EnduroSolv: Boiler and Cooling Tower Water Treatment

New App Available to Calculate Water Treatment Indices

2012-03-06T04:57:00.002-08:00

Wouldn’t it be great be able to easily figure out a Langelier index at a customer site, while there in the field?

Well, we have recently become aware of a new, free mobile app that lets you calculate Langelier (LSI,) Ryznar (RSI) and Puckorius (PSI) indices right on your smart phone. The App was developed by a company called LXF Process Management Solutions, which develops specialized information management system software used in a variety of different industries.
At this point, the App is only available for the Android platform. However, if you go to the web page to download the App, you will also be presented with the opportunity to let LXF know that you use an iPhone or iPad. This survey would suggest that LXF has plans to develop the App for these devises as well, once there is sufficient demand. Let’s hope so…

HAPPY LEAP DAY!!!

2012-02-28T11:03:00.003-08:00

Time… such a valuable resource and something
we all have. Problem is, if not used wisely, it is something that we can never get back. Lucky for us about every four years in February, we are gifted an extra day – February 29th or Leap Day. An extra 24 hours of time!! Are you going to use it wisely?

As many facility managers know, time is becoming more and more valuable. With shrinking budgets and staff reductions, the pressure to do more with less is increasingly more important. One of the ways facility managers can use their “extra” 24 hours wisely is to consider an EnduroSolv® solid water treatment program for their boilers and cooling towers. With one case of EnduroSolv® solid water treatment containing the same amount of chemical treatment as one 55-gallon drum, it is obvious that EnduroSolv® has many benefits including time savings.

Imagine the time it takes to get one 55-gallon drum to the mechanical room… ugh – lots of time and lots of potential for accidents. Now imagine carrying one 44 pound case to the mechanical room. A big difference – a lot quicker, a lot safer and no hand truck required!

Take a moment to look over all the benefits of EnduroSolv® here or contact us. We would be happy to discuss all the benefits of EnduroSolv® solid water treatment products with you.

Finally, on this Leap Day, I wanted to share something that gives a little perspective on the value of time. There are many renditions of this but I think this hits home to all. Have a happy and productive Leap Day!

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the Value of ONE DAY, ask the person born on February 29th.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the friends waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who just missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

APTech Turns 10!

2012-02-23T06:14:00.001-08:00

2012 marks APTech Group’s 10 Year Anniversary
manufacturing EnduroSolv sustainable solid water treatment products. So, we are not the New Kids on the Block.

But, even though we have been manufacturing for a decade – and growing substantially in recent years – there are STILL many people out there who don’t yet fully understand the benefits of EnduroSolv solid water treatment.

We have solid products in many
forms, for all water types, including bottles, discs, sticks and pucks that can treat all of your Cooling Tower, Boiler and Closed Loop System needs.

If you are looking to improve the way you are treating the water in your facilities, please let us know and we can get you in contact with an EnduroSolv dealer in your area! Here’s to 10 more years of growth…

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

Solid Laundry Detergents Mirror Water Treatment Dynamics

2012-02-20T05:56:00.000-08:00

An interesting article in Chemical & Engineering News a few weeks ago reported on the detergent industry re-introducing Dry Concentrated Laundry Chemicals. The Concentrate technology has been around for at least 50 years (for those of us old enough, remember Salvo Tablets), but never caught on in a big way. Consumers have been resistant to change and have continued to use liquids or dry soap with added filler. The article went on to add that when using liquids or dry (powder) soap, most consumers added more than was needed, which is not only a waste of money, but an added environmental concern.

Much of the same apprehension affects the water treatment industry. Comments about liquid water treatment chemicals such as “been doing the liquids for years, a little more is always better” are still prevalent.

Perhaps the pending introduction of these new single serve solid laundry products is a signal that the time has finally come to take a step back and re-examine the way we think. The world is a different place and no matter how much we pine for the good old days, those days were wasteful in many ways. Today we’re more concerned about economics, but also about making life better and cleaner for our kids and generations to come. We at APTech Group believe Solid Technology for water treatment chemicals to be the absolute best fit in addressing both of these desires & needs of our new world.

Posted on behalf of Jim Heimert

Extending Our "Reach the Rep “ Program

2012-02-13T04:25:00.000-08:00

In a January Blog, Jim Heimert discussed the need to educate more of our distributors' representatives on the benefits their customers will receive when making the change from a liquid water treatment program to one utilizing the same state of the art chemical technology in a safer, easier, more environmentally responsible form: EnduroSolv® Solids.

