Wisler Plumbing and Air

Serving Roanoke and surrounding areas.

Menu
Schedule Online
or call (540) 483-9382

A Day in the Life of a Water Technician

Water Treatment

by

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

In the last post we talked about a day in the life of a water treatment installer. This time let’s take a look at water technicians. The big difference between a technician and an installer is that the installer will just install or replace equipment that needs to be upgraded, whereas the technician is going to be doing both maintenance and service to existing units that need to be kept in good working condition. It might be a new client that has older equipment or someone who doesn’t have a maintenance agreement and has a unit that needs to be worked on.

Similar to a water treatment installer, a typical day for a water technician starts with breakfast that we offer here in the company. The team talks with each other and goes over what their day is going to look like. The technician has to prepare for their routes because they might make anywhere from 4 to 6 stops a day. They need to load the materials and parts ahead of time to be prepared and efficient enough to head home before it gets super late. Unlike an installer, the technician’s day is spent communicating either with the clients or with the office and dispatch. Because technicians go to more jobs, they need to be very comfortable with communication, collaboration, and time management. They diagnose systems where the water might not be correct, so there’s definitely more of a problem-solving skillset required for this role.

Water treatment installers and water technicians are very different from each other. It really depends on the person as to where they’re a better fit. If someone doesn’t really like a great deal of communication and collaboration, they’ll probably fit better in the installer role, whereas if someone gains energy from working with a wide range of people, then they can really shine in the service-oriented role of a technician.

We’re definitely looking for water treatment apprentices to join our team right now. If you’re interested, be sure to head over to WislerJobs.com for more information. Or if you need a new water treatment system in your home, just give us a call at 540-483-9382.

by

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

I love my job to pieces, but one area of our business that I could see myself loving just as much is water treatment. It’s just so cool to take not-so-great water and make it become really great. Water treatment is such an essential part of what we do—it’s cool to be able to make people happy with the water they use for drinking, laundry, washing cars, and cooking. That’s just part of what a water treatment installer gets to experience on a typical day.

The day generally starts with some breakfast, which we offer here in the company. This is when the team talks about the installs, service calls, and maintenance calls they have lined up for the day. After that is handoffs, which is where the service tech or salesperson who gained the customer’s approval to put in a new unit will meet with the installer and hand off a packet of information including pictures and job instructions. We do handoffs so the customer expectation isn’t dropped and the installer knows what they need to do, where they need to do it, and how they need to do it. (These handoffs usually aren’t for jobs lined up on that same day, just to give everyone enough time to be prepared.)

Next, the installer will prep the water treatment equipment and load up all the supplies with job packets that are laid out in the warehouse. They will try to make sure to get to their destination on time and talk with the customer (if available) to discuss what work they’re going to do, how long it’s expected to take, and whether they’ll meet again at the end of the day.

Certain tasks have different timeframes, including soaking media with water, backwash, and the cleaning process. Installers make sure to do all of these at the right time to be as efficient as possible. If present, the technician will review the new piece of equipment with the customer so they know how to work it, what to do if it starts beeping, and how to take care of issues if they don’t have a service agreement. (We like to review these topics just to make sure the customer is 100% satisfied.) Then the installer collects the agreed upon amount and moves on to get ready for the next day.

We’re definitely looking for water treatment apprentices to join our team right now. If you’re interested, be sure to head over to WislerJobs.com for more information. Or if you need a new water treatment system in your home, just give us a call at 540-483-9382.

by

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

I think it’s important to provide a clear, simple way for people to understand the difference between water filtration and water treatment.

Water filtration removes anything you can see in the water. Some particles can’t be seen unless there are a lot of them—take coffee, for instance. What makes coffee brownish or blackish in color? It’s actually very, very small particles in the water. If you introduce enough of those particles, the water changes color. It’s also like dropping a handful of mud into water and stirring it up. The tiny bits of dirt will cause the water to become a different color. Filtration is measured in microns (µ) and filters can block particles of different sizes. Your naked eye can see a 20 micron particle. Anything smaller than that will not be visible to your eye unless there’s a whole bunch of them. All of these particles are handled by filtration.

Water treatment, on the other hand, removes things you cannot see. These things are completely dissolved in the water. They do not produce a smell and they do not discolor the water. Water softeners are a kind of treatment, and they use something called ion exchange. The word exchange is important here because if you want to remove an element from the water, you have to put another element into it. Exchange is essentially what treatment does—you’re exchanging one element in the water for another. In the case of hardness, the treatment/softener removes calcium from the water by introducing sodium.

That raises the question, if you can’t see or smell anything in the water, how can you find out if something is there? It all starts with a water test to make sure we’re not making any assumptions. We must test the water to verify if there’s something like iron or calcium, and to find out how much there actually is. If there is a sulfur smell, is it really sulfur in the water? The exact substance and amount is best determined through testing.

Once you know what is or isn’t in your water, you can make a decision about what needs to be done. Some homes only have filters (like reverse osmosis) because there’s no iron/hardness in the water. Other homes do have hardness and might need some sort of treatment to remove it. (This happens a lot with city water.) If you would like to get your water tested, reach out to the team at Wisler Plumbing & Air. Contact us online today or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

by

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

I think most people who hear the word osmosis think of plants absorbing water. But we’re talking about reverse osmosis today, which is generally referred to in RO drinking water or RO treatment. Reverse osmosis treatment is a way to purify food-grade water for cooking and drinking. It’s generally done at the point of use (e.g., the kitchen sink). One thing to remember about RO is that it takes good water to make great water. If really bad water was put through reverse osmosis, the filter would get plugged up very quickly.

