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[Music]
welcome to scaling up the podcast for
water treatise by water traders where
we’re scaling up on water treatment
knowledge so we don’t scale up our
systems everybody on trace Blackmore and
again I want to thank you I am amazed at
how many water treaters out there
actually thinks this show is good what’s
wrong with you people
hey I’m glad you had bad taste because
I’m having the time of my life doing
this I really enjoy talking about what
we do in an industry I really enjoy the
fact that you guys like it do you like
the format you see you’re saying that
you enjoy going to your accounts and
having this to listen as you’re driving
in traffic boy do I hate traffic that’ll
be a boiling point later but I just want
Service Report
to say keep your comments coming let me
know what you want to talk about and I
really appreciate all the positive
feedback and even the negative feedback
that I’ve gotten back to everything I
learned I can get better so thank you
please keep it coming I really enjoy
doing it and today we’re gonna bring the
catalyst back and of course the catalyst
and chemistry is something that we put
in to speed up a reaction and the
reaction that I’m hoping to get out of
you is that you think about what you’re
doing and you might make a little change
so you can be a better water trader
tomorrow than you are today so today on
the catalyst we’re gonna talk about this
service report and the service report is
an instrument that could possibly end up
in court someday I don’t know if you’ve
ever thought about it that way but it is
the legal document that shows what you
did and folks if you did something but
you didn’t write it down guess what you
didn’t do it it doesn’t matter if you
told somebody it doesn’t matter if you
emailed something well you might be able
to prove an email but if you’re doing a
service report too why not put
everything in the service report why
would you ever want to look at fifteen
different locations to find out
something about an account so write
everything down that happens on the
service report in previous shows I
lament
to how a service should go I said that
you know most of us service out of our
test kit and then when we’re done
running our pinks and blues we simply
pack up and we leave please don’t
service like that if you service like
that do me a favor call me let me know
where your accounts are and I’ll come
and tell your clients how you should be
servicing and I’ll get all that business
of course I’m not going to do that and I
know you’re not going to give me their
information but do a better job
servicing and especially in the service
report if you’re not doing that already
for those of you that are great but I
still think you might be able to learn
something by listening to today’s
episode so let’s talk about the service
that’s eventually going to get
documented in our service report we
enter on-site I recommend you write down
exactly the time it is when you arrived
if something were ever to happen and you
needed to prove when you got there or
prove that you weren’t there during a
certain time always record the time you
arrive and the time you leave so let’s
talk about all the stuff that happens in
between so when you get there put your
test kit down don’t start opening up
your test kit right off the bat
put your test kit down and use your
powers of observation to figure out what
happened
since the last time that you were there
so you’re going to you’re gonna find a
spot to put your test kit you’re gonna
walk around the room and you’re gonna be
looking is anything different does
everything look exactly the same as it
did last time if it doesn’t what’s
different what could have happened to
make it different you’re gonna make your
way over to the cooling tower controller
and you’re gonna look at it you’re gonna
okay I know from the last visit to this
visit I should have pumped this much
product well look at your drums did you
pump that much product if you pumped way
more that’s going to tell you something
about that service if you pump less
that’s gonna tell you something look at
the conductivity controller is it about
in range is there water coming out of
the bleed
Illinois bow and it’s not calling for a
bleed hmm that might be a problem by the
way your conductivity is pretty low if
that’s what’s going on but my point is
you’re looking at all these things you
haven’t taken your first sample yet
you’re trying to allow that mechanical
room to tell you what’s going on and by
the way if you can talk to somebody that
actually works there every single day
since you haven’t been there in a
month’s time even better hey George what
happened since the last time that I was
here oh you got a brand new cooling
tower well that’s really good
information hopefully they let you know
about that in advance but sometimes that
doesn’t happen but that also lets that
guy know that you are there for them and
they’re letting you know what’s happened
since the last visit so then we figure
out what’s going on I’ve said on earlier
shows that were forming that hypothesis
we think we have a pretty good idea of
what’s going on in the system now it’s
time to collect data we’re gonna grab
all of our samples we’re gonna set up
our test kit and we’re going to run our
tests we’re gonna run every single
system and hopefully by now you’re
thinking about am i testing every single
system am i testing the water from its
starting point to its final point so I
can tell what’s going on in the systems
and are you running your tests in the
most efficient manner that you can so
you’re not spending the bulk of your
time running your tests you’re spending
the bulk of your time making sure that
that account is the best it could
possibly be so now we’re gonna get all
of our test information and that test is
going to tell us whether we were right
or whether we were wrong of course as
we’re doing this we’re recording
everything down in the service report so
if we talk to somebody that’s in the
service report if we notice something
was not the way it should we put that in
the service report as we did all of our
tests we wrote all of those down