Expanding on this program, we have substantially increased our involvement and participation in many of the leading Facility Management organizations - such as ASHRE, ASHE, IFTMA, and BOMA to name a few. Our goal is to help our distributors carry the EnduroSolv® message through industry meetings, trade shows, lunch-and-learns, and the like.

By directly interacting with those managers that will gain the most by changing to a solid based water treatment program we anticipate substantially shortening the selling cycle through awareness.

Do you have an organization that you are actively involved in, and think we should be as well. Why not reach-out to us and let us know? We are always learning as well.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

A Change for the Better

2012-02-03T11:44:00.001-08:00

Starting today and lasting through the weekend APTechGroup is converting our email system from a pop mail server that we have subscribed to online for the past seven or eight years to a hosted exchange server. We are working with our IT vendor, PROOnCall, to complete this conversion. We made the decision to make the move to the hosted exchange because all of the benefits involved will be of great benefit to us. The pop server did its job and delivered us our email reliably and efficiently but there were just too many features that weren't available. The feature that I think will be most helpful is the shared calendar. As we have gotten busier and our staff has grown, being able to coordinate everyone's schedule and the company's events will be more critical to ensure that we take care of everything that needs to be handled.

Making this conversion today is taking a little bit of upfront effort and preparation. I'm sure it could be viewed as a hassle in the short term but everyone knows the long term benefits totally outweigh any minor hassles. Once the system is in place it will greatly simplify some of our day to day tasks.

I think this could be analogous to changing your water treatment program from liquid products to solid water treatment products like EnduroSOLV. There are certainly some extra considerations needed when implementing the solid products but as is the case with the exchange server, the long term benefits totally outweigh any perceived short term hassles. So, if you are considering making the change to solid cooling tower and boiler products and some of the hassles in the short term seem daunting just remember that the long term benefits far outweigh those concerns.

Customer Success Has Us Wondering…

2012-01-27T06:56:00.000-08:00

We are currently working with a long-standing customer on the development of a very compelling case study regarding the many good things that have occurred during their 9 year history of utilizing EnduroSolv® solid water treatment products.

Their success from using EnduroSolv® solids to treat their cooling towers and boilers have been so impressive and their team so enthused, that one has to ask: Why isn’t everyone using this more sustainable, safer form of water treatment for their cooling towers, boilers and closed loop systems.

If you are not familiar with EnduroSolv® water treatment products, perhaps you should take this opportunity to learn more about this advancement in water treatment. You could become a hero at your organization for saving space in the mechanical room, saving on shipping charges (a case of EnduroSolv® product weighs only 44 lbs compared to a drum of hazardous liquid chemical several hundred pounds) and many other benefits.

You can learn more at the EnduroSolv® site as well as request a distributor to provide you with a “site survey”. The summer cooling season will actually be here before you know it. Now’s the time to check it out.

EnduroSolv®… The space saver!

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

Space is a valuable commodity… at home, at work… just about everywhere. Just do a quick Google search on space saving ideas and hundreds of thousands of websites appear listing all the latest and greatest ideas to maximize and save space – in the kitchen, in the closet, in the car, under the bathroom sink – the list goes on and on.

But what about in your mechanical room?

In the heart of your building, is there a way to maximize this valuable space while maintaining its functionality? One good way to start is with EnduroSolv® solid water treatment products. See the graphic below… in the same footprint that one 55-gallon drum occupies; you could store approximately 12 cases (48 bottles) of EnduroSolv®. Since one case of EnduroSolv® contains about the same amount of water treatment as one 55-gallon drum, you would be able to store 12 times the amount of water treatment in the same space. That’s quite a space saving!!
Along with space savings, adopting EnduroSolv® into your water treatment program offers many additional benefits including reduced transportation costs, reduced spill risks, reduced carbon footprint, and possible qualification for LEED points. For more information, visit www.endurosolv.com or call us at 866.489.4831.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Technology: Then and Now

2012-01-13T07:41:00.001-08:00

Technology is defined as the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function.

Technology is always changing and a picture is worth a thousand words. Take a look at the examples below and see just how some of our everyday technology has evolved.

Cell Phones

Computers

Television

AND...

Cooling Tower and Boiler
WATER TREATMENT!

