get better because
now we’re focusing on them when you go
2:51.1

2:57.6
to a baseball game can you imagine not
keeping score what would you do with
2:57.6

3:03.1
that baseball game how would you know
who was winning well folks look at your
3:03.1

3:08.0
life that way look at your goals that
way how do you know that you are winning
3:08.0

3:14.6
for a few things that are coming up in
November and people said that they
3:14.6

3:19.2
really enjoyed the fact that I let them
know what was going on in the water
3:19.2

3:27.5
world Aquatech is going on an Amsterdam
November 5th through 8th and the water
3:27.5

3:33.1
and wastewater Equipment Manufacturers
Association is meaning November 6th
3:33.1

3:37.8
through 8th in Arizona also the
international water conference is in
3:37.8

3:44.6
Orlando Florida November 10th through
14th and folks yours truly is going to
3:44.6

3:49.9
be there the fine people at the IWC
reached out to me and they wanted to
3:49.9

3:57.2
make sure that Scaling UP! h2o was there
so you can see what happens at an
3:57.2

4:02.9
international water conference so I’m
going to be bringing that to you shortly
4:02.9

4:07.6
also get your calendars out the
association of water technologies
4:07.6

4:14.5
technical training is going to be
February 26 through 29th in Seattle
4:14.5

4:21.6
Washington and then again March 18th
through 21st in Cleveland Ohio
4:21.6

4:27.8
folks you know I am one of the trainers
at these technical seminars I cannot
4:27.8

4:36.5
imagine a better place for someone to go
to learn about industrial water
4:36.5

4:41.8
treatment when I go to one of these
technical trainings and I have been
4:41.8

4:47.6
going to just about every one of them
for the past 10 plus years I always come
4:47.6

4:53.2
away with something now in the upcoming
episodes as we always do I’m gonna bring
4:53.2

4:59.3
you some more insider information about
the technical trainings and I hope to
4:59.3

5:05.4
see you there I think it’s just about
every single episode I ask for your help
5:05.4

5:12.0
to give me some show content so I don’t
run out of things to talk about and
5:12.0

5:18.7
several of you have gone online to
Scaling UP! h2o com and left me a
5:18.7

5:24.1
voicemail with your question well that’s
what we’re going to listen to right now
5:24.1

5:30.2
I trace its atom sites from capital
technologies on time listener first-time
5:30.2

5:45.3
caller first off congratulations on idea
boiler season is quickly approaching and
5:45.3

5:50.4
every year it seems like we have a
couple of boilers that start rocking
5:50.4

5:56.5
shut down on low water inevitably either
the customer or the boiler rep
5:56.5

6:00.6
immediately unplugs the chemical pumps
and blames the water trigger
6:00.6

6:05.0
understanding it sometimes it is a
chemical problem sometimes there are
6:05.0

6:09.5
other factors at play just wondering if
you could maybe speak to both chemical
6:09.5

6:14.8
and non-chemical contributors to this
scenario and while you’re at it maybe
6:14.8

6:20.8
some tips on ways to resolve it Adam
thank you for that question there is
6:20.8

6:27.3
just so much that’s running through my
mind when I think of how I can answer
6:27.3

6:32.1
that question and the first thing I want
to say is I’m not there
6:32.1

6:38.8
there is always a reason for everything
and the only thing that I can go off of
6:38.8

6:43.9
our experiences that I have had in the
past so that’s what I’m going to do
6:43.9

6:51.7
I hope those help you so with that I
just want to get into what happens when
6:51.7

7:00.0
water is not at the proper level in the
boiler ie the boiler runs out of water
7:00.0

7:06.0
now the boiler is a hot pressurized
vessel that has all of this heat in it
7:06.0

7:12.6
that has nothing in it now or not enough
water for that heat to dissipate so it
7:12.6

7:17.4
keeps getting hotter and hotter and
hotter and folks steel will eventually
7:17.4

7:23.8
melt and that’s the metal that’s holding
that pressure in and then something very
7:23.8

7:31.8
bad happens the boiler could explode my
dad used to call boiler explosions
7:31.8

7:37.8
boiler room disturbances and he read
that at a report he was heated a lot of
7:37.8

7:43.4
stuff on aircraft carriers and he did
stuff with the Navy and I don’t remember
7:43.4

7:47.6
the exact story and I don’t know if he
ever told me the exact story but instead
7:47.6

