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0:08.0
0:14.7
Hello Scaling UP! nation Trace Blackmore
here your host for Scaling UP! h2o
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the podcast where we are for every water
treater how is everybody doing out there
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I am so excited to bring this show to
you
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Who am I kidding I am excited to bring
every show to you folks I love bringing
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Scaling UP!
h2o to you I especially love it when you
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0:40.9
let me know what you want me to talk
about when you do that it gives me show
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0:46.8
content and I can dive right into that
and that is what we are going to be
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0:53.5
doing today but before we start I
received so many comments about how
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1:00.2
people really appreciated me bringing to
them what is coming up in the world of
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1:07.4
water so we are in the month of November
oh my gosh can you believe yesterday was
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1:13.0
Halloween
where is 2019 going this year is flying
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1:20.1
by I hope you are enjoying your 2019 and
folks we are in the last quarter so I
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1:25.8
hope whatever goals that you have set
for yourself you are on track with and
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1:33.0
if you’re not don’t give up on them look
at them see what you can accomplish and
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1:38.8
folks if it was a good goal last year
for you to set for this year it’s going
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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
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1:57.1
trying to get the things that are
getting in your way of accomplishing
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2:03.6
what you said were important and you can
do that for the end of this fourth year
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2:08.6
quarter and next year when you start
planning you’re already ahead of the
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2:13.5
game because you
experience and you use that experience
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2:19.7
to help correct what was keeping you
from starting and now you can get
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2:24.1
started for those of you that are on
track awesome you just got two more
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2:29.4
months keep going and I love it that
we’re out there and we’re setting goals
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2:35.1
and when we set goals we’re measuring
things and when we measure things things
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2:40.5
naturally get better Peter Drucker said
that and just think about it when you
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2:45.7
are looking at things things get better
when you’re measuring things they just
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2:51.1
have a tendency to get better because
now we’re focusing on them when you go
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2:57.6
to a baseball game can you imagine not
keeping score what would you do with
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3:03.1
that baseball game how would you know
who was winning well folks look at your
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3:08.0
life that way look at your goals that
way how do you know that you are winning
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3:14.6
for a few things that are coming up in
November and people said that they
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3:19.2
really enjoyed the fact that I let them
know what was going on in the water
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3:27.5
world Aquatech is going on an Amsterdam
November 5th through 8th and the water
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3:33.1
and wastewater Equipment Manufacturers
Association is meaning November 6th
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through 8th in Arizona also the
international water conference is in
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Orlando Florida November 10th through
14th and folks yours truly is going to
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3:49.9
be there the fine people at the IWC
reached out to me and they wanted to
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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
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4:07.6
also get your calendars out the
association of water technologies
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technical training is going to be
February 26 through 29th in Seattle
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Washington and then again March 18th
through 21st in Cleveland Ohio
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folks you know I am one of the trainers
at these technical seminars I cannot
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4:36.5
imagine a better place for someone to go
to learn about industrial water
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4:41.8
treatment when I go to one of these
technical trainings and I have been
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4:47.6
going to just about every one of them
for the past 10 plus years I always come
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4:53.2
away with something now in the upcoming
episodes as we always do I’m gonna bring
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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
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5:12.0
to give me some show content so I don’t
run out of things to talk about and
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several of you have gone online to
Scaling UP! h2o com and left me a
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5:24.1
voicemail with your question well that’s
what we’re going to listen to right now
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5:30.2
I trace its atom sites from capital
technologies on time listener first-time
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5:45.3
caller first off congratulations on idea
boiler season is quickly approaching and
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5:50.4
every year it seems like we have a
couple of boilers that start rocking
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5:56.5
shut down on low water inevitably either
the customer or the boiler rep
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6:00.6
immediately unplugs the chemical pumps
and blames the water trigger
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6:05.0
understanding it sometimes it is a
chemical problem sometimes there are
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6:09.5
other factors at play just wondering if
you could maybe speak to both chemical
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6:14.8
and non-chemical contributors to this
scenario and while you’re at it maybe
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6:20.8
some tips on ways to resolve it Adam
thank you for that question there is
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6:27.3
just so much that’s running through my
mind when I think of how I can answer
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6:32.1