If the technology you are using for your water treatment needs are still in the “Then” and you would like to be in the “Now”, get in contact with us so we can get you information on the EnduroSolv® line of solid water treatment products for the cooling towers, boilers and closed loop systems in your facility!

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

Innovation Can’t Be Planned, It Can’t Be Predicted; It Has To Be Allowed To Emerge

2012-01-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

As I reflected on ways to grow awareness of EnduroSolv Solid Water Treatment Technology for 2012 and beyond, I stumbled upon the above quote. How true it is. We at APTech Group, as the manufacturers of this sustainable & safer technology, can only show our distributor-partners the path toward the advantages of developing Solid Water Treatment technology within their customer database.

No matter how hard we try, there is still a certain amount of “emerging” that needs to take place. This will only be developed through a continual educational process of how our superior products and technology can be used to satisfy individual companies’ sustainability and safety requirements. We can only facilitate this change through being accessible to the needs of our distributors.

To address those needs, we are implementing a “Reach the Rep” program in 2012 which will accelerate that emergence among those who are currently unaware of the benefits of EnduroSolv. This understanding will allow all to prosper and see its innovative power.

If you would like to join our growing ranks of forward thinking distributors, click here for more information. Or if you would like to utilize our innovative solid water treatment solutions, click here to learn more.

Posted on behalf of Jim Heimert

Just in Time!!

2011-12-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

APTech Group just wrapped up another terrific year of growth, with a sales increase of 24.8%. While our entire staff worked hard and diligently to achieve this outstanding result, the fact is the market is moving quickly on to the Sustainability band wagon. Importantly, it isn’t just about doing “the right thing”, it’s becoming a matter of corporate survival.

Our solid water treatment products offer significant benefits to a wide array of commercial and institutional customers in the areas of Reducing Risk and Liability, Reducing Carbon Footprint, Going Green, and Economic results.

Take a moment and read the following link for insight on why corporations are rapidly embracing Sustainability. It’s more than just profit driven.

Our very best to you for a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2012.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

Parcel Shipping

2011-12-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

As we count down the days towards Christmas I'm sure plenty of people have noticed all of the UPS and FedEx trucks out delivering all of the online purchases people have made. It sure makes for an easy way to send or receive all of the gifts that have been purchased during the holiday season. With solid water treatment products, such as EnduroSOLV, it is just as easy to send or receive the products you need to keep your cooling tower or boiler up and running as optimally as possible.

If you are interested check out www.ups.com or www.fedex.com and see how affordable it can be to ship a 50 pound package with ground service from either company. Then as a comparison look at either of the LTL branches of those customers and see what it costs to ship a 500 pound drum.

A quick comparison like this will show that reducing the shipping and handling cost is one of the many advantages of using EnduroSOLV solid water treatment products. So, the next time you see a FedEx or UPS truck don't just assume it is filled with cell phones, sweaters, video games and laptops ... the products making the HVAC system at your office as efficient as possible might also be on board.

New Technologies… Changing the Way We Live

2011-12-16T05:50:00.000-08:00

According to a recent article on the EMarketing web site, U.S. adults now spend more time on mobile devices than reading magazines and newspapers. “Print” accounts for just 6.8% of the time U.S. adults spend with media, while mobile usage accounts for 10.1% of time spent. Now it is true that people do many more things on their mobile devices than simply read media content. However doing the Jumble or crossword puzzle or clipping coupons is still time spent with print media.

At any rate, the trend is clear. New mobile technologies are changing the way we consume content.

The same trend is happening in the commercial water treatment space. After years and years of utilizing caustic and dangerous liquid chemicals to treat the water in cooling towers and boilers, a relatively new process is beginning to take hold. Many facility managers are transitioning to safe, solid water treatment chemicals in their mechanical rooms. These solid chemicals which have the consistency of a hard beeswax and are dissolved back into solution on site using dissolving boards. They work just as effectively as their liquid cousins are available in a growing number of forms, including one gallon bottles, discs and sticks.

Solids are finding their way into the water treatment regimens of a wide variety of organizations who value the reduced shipping expenses, safety and cleanliness of their applications, such as schools and universities, hospitals, government facilities and office buildings. And like the mobile versus print comparison, the transition to solid water treatment has taken some time to occur and still accounts for less than 10% of total water treatment chemical usage. We have been making EnduroSolv® solid chemistry since 2002, but growing acceptance of this new technology has been most active in just the past several years, consistent 20+% growth each of the past three years.