7:53.2
of saying a boiler exploded they said
that there was a minor boiler room
7:53.2

7:58.0
disturbance well folks talk about an
understatement so my dad would jokingly
7:58.0

8:02.4
talk about that’s what that was I guess
you had to be there but I wanted to
8:02.4

8:07.8
share that story with you what Adam is
talking about is the operator comes in
8:07.8

8:14.0
and he hears that low water alarm going
off and he has to then go and manually
8:14.0

8:19.5
reset that and the boiler comes back on
and then he goes away and he comes back
8:19.5

8:26.7
and he hears that alarm again those low
water cutoff switches are there so the
8:26.7

8:32.5
boiler will not continue to run ie
produce heat so we have one of those
8:32.5

8:38.1
boiler room disturbances that we were
just talking about now most operators
8:38.1

8:41.0
and I say most because you might be an
operator out there and you wonder
8:41.0

8:47.9
stand water treatment to its fullest but
most operators don’t understand water
8:47.9

8:53.6
treatment and because they don’t
understand water treatment when in doubt
8:53.6

9:00.0
they blame the water treater so what’s
happening here and I don’t know if it’s
9:00.0

9:05.1
an issue with the products that we’re
using or another issue so from now on
9:05.1

9:11.3
I’m just gonna speak generically many
operators do not understand water
9:11.3

9:17.5
treatment and when in doubt they blame
the water treater but who can blame them
9:17.5

9:24.6
they don’t understand because a lot of
us don’t explain what it is that we do
9:24.6

9:29.8
now I’m not talking about you I’m
talking in general but a lot of
9:29.8

9:36.3
operators just assume that this mystical
voodoo that’s happening over with a pump
9:36.3

9:41.1
against the wall is causing their issue
because they don’t understand it to
9:41.1

9:46.4
begin with so why not go ahead and
unplug it now those of us that are in
9:46.4

9:51.0
the know realized that they’re actually
creating further damage by not allowing
9:51.0

9:57.5
those products to go into the system so
what we need to do is we need to
9:57.5

10:05.3
understand more about what’s going on so
we can share that with the customer so
10:05.3

10:11.1
let’s talk about water boiling when
water boils it forms bubbles and it does
10:11.1

10:17.8
this because the vapor pressure equals
the atmospheric pressure this is why
10:17.8

10:24.5
water boils at a lower temperature at
higher elevations in low solids water
10:24.5

10:31.0
the bubbles can quickly break on the
surface however inversely in high solids
10:31.0

10:37.7
water those bubbles can be allowed to
stack on each other and eventually if we
10:37.7

10:43.4
were talking about a pot it would boil
over and if you’ve ever made spaghetti
10:43.4

10:48.9
you probably seen this as we cook the
spaghetti the starches release that
10:48.9

10:54.1
starch is higher solids it starts to
entrap those bubbles those bubble
10:54.1

10:59.3
start to stack on each other and
eventually that pot starts boiling over
10:59.3

11:03.9
we normally catch that because we hear
the hissing sound and we run over to the
11:03.9

11:09.5
stove and we turn it down well if we
didn’t turn the stove down and just
11:09.5

11:15.2
allowed it to continue to boil
eventually we would get low water in
11:15.2

11:20.5
that pot just like we were talking about
with the boiler and we would then burn
11:20.5

11:27.4
the spaghetti and we would also burn the
pot we need water in there to disperse
11:27.4

11:35.7
the heat the same thing is happening in
boilers as soloff’s concentrate bubbles
11:35.7

11:40.2
will stack on each other and they
continue to stack and continue to stack
11:40.2

11:44.7
and eventually they can get sucked out
with the steam and I feel like I’m going
11:44.7

11:50.0
all over the place now but now I want to
talk about wet steam whenever water goes
11:50.0

11:57.1
out with the steam we do not have the
BTU the British thermal unit content
11:57.1

12:00.7
that we need well what the heck am I
talking about folks that is the
12:00.7

12:07.4
workhorse the BTUs is what is going out
there to do the work in whatever that
12:07.4

12:15.1
steam needs to power now water on its
best day has a hundred and eighty BTUs
12:15.1

12:22.1
in it steam on its worst day has eleven
hundred and fifty BTUs in it folks that
12:22.1

12:28.6
is a huge difference and if we’re
getting water sucked out with our steam
12:28.6