they were out of range we noted that if
they were in range we noted that so now
we’re to the point where we need to make
a decision on what we’re going to do do
we need to replenish product do we need
to prime some pumps do we need to
calibrate some equipment do we need to
clean some probes do we need to I don’t
know whatever it is now’s the time to do
that and we’re going to do all these
items now maybe there’s something that
we can’t do we need our customers help
with we’re going to note that this is
the issue this is what needs to be done
this is how you can help me and by the
way this is what it’s costing you until
you get it fixed if you can assign a
dollar amount to something your
customers are going to help you help
them fix their problems all of this is
getting written down on the service
report my preference is that you go over
that service report each and every time
with your customer allow that to be a
therapy session with you and your
customer so they can appreciate all the
hard work that you do and my suggestion
is that you get them to sign that
service report whether it’s electronic
whether you’re still using some of the
some of the paper versions whatever it
is then you’re going to take care of it
you’re gonna make sure it gets filed
properly so if you ever need to recall
it you can do that and by the way a
great time to recall it is while you’re
getting ready to service the next month
hey what happened last month let me
refresh my memory oh yeah that’s right I
needed to bring 20 feet of tubing
because I was going to retube one of the
pumps well if you didn’t review that
you’ll win all the way to the account
you say oh no I forgot to bring that
tubing I’ll do it next month and how
many months is that going to take place
until it actually gets done and then
your competitor comes in and sees that
that tubing is leaking they say that’s
not safe
fix that right now because I’ve got that
on my truck and that account is
vulnerable so the service report could
be and is a legal document it’s a tool
for us to prove our value to our
customer it’s a tool for us to make sure
we’re constantly improving that account
and not having to go back on needless
trips because we’re prepared on the next
visit I hope you’re using the service
report the way it should be written I I
can’t tell you this isn’t a boiling
point session but I will tell you that
one of the issues that I have when I
look at other company service reports is
when I see everything looks fine folks
I’m gonna tell you nothing ever looks
fine
if the water treated itself there would
be no reason for any of us to have a job
it looks fine because you didn’t look
hard enough to find what you could do to
improve that system take every
opportunity that you have at that
account to get that account a little bit
better and you better write it down in
the service report because just as I
said if you didn’t write it down it
didn’t happen the next time you write a
service report I hope you think about
all these things and I hope that the
service report you write tomorrow was
better than the one you wrote today our
Pinks and Blues
next section is pinks and blues and
pinks and blues we haven’t done a couple
episodes I’ve gotten some questions but
I was waiting for me to get a good
variety of questions so I could have a
have a good a good spread if you will so
these are questions that you have
written to me and just wanted an answer
to
so I promise that I’m not going to use
your name so you can ask me whatever you
want you don’t ever have to worry about
being embarrassed you don’t have to
worry about somebody saying I wish I
knew where that guy’s account was
because I want to go after that I’m
never gonna do that to you so let me
know what you want to talk about we’re
going to
talk about it right here on scaling up
so our first question is somebody asked
what is the best conductivity meter for
them to use best is one of those worse
that I really don’t know how to answer
because the best is whatever fits your
situation so is it is it you know is it
compact enough for you is it is it
robust enough does it have the
functionalities that you need is it
maybe you need waterproof maybe DEET
shockproof these sort of things I really
can’t answer best that’s a question
you’re gonna have to answer but I can
tell you what meter that I use and I
will tell you we’ve tried a lot hi I’m a
gadget guy when something new comes out
I always want to give it a try I’ve got
a bunch of things that I don’t use
because of that I’m trying to cut down
on that in fact maybe Blackmore
Enterprises needs to have a yard sale
for water treatment equipment to get rid
of some of the stuff that we have that
it’s good we’ve just decided that we
liked other things better so maybe we’ll
have a scaling up sale sometime I’m just
kidding
but that being said I’ve always come
back to the Myron l6p series and that
one does pH and conductivity and a bunch
of other things very robust if you take
care of it the probes do last a long
time and it’s a little expensive but if
you really look at the service time that
we get out of ours and how well it works
with how we work I don’t think it’s
expensive at all I think it saves us
time and it’s easy to use so it’s it’s
worth every penny that it is so by the
way you want to take care of those
things I had a conversation with Frank
leckrone of aqua Phoenix Scientific so
Frank actually asked me he said are you
using pH 4 buffer or are you using
electrode storage solution and I
actually learned from Frank years ago he
was telling me that he went down to my
Rennell and he saw hundreds of meters
that were sent back from people like you
and I
because they were having problems
holding calibration for pH and they were
all stained pink so what happens that
pink dye actually migrates into that
probe and makes it so it won’t hold
calibration so something you can do is
use electrode storage solution it is a
little bit more expensive but because we
keep our meters clean we clean them on a
regular basis we rinse them out and then
we put the electrode storage solution in
we get about a year out of our pH probes
and I’ve heard that that’s pretty