If you would like to learn more about EnduroSolv® solid water treatment solutions, please visit www.endurosolv.com.

Did you know…

2011-12-09T05:13:00.000-08:00

As we come to the end of 2011, let’s look ahead to some of the green building trends for 2012.

Did you know…

• Green building in North America will be on the rise again.
• Green building’s LEED registration will be strongest in retrofitting existing buildings as opposed to new construction as registration for LEED for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) booms.
• Building owners will take bigger strides to conserve water consumption as the shortage for fresh water supply becomes more apparent.

Get more information about the above trends and the rest of the top 10 in this article by Jerry Yudelson. And to help with the “greening” of your facility, check out all the information regarding EnduroSolv® sustainable water treatment chemicals to see how our line of solid water treatment products for cooling towers and boilers.

We would be happy to talk with you about how using EnduroSolv® water treatment products will help reduce your carbon footprint, provide a safer and cleaner work environment and reduce water consumption all while helping your facility qualify for LEED certification.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Giving Thanks

2011-12-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving, along with
my family traditions – including: the Thanksgiving Day race, visiting with family and friends, food and football – have come and gone! This year, prompted by the holiday special, “This is America, Charlie Brown,” my daughters and I reflected on the Pilgrims’ decision to leave their homes in search of a new and better life. The girls took away the life lesson that trying something new is not always easy, but with hard work and dedication has the possibility of being very rewarding.

Interestingly, this life lesson is very applicable in regards to water treatment for cooling towers and boilers as well. EnduroSolv® Solid Water Treatment, while having been around for some time (about 10 years now), is still a new idea to some end-users and facilities managers. Changing the way someone thinks about water treatment is sometimes difficult. Imagine a product that is not only economical and safer to use than traditional water treatment but also one that is better for the environment and works just as well as the dangerous liquid alternatives. That product is EnduroSolv®.

History tells us that change is not always an easy thing, but for water treatment, a change to Endurosolv® is a rewarding one worth considering.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

No Surprises!

2011-11-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

By now, most of our customers have fired up their steam boilers for another winter season. Whether your season is seasonal, or year-around operation you rely on consistent operation of this key piece of equipment. Next summer, most will be preparing these boilers for their annual inspection. What we all want to see is a nice clean boiler internals with a gun-barrel metal surface (no deposits), and protected from pitting (oxygen pitting).

There are a few simple steps to insure you have a successful boiler operating season – with No Nasty Surprises.

1. Make sure your softeners are operating properly and always providing soft water for makeup.
2. Keep plenty of oxygen scavenger (typically sulfite) in your boiler – particularly when that boiler is not the lead boiler.
3. Follow your water treatment professional’s advice on proper chemical levels in the boilers and in the steam distribution system.
4. If you haven’t had your boiler tuned up within the last year, get it done now. This will insure maximum fireside efficiency.

Follow these simple steps, and you’ll maintain maximum efficiency (lowest operating cost), reliable steam production – and NO SURPRISES when you open the boiler for inspection.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

Always Rethinking What We Do

2011-11-15T07:35:00.000-08:00

As we sit here six weeks or so from the beginning of the new year it becomes a time to reflect on what we have been doing and how that relates to what we do in the coming year. This is applicable at so many levels ... at an individual level, either personally or professionally, all the way up to all the different levels of the largest corporations. And we certainly do this as a business in all aspects of our operation. It can range from the day to day things such as how we handle an order and prepare it as efficiently and effectively as possible to taking a look at the types of products and services we offer.

In the coming weeks we will be seeing demos for software packages that could improve our operation and efficiencies when implemented correctly. The implementation would be a big undertaking but it would be for the purpose of moving forward and improvement as a company. Then just yesterday we spent several hours meeting with one of our equipment partners, Hydro Systems Company, about the possibilities of developing a piece of equipment that could enhance a series of our products. In both instances we know what we do or have currently can work but we certainly think each can be better.

These are the types of activities we have to undertake to make sure, as an organization, we are always doing things to keep us moving forward. And these are just a couple examples of many things we will will consider as we finish up this year and gear up for 2012.

If you are viewing this blog as a customer and end user of water treatment products, such as those for cooling towers and boilers, consider EnduroSOLV as one possible solution for making what you do better and moving it forward. Yes, what you have currently can work but we certainly think EnduroSOLV can make it better.