12:35.9
we just simply don’t have the BTUs to do
the work and as that water gets sucked
12:35.9

12:43.3
out that can create a low water
situation also as all these bubbles are
12:43.3

12:48.7
forming the probes can actually think
there’s more water than there really is
12:48.7

12:55.8
and as a result make up water is not
sent into the boiler gradually and the
12:55.8

13:00.3
make up valve starts calling for more
water and then that comes in but it’s
13:00.3

13:06.3
too late the low
alarm comes on not to mention when a
13:06.3

13:11.6
bunch of water rushes in that’s a lot
lower than the boiling temperature then
13:11.6

13:17.3
we’re also reducing the amount of steam
that we can produce in the boiler so
13:17.3

13:24.1
there’s a whole bunch of problems that
are going on now many operators think
13:24.1

13:29.9
that high solids equal to many boiler
products if you’re in the South somebody
13:29.9

13:33.0
will say there’s too many of them darn
chemicals in the boiler and it’s making
13:33.0

13:37.0
the boiler go offline well maybe maybe
not
13:37.0

13:42.4
I’ve said on several shows only pure
water evaporates leaving it’s solids
13:42.4

13:48.5
behind so maybe it’s a blowdown problem
maybe it’s not a boiler chemical problem
13:48.5

13:51.7
at all
too many operators don’t know how to
13:51.7

13:59.9
properly blow the boiler down many think
that all they need to do is bottom blow
13:59.9

14:05.8
the boiler well bottom blow is for
sludge control a lot of our programs
14:05.8

14:12.0
produce a sludge and we don’t want those
to accumulate in the bottom of the
14:12.0

14:19.0
boiler so what we do is we open up that
bottom blowdown to let the sludge out of
14:19.0

14:24.8
the boiler but that is not conductivity
control bottom blow is for sludge
14:24.8

14:32.6
control not conductivity control or
dissolve solids control for that we use
14:32.6

14:39.9
surface blow that’s also called skimmer
blowdown we use that to gradually let
14:39.9

14:46.5
the polluted water the high solids water
out so we can replenish it with lower
14:46.5

14:51.3
solids make up water again another thing
we say on the show is the solution to
14:51.3

14:56.8
pollution is dilution and that’s what we
are doing there so maybe we’re not
14:56.8

15:02.3
blowing the boiler down correctly I’ve
worked with a lot of operators and I’ve
15:02.3

15:10.1
seen I would say hundreds of ways that
people blow a boiler down now if you
15:10.1

15:14.7
were to look up the best way to blow a
boiler down
15:14.7

15:19.3
and we’re talking about bottom blow here
we want to make sure that the feedwater
15:19.3

15:25.4
pump is off that means that the boiler
is satisfied because we don’t want the
15:25.4

15:30.7
boiler to go off on low water while
we’re blowing the boiler down now we
15:30.7

15:37.2
have two types of Valve’s on that bottom
blowdown we have a quick or sometimes
15:37.2

15:42.5
called a knife valve and then we have a
slow or a gate valve so two different
15:42.5

15:48.5
types with two different names so either
a quick or a knife or a gate or a slow
15:48.5

15:55.5
so this is what you do you open the
quick and then you open the slow and you
15:55.5

16:02.7
time how long the blowdown is and then
you close the slow and if you need to
16:02.7

16:07.8
repeat that you would reopen the slow
for however much time you need and then
16:07.8

16:13.4
close it once you’re done you’re then
going to close the quick or the knife
16:13.4

16:20.4
valve now in between each time you open
up the slow valve you want to make sure
16:20.4

16:25.7
that the feed water pump has turned off
because when you blow the boiler down
16:25.7

16:30.9
you’re going to hear that it’s calling
for water so let that feed water pump
16:30.9

16:37.7
make up what is in the boiler and be
satisfied before you start your next
16:37.7

16:44.1
series of blow downs and you might have
three different series where you’re
16:44.1

16:49.8
going to open up the slow let it blow
down for so many seconds and then close
16:49.8

16:54.9
it wait for the feed water pump to come
on and then turn off and then you’re
16:54.9

16:59.9
going to do that again maybe two three
or four times now you should log this
16:59.9

17:06.3
and so should the operators when you
start keeping things in a log you can
17:06.3

17:10.8
track it and we talked about how when
you measure things they naturally get
17:10.8