Reverse osmosis is a pretty extensive process, with four different stages of filtration. Water first goes through a pre-filter to remove any sediment particles large enough to get trapped. After traveling through the filter, the water goes through the reverse osmosis membrane. In layman’s terms, the membrane is a piece of plastic that the water runs through. Any contaminants or larger particles will get caught in the membrane and might cause it to get stopped up. To get the water to go through the plastic, it has to have enough pressure and be at the right temperature. The hotter the water is, the easier it will go through the plastic. Higher pressure helps too, but is limited because the membrane is extremely fine.

If you run a gallon of water through an RO system, it will produce about a half gallon of drinking water. Basically, this means that 50% of the water is wasted. The other half gallon of water is actually used to rinse the membrane and keep contaminants from stopping it up. (This water goes down the drain.) The amount of wasted water isn’t anything to be alarmed about, though. It doesn’t really add up to a ton because a person will generally only drink a gallon or so every day. After the filtered water leaves the membrane, it goes into two different post-filters that use carbon to polish the water. The purpose of this step is to improve the taste of the water and make it as attractive as possible for drinking and food-grade purposes.

Because of the 50:100 ratio of usable water, it takes a little bit of time for the RO filtration to do its job. There’s usually a 2 gallon storage tank that’s part of the system so you’ll have plenty of water immediately available for use. Sometimes overnight or whenever you use a lot of water, the system will kick in, start making more water, and reserve it in this tank. The storage tank easily fits right under the sink because it’s only about 12” tall and 10” around. But since it does take up some space, we might be able to put the system elsewhere and just run a little tube to the sink. (This really depends on the house. There needs to be a place where we have access to run the little plastic tube.) In my house, the reverse osmosis system is located in my mechanical area in the basement instead of under the sink.

There are three different levels of water: utility grade water that’s useful only for pressure washing or car washing, laundry grade water that won’t stain fixtures, and then food-grade water that’s only used for drinking and cooking. It doesn’t make sense to put food grade water throughout the entire house. Not only would that be really expensive, but it is corrosive and not suitable for whole-home use.

To learn more about using reverse osmosis in your home, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

by

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

There are 3 types of services available in HVAC, plumbing, and even water treatment: maintenance, repair, and replacement. Maintenance describes a proactive effort to prevent downtime and maximize the usefulness of a system. Repair is when something in a system has broken and you’re having to react to the situation. It could be when you don’t have any heating or cooling, or when your drain gets stopped up. (This is what we would call a demand situation.) Last is replacement, which sometimes becomes necessary during repair or maintenance. This is when one or more existing components of a system must be changed out for a new component.

Repairs are generally urgent in manner. If you lose the heating in your house when it’s cold outside, you’ll want the situation resolved as soon as possible. We have to do a good job with managing these kinds of urgent demands and get to the client’s house. There can be a lot of pressure and anxiety that comes with a repair, so we try to do our best to prioritize it over something less urgent. Any repair (which involves reacting to a situation) will have a service charge associated with it. We have a $79 service charge for non-Diamond Club family and a $49 service charge for our Diamond Club family.

What that service charge covers is our ability to bring a well-stocked truck to the home with a qualified technician. The technician diagnoses the situation, figures out what’s going on, and then presents the homeowner with a list of options. Before we do any work that would cost more than that initial service charge, we make sure the homeowner is given options in writing about what’s available for them to move forward and repair their system. If it cannot be repaired, the options would include a potential strategy to replace whatever component is affected.

In general, an HVAC repair is potentially going to range between $300 and $600. Of course, there are repairs that are higher or lower than that range, but that’s a good average amount to get an understanding. It really depends on the system’s age and the type of parts it uses. A high-efficiency system has parts that can be very expensive if they’re not under warranty, so it really depends on the specific situation.

If you’re having cooling or heating issues in your home that need immediate attention, Wisler Plumbing & Air prioritizes those kinds of situations so they can be resolved as soon as possible. Diamond Club family gets a reduced service charge, too. To learn more, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

by

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

Exciting News

We have some very exciting news involving how our organization will change starting in 2020: We’re going to be offering HVAC services to all of our clients and the community at large! Right now we’re extremely busy at work to recruit competent people who fit into our organization and allow us to bring the HVAC trade onboard. Once we ramp up all of our systems and procedures, residential owner-occupied homes can come to us as a one-stop shop for water treatment, plumbing, drain cleaning, and HVAC as well.

Our Goals

One of the areas we’ll be working on over the next four to six months is our installs (both plumbing and HVAC) to make sure we do a better job with lead times for our clients. For instance, if one of our plumbers goes out for a leaky pipe and they find that all the pipes are in rough shape, they may recommend a re-pipe of the home. Sometimes the job might take 3 to 5 days to complete, in addition to getting put on a schedule with a wait time of two or even three weeks. We want to be able to shorten that lead time so we’re more responsive for these kinds of larger projects.

Continuing to Grow

This is a huge change for 2020, and we’re definitely going to continue to grow. We anticipate 15% growth next year, and along with that growth comes more new people and more business. We’re on track to run our first HVAC calls at the end of this year, so by the time January rolls around we should be well in the groove of things.

 

If you have any questions about HVAC or plumbing, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

Diamond Club

Our Ads

Jobs

Blog