that question and the first thing I want
to say is I’m not there
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6:38.8
there is always a reason for everything
and the only thing that I can go off of
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6:43.9
our experiences that I have had in the
past so that’s what I’m going to do
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6:51.7
I hope those help you so with that I
just want to get into what happens when
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7:00.0
water is not at the proper level in the
boiler ie the boiler runs out of water
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7:06.0
now the boiler is a hot pressurized
vessel that has all of this heat in it
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7:12.6
that has nothing in it now or not enough
water for that heat to dissipate so it
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7:17.4
keeps getting hotter and hotter and
hotter and folks steel will eventually
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7:23.8
melt and that’s the metal that’s holding
that pressure in and then something very
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bad happens the boiler could explode my
dad used to call boiler explosions
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7:37.8
boiler room disturbances and he read
that at a report he was heated a lot of
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7:43.4
stuff on aircraft carriers and he did
stuff with the Navy and I don’t remember
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7:47.6
the exact story and I don’t know if he
ever told me the exact story but instead
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7:53.2
of saying a boiler exploded they said
that there was a minor boiler room
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7:58.0
disturbance well folks talk about an
understatement so my dad would jokingly
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8:02.4
talk about that’s what that was I guess
you had to be there but I wanted to
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share that story with you what Adam is
talking about is the operator comes in
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8:14.0
and he hears that low water alarm going
off and he has to then go and manually
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8:19.5
reset that and the boiler comes back on
and then he goes away and he comes back
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8:26.7
and he hears that alarm again those low
water cutoff switches are there so the
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8:32.5
boiler will not continue to run ie
produce heat so we have one of those
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8:38.1
boiler room disturbances that we were
just talking about now most operators
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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
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8:53.6
treatment and because they don’t
understand water treatment when in doubt
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9:00.0
they blame the water treater so what’s
happening here and I don’t know if it’s
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9:05.1
an issue with the products that we’re
using or another issue so from now on
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9:11.3
I’m just gonna speak generically many
operators do not understand water
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9:17.5
treatment and when in doubt they blame
the water treater but who can blame them
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9:24.6
they don’t understand because a lot of
us don’t explain what it is that we do
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9:29.8
now I’m not talking about you I’m
talking in general but a lot of
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9:36.3
operators just assume that this mystical
voodoo that’s happening over with a pump
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9:41.1
against the wall is causing their issue
because they don’t understand it to
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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
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9:57.5
those products to go into the system so
what we need to do is we need to
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10:05.3
understand more about what’s going on so
we can share that with the customer so
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10:11.1
let’s talk about water boiling when
water boils it forms bubbles and it does
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10:17.8
this because the vapor pressure equals
the atmospheric pressure this is why
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10:24.5
water boils at a lower temperature at
higher elevations in low solids water
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10:31.0
the bubbles can quickly break on the
surface however inversely in high solids
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10:37.7
water those bubbles can be allowed to
stack on each other and eventually if we
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10:43.4
were talking about a pot it would boil
over and if you’ve ever made spaghetti
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10:48.9
you probably seen this as we cook the
spaghetti the starches release that
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10:54.1
starch is higher solids it starts to
entrap those bubbles those bubble
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10:59.3
start to stack on each other and
eventually that pot starts boiling over
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11:03.9
we normally catch that because we hear
the hissing sound and we run over to the
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11:09.5
stove and we turn it down well if we
didn’t turn the stove down and just
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11:15.2
allowed it to continue to boil
eventually we would get low water in
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11:20.5
that pot just like we were talking about
with the boiler and we would then burn
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11:27.4
the spaghetti and we would also burn the
pot we need water in there to disperse
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11:35.7
the heat the same thing is happening in
boilers as soloff’s concentrate bubbles
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11:40.2
will stack on each other and they
continue to stack and continue to stack
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11:44.7
and eventually they can get sucked out
with the steam and I feel like I’m going
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11:50.0
all over the place now but now I want to
talk about wet steam whenever water goes
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11:57.1
out with the steam we do not have the
BTU the British thermal unit content
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12:00.7
that we need well what the heck am I
talking about folks that is the
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12:07.4
workhorse the BTUs is what is going out
there to do the work in whatever that
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12:15.1
steam needs to power now water on its
best day has a hundred and eighty BTUs
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12:22.1
in it steam on its worst day has eleven
hundred and fifty BTUs in it folks that
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12:28.6
is a huge difference and if we’re
getting water sucked out with our steam
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12:35.9