EnduroSolv® -- A Great Choice for Schools

2011-11-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

Last week, I motored down I-75 to Lexington to attend the Kentucky School Plant Manager Association Meeting (KSPMA). It was another opportunity to share the benefits of the EnduroSolv® solid water treatment alternative to facility managers of Kentucky’s K-12 schools. A colleague from AquaPhase, our EnduroSolv® distributor in Tennessee and Kentucky helped me staff our booth.

As is the case more and more often these days, the response to our technology and product offering was overwhelming. Facility managers and others commented about how much sense our products made for their cooling towers and boilers. In addition to reduced shipping costs and hassles, KSPMA attendees appreciated the safety and sustainability advantages of EnduroSolv® products over traditional caustic liquid chemicals.

As a result of our success at the KSPMA show, AquaPhase will be working to transition a number of school districts to the EnduroSolv® solution in the coming months. If you would like to join these forward thinking facility managers or would like to learn more about EnduroSolv® solid water treatment solutions, please visit www.endurosolv.com.

Happy 10th Birthday, iPod!!

2011-10-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago this week, loyal Apple followers waited anxiously for Steve Job’s anticipated announcement… what new, cool and innovative product was Apple going to release next? Much to the dismay of many Apple loyalists, it was the iPod… What??

You see, at the time, there were already many mp3 players in the marketplace that did the same thing. They played music that you downloaded and they were portable. What was Steve Jobs thinking? In the opinion of many, the iPod was “not revolutionary”, “a bad fit”, and “without a future”.

Needless to say, 10 years later, the iPod continues to hold about 76% of the portable music player market share. Although there were already products out there that performed the same task, Jobs new that a product that was smaller, easier to use and nicer to look at would appeal to many. He, of course, was right.

Now in the water treatment world, liquid chemical products already exist that prevent scale and corrosion in boilers and cooling towers. These products do the job they were made to do. However, there is another way, one that is also appealing to many - the EnduroSolv® line of solid water treatment products. Because EnduroSolv® products contain the same proven chemistry as liquids, EnduroSolv® products also prevent scale and corrosion. However, EnduroSolv® products are significantly cheaper to ship and are safer to use and transport. Much like the iPod is to portable music players, EnduroSolv® products also have a smaller footprint, are easier to use, and make for a much cleaner and “sleeker” mechanical room when compared to the traditional 55-gallon drum of liquids. And, like iPods, EnduroSolv® solid water treatment products have been available for over ten years. So the technology is more than proven – with over 3,000 installations worldwide.

To learn more about EnduroSolv® solid water treatment solutions, please visit www.endurosolv.com.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Simplicity!

2011-10-24T05:12:00.000-07:00

In a previous blog, we mentioned that APTech Group recently held our Grand Opening Open House for our new manufacturing facility. It was a great evening and very well-attended! We had many people visit from all sorts of professional backgrounds. Once again, comments from the good majority of the people talking about EnduroSolv solid water treatment after comparing it to a 55 gallon drum were “this seems so simple, why doesn’t everyone use it”?!

I wish I knew the answer to that question! One thing is for sure, the acceptance of EnduroSolv Solid Water Treatment products continues to increase! With all of the benefits that come with using the EnduroSolv solid water treatment line, including no heavy drums to move, eliminating spills, no pails of chemicals to move, no drum disposal issues or no on site storage issues! If any of these benefits appeal to you, now would be a good time to see how EnduroSolv can make your water treatment needs simpler! Let us know and we can get you in touch with a distributor/partner in your area.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

APTech Open House

2011-10-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, October 6, 2011, we hosted our Grand Opening Open House, an event celebrating our relocation to our new manufacturing facilities, in June, which significantly increases our production capabilities and provides room for growth in coming years.

As part of those festivities, we invited our 2010 EnduroSolv Dealer of the Year, Chad Brown of Water Treatment Services, Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas to join us. During a dinner meeting this week, I asked Chad what he attributed his company’s rapid growth with EnduroSolv solid water treatment chemicals.

Chad told me that there are two key components to his firm's successes:

1. He sells only solids, so he isn’t competing with a liquid product line.
2. When he introduces solids to a Prospect, he tells them that solid water treatment products are the new way to safely handle and distribute water treatment chemicals, and liquids are the old way!

Imagine that – why would anyone not want to move on to something that is safer, easier to handle and more environmentally friendly?

