Month: April 2011

Already Winners

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Win or lose, I’m a proud fan of the Cincinnati Reds.  It all started when I was eight years old, and my Dad took me to Riverfront Stadium for my first Major League Baseball game.  It was the last regular season game of 1975.  The Reds had already secured the NL East pennant, so it hardly mattered that they lost this one to the Atlanta Braves.  Except to an eight year old kid at his first game…but it’s OK: aside from a small cadre of Red Sox fans who remain in denial about Game 7, it’s hard to argue against the invincibility of the Big Red Machine that year.  Or the next, for that matter.

My fandom survived the dismantling of the Big Red Machine by then-General Manager Dick Wagner.  It survived the Pete Rose betting scandal.  It thrived again in 1990, with a wire-to-wire first place season, culminating in a 4-game sweep of the Oakland A’s.  The Player’s Strike of 1994-1995 hurt, but the crazy race for the 1999 Wildcard berth was fun to watch.  I was third in line to buy tickets to the last-minute tiebreaker playoff game, where Al Leiter pitched a shutout for the Mets.  It was a real shame, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Win or lose, I love being at the ballpark.  I’ve never had a bad experience there.  In the spring of 2002, my buddy Larry and I took my son and his daughter (both toddlers) to a game.  Due to the tragic events of a Tuesday morning the previous September, we weren’t permitted to carry our quite manly backpacks that were really diaper bags into the stadium.  We found out about this at the gate, after a long hike from the back corner of the West Parking Lot.  The Ticket Guy radioed Customer Service, who immediately dispatched a friendly fellow in a golf cart to run us out to the car, where we dropped off our bags & put a few immediate necessities in a clear plastic bag that THEY provided.  He then took us right back to the gate.  The kids totally dug the ride (as did we), and we got to our seats just in time for the National Anthem.  The Reds dropped that one to the San Francisco Giants.  Just so you know, I have, on occasion, been there when they’ve won.  But I digress…

Apparently, the Reds are still working the Customer Service angle to maximum capacity.  Last season, my friend Keith was going to be traveling, and wanted to catch a Reds game on the road.  He emailed them to ask how to get tickets.  He was surprised when a Customer Service Rep called him to explain the procedure.  The rep then engaged him in conversation, and found out that Keith’s son was a huge Joey Votto fan.  The rep got Keith’s address, and sent him a Joey Votto action figure, which I hope (but don’t know for sure) that Keith gave to his son.  He and my youngest are best friends, so I can find out…that’s fair warning, Keith!

What are the benchmarks for excellent Customer Service?  Expectations can vary, but a genuine effort to meet or exceed those expectations is a great place to start.  It seems the Cincinnati Reds know this well, and so do we.  When you call EXAIR, you can be sure that this is the mission of the person who picks up the phone.  We even have the occasional freebies, like our current free Vac-U-Gun with any Industrial Vacuum purchase.  Call us, and we’ll tell you all about it.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
Web: www.exair.com
Blog: http://blog.exair.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/exair_rb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

The Wrath and Glory of Warm Weather

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Last week we had a taste of warm weather with a couple of days in the mid seventies. After a cold winter it actually took some getting used to. Summer is on its way and with it come the inquiries for cabinet coolers. Last years hot summer generated a ton of cabinet cooler sizing guides for me to calculate. So, I am sitting here exercising my writing fingers in preparation for the upcoming season.

The introduction of electronics for industrial and commercial applications has been a definite advantage. The downside though is heat. Electronics do not do well in hot environments. Most all are situated in some sort of enclosure which prevents heat from dissipating away. Installing vents only allows the entrance of contaminants.

I had a customer in the confectionery business that was having trouble with sugar dust getting into his panels. I jokingly commented that he had sugar-coated circuit boards. He promptly corrected me claiming that he had candy coated circuit boards! The sugar melts and crystallizes destroying the board. It was costing him $1500 each time a board had to be replaced. Installing an EXAIR Cabinet Cooler System, not only was he able to cool his panel but the cooler imparted a slight positive pressure which kept out the contaminants.

If you would like to size up a cooler for one of your panels, collect the temperature values and enter them into this FORM and send it to me and I will do the calculations for you.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax   (513) 671-3363
Web: http://www.exair.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

Ahh The Joys of Owning Your Own Home

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

For the past five years my wife and I have owned what we consider to be a nice home.  This is the first house we bought and it took us several months to even get close to picking this one.  We went through the traditional bidding process with the seller and finally got what we thought was a good price.   While we have loved living there it seems like every time you start to get comfortable with where the house stands something breaks or goes out and most of the time it ends in a “Professional” that costs quite a bit of money sitting in your house at the most inconvenient time saying, “Oh, well right there’s the problem”.

Maybe it’s because I am an engineer that this bothers me.   This is why when my furnace went out this past week I didn’t bother, nor think, to call anyone immediately.   My first thoughts were the furnace had been  serviced about a year and a half ago and all the guy did was take some scotch brite to the flame sensor and managed to make the drain hose not drain.  After replacing the drain hose that was messed up I noticed the furnace was working quite well.  Then throughout the year we started to notice the furnace would still kick off now and then so we would simply cycle the power to it and it would be fixed.   Well the night came where that did not work anymore.  Instead we had a cold house and a furnace that wouldn’t light.

The first thing that came to my mind was to check the drain hose and flame sensor.  After dismantling the “fire box” I pulled the flame sensor out and saw it was clean as a whistle and the drain hose was allowing the water to come out of the furnace so I decided to try one more time.  Still nothing…  I then realized that I hadn’t seen any form of glow when the gas would start to be pumped into the box.  This made me think maybe the igniter isn’t working.  After seeing that the LED readout on the furnace was pointing me in that direction I tore into the unit a little further and pulled out the igniter.  The unit wasn’t like what I thought it would be.  It was a porous material almost like giant resistor to me. (I never claimed to be an HVAC expert)  I pulled the unit out and noticed it had some discoloration to it so I started to wipe it off with a very fine grit sand paper just to knock any buildup off.  What I found is in the picture below.

I saw two darkened areas where it appeared the unit was burnt.  This turned out to be a crack.  The piece had in fact cracked all the way through but it was still arcing whenever power was supplied to it.  I then thought to myself this has been out problem all along.  I assumed what had happened was the unit would arc and the spark would be big enough to light the gas.  Well the arcing had burned enough material off it had created a gap.  By this time it was about 9:15 P.M. on a Thursday night.  After finding out the local Home Depot was open I made a run and was able to procure their last replacement igniter on the shelves.  The unit said it was a direct replacement and included everything I needed.

Once I got the unit home I noticed none of their mounting brackets were quite like mine and the replacement was considerably shorter than my old igniter.  So after a few seconds of pondering I decided to make my own bracket by combining one of theirs with my old unit.  I placed my wire connectors (which weren’t supplied) onto the unit and sealed up the fire-box.  I thought to myself this is it.  If I did something wrong I’m sure that gas and the ignition system would surely let me know.  As I peered through the tiny pot hole on the box and flipped the switch I began to get nervous.  Then within a few second I saw a bright red glow of the new igniter, heard the gas valve open, and voilà fire!  I tested the unit several more times and decided it was working quite well so I buttoned everything back up and called it a night with my head held high.

EXAIR takes the same approach with our customers.  If you are having issues with a compressed air process, we help you find the solution.  Not only will we not charge you for the phone call but we will do our best to ensure you will walk away with a smile from your experience and the satisfaction of knowing you have the right answer.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_BF