we just simply don’t have the BTUs to do
the work and as that water gets sucked
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12:43.3
out that can create a low water
situation also as all these bubbles are
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12:48.7
forming the probes can actually think
there’s more water than there really is
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12:55.8
and as a result make up water is not
sent into the boiler gradually and the
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13:00.3
make up valve starts calling for more
water and then that comes in but it’s
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13:06.3
too late the low
alarm comes on not to mention when a
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13:11.6
bunch of water rushes in that’s a lot
lower than the boiling temperature then
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13:17.3
we’re also reducing the amount of steam
that we can produce in the boiler so
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13:24.1
there’s a whole bunch of problems that
are going on now many operators think
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13:29.9
that high solids equal to many boiler
products if you’re in the South somebody
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13:33.0
will say there’s too many of them darn
chemicals in the boiler and it’s making
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13:37.0
the boiler go offline well maybe maybe
not
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13:42.4
I’ve said on several shows only pure
water evaporates leaving it’s solids
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13:48.5
behind so maybe it’s a blowdown problem
maybe it’s not a boiler chemical problem
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13:51.7
at all
too many operators don’t know how to
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13:59.9
properly blow the boiler down many think
that all they need to do is bottom blow
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14:05.8
the boiler well bottom blow is for
sludge control a lot of our programs
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14:12.0
produce a sludge and we don’t want those
to accumulate in the bottom of the
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14:19.0
boiler so what we do is we open up that
bottom blowdown to let the sludge out of
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14:24.8
the boiler but that is not conductivity
control bottom blow is for sludge
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14:32.6
control not conductivity control or
dissolve solids control for that we use
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14:39.9
surface blow that’s also called skimmer
blowdown we use that to gradually let
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14:46.5
the polluted water the high solids water
out so we can replenish it with lower
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14:51.3
solids make up water again another thing
we say on the show is the solution to
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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
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15:10.1
seen I would say hundreds of ways that
people blow a boiler down now if you
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15:14.7
were to look up the best way to blow a
boiler down
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15:19.3
and we’re talking about bottom blow here
we want to make sure that the feedwater
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15:25.4
pump is off that means that the boiler
is satisfied because we don’t want the
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15:30.7
boiler to go off on low water while
we’re blowing the boiler down now we
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15:37.2
have two types of Valve’s on that bottom
blowdown we have a quick or sometimes
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15:42.5
called a knife valve and then we have a
slow or a gate valve so two different
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15:48.5
types with two different names so either
a quick or a knife or a gate or a slow
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15:55.5
so this is what you do you open the
quick and then you open the slow and you
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16:02.7
time how long the blowdown is and then
you close the slow and if you need to
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16:07.8
repeat that you would reopen the slow
for however much time you need and then
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16:13.4
close it once you’re done you’re then
going to close the quick or the knife
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16:20.4
valve now in between each time you open
up the slow valve you want to make sure
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16:25.7
that the feed water pump has turned off
because when you blow the boiler down
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16:30.9
you’re going to hear that it’s calling
for water so let that feed water pump
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16:37.7
make up what is in the boiler and be
satisfied before you start your next
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16:44.1
series of blow downs and you might have
three different series where you’re
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16:49.8
going to open up the slow let it blow
down for so many seconds and then close
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16:54.9
it wait for the feed water pump to come
on and then turn off and then you’re
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16:59.9
going to do that again maybe two three
or four times now you should log this
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17:06.3
and so should the operators when you
start keeping things in a log you can
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17:10.8
track it and we talked about how when
you measure things they naturally get
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17:17.5
better well folks make sure you’re on
the same page come up with a procedure
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17:23.4
on how everybody needs to blow the
boiler
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17:28.8
and now when you need to make a
suggestion you can use not only that
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17:33.3
procedure but the log to make
adjustments in what your recommendations
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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
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17:48.2
bursts alright was my five seconds
longer or shorter than the operators
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17:53.3
five seconds I don’t know how do we
define that in our procedures as it’s
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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
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18:13.3
a word whatever you do it doesn’t matter
make sure you are consistent and then
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18:19.0
when you’re having issues when things
are too high or things are too low when
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18:24.5
you’re not getting the results that you
need you can go back and you can change
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18:30.4
those procedures and now everybody is
falling in line nine times out of ten
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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