impressive so another question we have
is how long have you been in water
treatment why I answer this on our very
first show I truly have been in water
treatment ever since I can remember I
didn’t I wasn’t really paid until I was
probably about 16 years old and only
then I was doing some lab stuff from my
dad and maybe some inventory adjusting
and delivery and things like that I
didn’t really start you know becoming a
serious enthusiast about water treatment
probably until I was about 22 years old
and I’m 42 years old now so that’s 20
years of serious water treatment stuff
so there you go I’ve been I’ve been in
water treatment all of my life so I have
knew of water treatment since forever
but really seriously into water
treatment for the past 20 years or at
least getting paid in water treatment to
actually be able to afford to buy things
like a house and food and things like
that next question is can you give us
CWT Books
some advice on what books we can read to
help us study for the certified water
technologist examination great question
and first off the CWT is designed so
most people can’t study for it to pass
it it’s really an experience exam that
being said if you’re really good at
studying I’m sure you can probably prove
people wrong that say that but the point
of the exam is to reward the experience
which is why you need five
years in order to you can take the exam
anytime you want but in order to get
that CWT designation you have to have
five years experience and that’s what
the test was aimed to prove that you did
have five years worth of experience the
the first book that I would recommend is
from a WT and it’s the technical
reference and training manual the reason
I recommend that is because that was
when the test writers were coming up
with a test a lot of the questions came
from there and when there was a question
on can we do something this way or that
way because as we know his water traders
there’s many ways to skin that water
treatment cat that was the deciding
factor if we had a question about
something we went to the TR TM and we
said hey what is the answer in there
okay I don’t personally do this but
that’s what the book says so that’s what
we’re going with
so above all else that’s what I would
recommend the other books that I
recommend are actually written by Colin
frame and they are called the principles
and practice of water treatment and he’s
got one for cooling water and he’s got
two a Volume one and two for boiler
water and not that the questions come
from there but Colin has a way of
talking about situations that he’s been
in and really really drawing the context
of why you do certain things I think
that that’s a great book to study with
but it’s also a great book for a
reference I know I’ve gone back to that
a couple of times there are some other
ones but I think those are the big ones
and these are some pretty hefty read so
I don’t want to give you ten books you
go out and read ten books and all of
them just sit and collect dust on your
shelf I want to give you the ones that I
know are gonna help you and right now
right off the top of my head I’m
thinking that those three are probably
some of the best ones above all else get
the AWT technical training and reference
manual and if you want something else
just you know at a high level read those
would be Colin frein’s books called
principles and practices and he’s got
than both on cooling treatment and
boiler treatment the last one was oh
it’s a question about corrosion coupons
oh by the way I’ve received a lot of
questions about corrosion coupons and
I’ve got to applaud everybody out there
a lot of people are using corrosion
coupons and they had questions if they
were using them correctly so I think I’m
going to do a show on proper corrosion
coupon placement you know when to use
them how to use them all that sort of
stuff so that will be coming up in a
later show but the question here is
they’re looking for a lab to do their
corrosion coupons you mentioned that I
personally do corrosion coupons for
other AWT members could I be one of
those AWT members that you do corrosion
coupons yeah sure
we as I mentioned on a previous show I
wasn’t very happy with the way I was
getting reports back from another
company I mean they were fine but as a
water treated a didn’t give me the
inside look that I was looking for to
see was my program working could I
augment it and make it better so by
doing it myself we’ve come up with some
processes and procedures that helped us
do that and I’m willing to let you know
what I see in the corrosion coupon and
asked you some questions about your
program and then from that we can then
determine can you make a can you make of
change in your chemistry’s or how many
times you’re concentrating your water or
even your by site or whatever it is
we’re having that dialogue and we’re
figuring out how do we make that program
better so the short answer is yes
absolutely I would love to give my lab a
little bit more work and do your
corrosion coupons and all you have to do
is go on our website and this is
actually it’s going to be our Blackmore
Enterprises calm so it’s Blackmore –
Enterprises calm there’s a coupon page
on there so click on that it’s got all
the information and if you want to talk
to somebody by all means call the office
or email me directly and we can
definitely have that conversation so
Outro
that’s going to do it for today on
scaling up I’m really enjoying putting
these on I love going to my email
and seeing that people are enjoying the
program and that they have questions for
them what I’ve been doing is sorting the
questions and trying to put them in
future show format so they kind of meld
together so again don’t assume
somebody’s going to ask the question
that you have please go on scaling up
h2o comm let me know what you want me to
talk about let me know what your
question is you’re never gonna have to
worry about me embarrassing you over the
air because the goal of this show is
making this better than water treaters
tomorrow folks I’m glad you’re joining
me have a great week thank you for
joining us
you
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