17:17.5
better well folks make sure you’re on
the same page come up with a procedure
17:17.5

17:23.4
on how everybody needs to blow the
boiler
17:23.4

17:28.8
and now when you need to make a
suggestion you can use not only that
17:28.8

17:33.3
procedure but the log to make
adjustments in what your recommendations
17:33.3

17:37.5
are going to be now something that I
have seen is how long do you blow the
17:37.5

17:42.4
boiler down for oh well five-second
burst maybe we do three five second
17:42.4

17:48.2
bursts alright was my five seconds
longer or shorter than the operators
17:48.2

17:53.3
five seconds I don’t know how do we
define that in our procedures as it’s
17:53.3

17:59.6
just simply counting one two three four
five or are we gonna count Mississippi
17:59.6

18:04.5
one Mississippi two Mississippi three
Mississippi didn’t know Mississippi was
18:04.5

18:13.3
a word whatever you do it doesn’t matter
make sure you are consistent and then
18:13.3

18:19.0
when you’re having issues when things
are too high or things are too low when
18:19.0

18:24.5
you’re not getting the results that you
need you can go back and you can change
18:24.5

18:30.4
those procedures and now everybody is
falling in line nine times out of ten
18:30.4

18:36.8
when I have an issue that’s blamed on
too much of them they’re chemicals you
18:36.8

18:42.1
got too much of those chemicals and the
boiler it is not an issue with too much
18:42.1

18:49.3
chemicals in the boiler it’s improper
blowdown so Adam I don’t know if that’s
18:49.3

18:55.5
the issue that you are having but I have
seen that so many times
18:55.5

19:01.6
another issue that I’ve seen that if the
boiler is not big enough for the system
19:01.6

19:10.5
that it’s on and it can’t supply all the
steam that it needs now let me paint
19:10.5

19:14.9
this picture for you I remember a plant
that I was working on and everything was
19:14.9

19:21.7
working perfectly for years and then all
of a sudden it started going off on low
19:21.7

19:25.6
water well of course it was a problem
with
19:25.6

19:32.3
their boiler chemicals won’t know it
wasn’t what was happening was they
19:32.3

19:37.4
actually did two things they added some
equipment and they were running the
19:37.4

19:43.3
equipment that they had a lot harder
than they had done in the past their
19:43.3

19:48.1
business was doing great they had to
make more of their widgets because
19:48.1

19:53.1
people were buying the widgets but they
didn’t consider the boiler that was
19:53.1

19:59.5
powering all those widget machines so
now all these machines are calling for
19:59.5

20:06.2
steam at the same time and the boiler
just simply cannot keep up well what
20:06.2

20:12.3
happens back in the boiler itself is a
vacuum is created and that vacuum will
20:12.3

20:19.7
actually start to suck up water into the
steam line and eventually it would go
20:19.7

20:24.4
off on low water alarm now a couple of
things there that we already know if
20:24.4

20:30.9
it’s sucking water up instead of steam
we don’t have the BTU content to operate
20:30.9

20:36.8
the equipment and the equipment is the
reason that that problem is happening
20:36.8

20:44.3
they have too much going on therefore
that boiler now that wasn’t a chemical
20:44.3

20:49.4
problem at all that was an operation
problem so here’s what I’m talking about
20:49.4

20:56.5
when there’s a quick and sudden demand
of steam a vacuum is formed that will
20:56.5

21:02.4
suck water out of the boiler now
sometimes you’ll see this in the SCI
21:02.4

21:07.9
class and you might call this surging
and that surging will eventually trip
21:07.9

21:13.6
the low water cutoff and I can’t tell
you how many times I have seen something
21:13.6

21:19.7
like that happen where again they want
to blame boiler products well it’s not
21:19.7

21:25.8
the boiler products it’s how the system
is being used and the most common place
21:25.8

21:33.9
that I have seen this type of use is in
breweries I have a lot of breweries that
21:33.9

21:36.8
we take care of
I tell you who doesn’t love breweries
21:36.8

21:43.2
breweries are just fun beers awesome and
so are the people that make those brews
21:43.2

21:48.9
it’s just a fun place to be
well I have noticed that the practice
21:48.9

21:55.5
that they use is they only turn the
boiler on when they need it
21:55.5

22:00.0
and that means that they’ve done all of
these things in the background and all
22:00.0

22:05.1
of these pieces of equipment are sitting
there waiting on the boiler and then
22:05.1