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

Going Abroad

2011-09-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

It has been an exciting time being involved with the continued growth of EnduroSolv and solid water treatment. A big part of the growth has been what has been happening abroad. APTech staff this year have visited England, Czech Republic, Canada, China and Thailand to spread the word on the solid line of cooling tower and boiler products. I'm sure moving forward we will visit many exciting new places, as well.

When I get to my computer in the morning it is amazing and now quite common to see a string of emails that happened over night during the work day in some other country. It was eye opening being in Shanghai and realizing that there was exactly a twelve hour time difference ... when my wife was going to bed in Cincinnati I was a couple hours into the next work day. It is just crazy to think while I have been sleeping away our customers are out spreading the word about EnduroSolv and APTech Group's whole line of products.

While we still strive to push our products in the US we will take every opportunity to grow abroad. A couple of us attended a manufacturing forum today and the focus was on exporting and sending US manufactured goods abroad. One of the speakers stated that exported goods only account for 11% of the US GDP. Today I was asked to guess what percentage of our business was abroad ... I guessed 10%. It turns out to be over 18%. Even as we are just getting started in this endeavor we are outpacing the average in exports and we look froward to the challenges of continuing to grow globally.

Whether your are reading this blog from somewhere in the US or at some far off corner of the globe, feel free to contact APTech Group about how we can help you with you water treatment needs. We've always felt our cooling tower and boiler products were world class ... now they are truly going worldwide!

Cool New Trade Show Display Tool

2011-09-23T04:48:00.000-07:00

Last week, my colleague Kathleen Collier reported in this space on APTech’s successful attendance at the AWT (Association of Water Technologists) in Atlanta. I’d like to expand on that report and tell you about the hit of our booth – in addition to our sustainable solid water treatment products, of course – this cool iPad stand.

Undoubtedly, much of the cool factor was the iPad itself, which seamlessly allowed us to show our promotional video, information about our products and examples of EnduroSolv® solid water treatment installations. All in a nifty counter-height stand. (One tip – if plan on playing a video with sound, consider adding a set of external speakers. The iPad speaker didn’t cut through the trade show noise.)

As you can see, you can imprint your logo on the counter column sleeve, for branding reinforcement, And, the iPad Counter (that’s the product name) breaks down to fit into an oval-shaped briefcase sized carrying case for easy shipment or to check as luggage on a plane.

All for about $300. We got ours from our local promo products guy, but you can just search on “iPad Counter” on the web for vendors, if you’re interested.

2011 AWT Conference in Atlanta

2011-09-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

We just finished up the expo at the 2011 AWT Conference in Atlanta. The turnout for the expo was great and, once again, we had a lot of interest in our EnduroSolv® line of solid water treatment products.

Many distributors were particularly interested in the tower attachment for our dissolving boards. These tower attachments are for use with the new five pound discs of EnduroSolv® cooling tower products. There are many advantages to this new design and we are looking forward to speaking with those distributors and helping to get these systems implemented.

Although it was a long week, it was great to see old friends and put faces to names of others we hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting in person. We are looking forward to getting back to work and planning our exhibit for the AWT conference in Palm Springs! Safe travels to all!

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Anniversary of 9/11

2011-09-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

Like most Americans, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on September 11, 2001. I was sitting at my desk, working for a small start-up company in Lockland, Ohio. My wife called informing me of the horrific events unfolding on television. I stayed at my office that day, confused and not entirely aware of the severity of the attacks. Shocked and disbelief are the only words that can most closely relay how I was feeling during the time immediately following 9/11. I can hardly believe that ten years have passed since that life-altering day.

Ten years of change; ten years of progress.

The small start-up company I worked for, APTech Group, Inc. is now a thriving solid water treatment chemical manufacturer. In September of 2001, we were a two-man operation working out of a 600 square foot facility. APTech Group sold to a small number of customers in the United States. I humbly think back to 9/11 and am grateful for the success APTech Group has seen over the past ten years.

Today, we have twelve employees, and manufacture out of a 16,000 square foot facility. Our customers span the globe. The EnduroSolv® line of solid water treatment continues to help our clients to change the way their water treatment needs are met. EnduroSolv products provide an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to treat boiler and cooling towers. More importantly, as I reflect on 9/11, EnduroSolv® products are a safe way for facilities to meet their water treatment needs.

If you feel EnduroSolv® can be of benefit to your facility, please contact us to have one of our EnduroSolv® dealers meet with you.

And as we pause in these coming days to recall the horrible events of ten years ago, let’s remember our cherished freedoms and vow to never forget those who were injured or lost their lives on 9/11.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

Transporting Water Treatment Chemicals – A Worldwide Issue

2011-09-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

Having recently visited China, I am awed by a society coping with the dramatic changes that have occurred during the past 25 years. The dynamics and pressures which influence a people so that they become adaptable seem to be a constant, wherever we live. One example would be the (barely) managed chaos I experienced in Shanghai while in the midst of the traffic flow among scooters, bicycles, autos and buses, all intermingled with huge buildings and infrastructure in a city with over 23 million citizens.

Moving materials within a city of this size is difficult – whether it be food, supplies, and yes, even water treatment products. It is not uncommon for a water treatment service rep in Shanghai to ride a bicycle or motorized scooter to his accounts. With EnduroSolv® solid concentrated products, the equivalent of 15 gallons of liquid water treatment product weighing 150 lbs. can now be easily carried in the storage compartment of the service rep’s bicycle with one bottle weighing 11 lbs.

Let EnduroSolv® products help with your adaptability-whether it’s an issue associated with Space, Transportation, Safety, or Sustainability. Click here for more information on EnduroSolv® products.

Posted on behalf of Jim Heimert

Facility Managers Beginning to Pay Attention to Carbon Footprint

2011-08-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

A lot of attention is being paid to the issues relative to sustainability, and in particular the carbon footprint of a facility or process. This article on the Facilities Net web site provides a good foundation for a further understanding of what we mean by carbon footprint, how it is measured, and what is meant by carbon equivalents.

Using solid water treatment products in your facility operation has a positive effect of helping you reduce your company’s carbon footprint. If you haven't had a chance to visit us recently, please visit the EnduroSolv® site and check out our section on Carbon Footprint. We've even incorporated a handy Carbon Footprint Calculator to help you calculate the positive effects of switching to EnduroSolv® solid water treatment chemicals.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

What Does “Solid” Mean?

2011-08-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

We have been manufacturing EnduroSolv® solid water treatment chemicals for cooling towers, boilers and closed loop systems for nearly 10 years, with thousands of installations in North America and increasingly around the world. Yet, there is still sometimes confusion about the actual form of the EnduroSolv® product.

Many people assume that EnduroSolv® products
come in a powder form. Not so. Actually EnduroSolv® products come in a relatively firm solid-state form -- kind of a hard, wax-like consistency. Because of this, APTech Group is able to manufacture EnduroSolv® cooling tower water treatment products in disc form and stick form as well as in the more traditional plastic, recyclable bottles.

If you would like to learn about the many benefits of solid EnduroSolv® water treatment chemicals – including reduced shipping costs and others – just click here to learn more and/or contact us.

Can’t See the Forest for the Trees

2011-07-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

We belong to a professional organization which hosts a “chat” room. Association members pose technical questions in order to get other members’ opinions on any particular topic concerning water treatment which they are encountering in the field. I am forever amazed at the way a question/problem is probed and dissected and discussed for days, ad nauseam-to the point of being over-analyzed for a question that has one or two simple answers.

Now I suppose this could be a direct result of the technical nature of the question and many times there are no clear-cut answers. However, it seems to me that the participants’ views become more important (hint: egos) than the actual problem solving-so much so that it caused a board member to resign.

In our world, we see much the same thing with our distributors’ acceptance of new technology such as EnduroSolv solid concentrate water treatment chemicals. The benefits and application of our technology is so simple that many seasoned veterans in our field fail to recognize the simplicity of what EnduroSolv is. Simply stated, we have taken proven chemistry technology that addresses water system problems in cooling and heating, and produced it in a form that makes it easier and safer to use.

If you would like to learn more about the simplicity - and effectiveness - of the EnduroSolv solutions, please visit the EnduroSolv web site or contact us.

Posted on behalf of Jim Heimert

New Facility

2011-07-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

I am sure you have seen previous posts about APTech Group, Inc. moving to a new manufacturing facility. Well……we are now completely moved in and operating out of our new location! Our new plant has allowed us to double our manufacturing abilities along with making our total operations more efficient.