22:10.1
they start the boiler up well folks that
creates that vacuum situation that we
22:10.1

22:15.6
were talking about now because I
understand those systems what I’ve been
22:15.6

22:22.3
able to do is work with those Brewers
and we came up with procedures on how
22:22.3

22:29.1
they’re gonna start the boiler first get
the boiler to start producing steam and
22:29.1

22:34.8
then they gradually bring on that
equipment again it was a no Kanaka
22:34.8

22:42.3
problem it was an operational problem
and because I understood how the things
22:42.3

22:47.7
worked that they were trying to get
working from the steam we were able to
22:47.7

22:54.0
come up with that procedure and
eliminate that issue so I said before a
22:54.0

23:00.3
lot of people think when in doubt blame
the water treater and I love to joke
23:00.3

23:05.7
about that but think about what’s
happening there’s so many water treaters
23:05.7

23:12.5
out there that don’t understand the
equipment that they are treating as well
23:12.5

23:18.4
as they need to now J farmerie taught me
that we’re not water treaters we might
23:18.4

23:23.8
call ourselves water treaters but we’re
equipment readers and if we don’t
23:23.8

23:28.7
understand the equipment that we are
treating we could not do our job to the
23:28.7

23:35.3
best of our ability and of course J was
just recently a guest on episode 93 and
23:35.3

23:44.0
94 I hope that Adams question has
inspired you to learn the equipment that
23:44.0

23:50.5
you’re treating a little bit
and don’t go to war with the people that
23:50.5

23:56.3
are operating the equipment that we are
hired to treat. Try to understand the
23:56.3

24:00.6
equipment better and folks if you
already understand the equipment share
24:00.6

24:05.4
that knowledge with the people that are
going to be there operating the
24:05.4

24:12.5
equipment each and every day when you
are working together I promise it is
24:12.5

24:18.9
going to be so much easier to run your
program in fact I don’t think you can
24:18.9

24:23.8
run a program without the cooperation of
the people that are there each and every
24:23.8

24:28.5
day you know I started thinking what are
some of the other reasons that low water
24:28.5

24:32.7
cutoff could happen and of course the
ones that come to mind or you know if
24:32.7

24:38.1
pede water pump could fail one of the
control valves could fail as well I’ve
24:38.1

24:43.7
seen safety valves or Popoff valve start
leaking I’ve also seen corroded feed
24:43.7

24:49.4
water line and now the boiler cannot
make the water up fast enough because
24:49.4

24:55.4
there’s no room for the water it’s all
corroded so my advice is if you are
24:55.4

25:00.2
having a problem like this again try to
learn as much as you can and you’re
25:00.2

25:04.5
probably not going to be able to do it
and a half an hour service visit so
25:04.5

25:10.4
however long it takes you to get the
information that you need to solve the
25:10.4

25:15.1
problem and maybe that does include the
logs that we’re talking about maybe that
25:15.1

25:22.3
includes a visit in between your regular
visits so you can see a particular shift
25:22.3

25:28.1
that you normally don’t see when you
service when you understand how the
25:28.1

25:33.5
equipment is being used you will be
better equipped to solve the problem
25:33.5

25:39.8
well folks maybe you have a question
that you want to ask on Scaling UP! h2o
25:39.8

25:45.1
so if you want to do that and I
encourage you to do that very thing go
25:45.1

25:51.9
to Scaling UP! h2o dot-com and you will
see a box pop up on the right-hand side
25:51.9

25:58.3
you can click that and whatever device
you are on you can record a voicemail
25:58.3

26:05.5
well folks you know one of my favorite
tools is audible audible allows me to
26:05.5

26:12.6
read when I don’t have time to read and
I tried to read a lot so I can have
26:12.6

26:18.4
plenty of information to bring to you on
Scaling UP! h2o now if you want to try
26:18.4

26:23.9
audible I can give you a free month and
a free book by simply going to Scaling UP!
26:23.9

26:31.8
h2o com forward slash audible and the
fine folks at audible will pay me a
26:31.8

26:38.4
slight Commission that won’t cost you a
dime just for you signing up for that
26:38.4

26:44.3
service well folks I hope you enjoyed
today’s episode of Scaling UP! h2o and I
26:44.3

26:50.6
can’t wait to come to you next week or
we’re gonna have another great show have
26:50.6

26:53.5
a great week folks

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