We are all excited to be in the new facility where we can continue to grow the EnduroSolv line of solid water treatment products. Let us know if you would like more information on our line of solid water treatment products or in any way we may be able to help you out.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

Cooling Towers on the Moon?

2011-07-25T04:50:00.000-07:00

With the landing of the Atlantis last week, the US space shuttle program has now ended. There has been much discussion and conjecture about how America will get supplies to the International Space Station now that the shuttles are all shuttered. A piece on NPR last week suggested that private companies will take on the shipping duties, with one firm – SpaceX – claiming to be able to send up material on their rockets for as “little” as $2,000 - $3,000 per pound.

These levels of “shipping costs” bring one of the key advantages of EnduroSolv solid water treatment products into sharp focus. Can you imagine shipping traditional liquid water treatment chemicals to treat cooling towers or boilers, to a future colony on the moon? Based on the SpaceX shipping price, one 55-gallon drum of liquids would cost $1,500,000 to ship to the moon! Compare that to “only” $132,000 to ship a case of EnduroSolv solids. Farfetched, I know – but it does make you stop and think, doesn’t it?

If you’d like to have a “down to earth” conversation about reduced shipping costs and the other benefits of EnduroSolv water treatment, just click here to learn more and/or contact us.

Striving for World Domination

2011-06-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

Every year at this time – as the temperatures work their way into the 90’s in the U.S. – APTech Group experiences its busiest times of the year. The good news is that we are poised to handle the increased demand for our solid water treatment products for cooling towers, closed loop systems and boilers, having just moved into new quarters and tripling our production capacity.

But this summer also has a decidedly international flavor. In recent weeks, we have been working with companies in Indonesia, United Kingdom, Quebec, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Egypt and Brazil. We also have trips planned to Shanghai and Bangkok later in the summer. In all these cases, we are working with water treatment companies who represent and sell our sustainable solid water treatment solution, or, in a few cases, are interested in doing so.

Certainly, the majority of APTech’s sales continue to come from North America. But that could begin to change in the coming years as more and more foreign geographies embrace the many benefits of solid water treatment alternatives. Exciting times, for sure!

The Dust is Settling

2011-06-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

As most of you know from previous announcements, we made the decision to move to a larger manufacturing plant and office earlier this year. Over the last several weeks, preparations have been in full swing – plant equipment installation, painting, furniture installations, etc. With much anticipation, the time has finally come and the new office is now occupied as of June 20th!

In this bigger and better location in Blue Ash (a northeastern suburb of Cincinnati) we now have enough space to work comfortably and further grow the EnduroSolv solid line of water treatment products. We are excited about all the new, upcoming opportunities as we continue to provide safer, greener and more economical water treatment.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Fuel Costs!

2011-05-26T05:36:00.000-07:00

Although fuel prices have gone down slightly from the $4 mark they were recently, gas prices are still high. With no one really sure if they will go up or down and by how much, the price of fuel is something we all have to deal with on a daily basis. From the price you pay at the pump to the price that it takes goods to get to stores, it affects every one of us.

Have you ever thought about how much it costs you in freight charges to get your cooling tower or boiler water treatment chemicals to your facility? If not, then read on...

In order to help you see how much you could save in shipping costs switching from the traditional liquid treatment product to the EnduroSolv® line of solid water treatment products, lets look at the following numbers:

1 case of EnduroSolv® (non-hazardous) – 46 lbs: $23.06
1 case of EnduroSolv® (hazardous) – 50 lbs: $55.56
1 55 gallon drum liquid treatment – 500 lbs: $182.13

(These numbers are estimates – exact numbers could be higher or lower depending on fuel prices and carrier. One case of EnduroSolv® contains the same amount of water treatment chemistry as a 55 gallon drum of liquids.)

In this scenario the single cases are shipped via UPS and the 55-gallon drum is shipped via truck. These costs come from the product being shipped from Cincinnati and going to a facility 300 miles away. As you can see, it costs over 3 times as much to ship the liquid chemistry! Looking at these shipping costs it sure seems like an easy way to save money, not to mention the carbon footprint you would be reducing! To get more details or find an EnduroSolv® dealer in your area let us know!

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

8 Steps to Include in Your Liquid Chemical Storage Plan

2011-05-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

The Environmental Safety Division of the University of Georgia has identified 8 fundamental things to include in your liquid chemical storage plan:

• Chemicals should be stored according to hazard class (ie, flammables, oxidizers, health hazards/toxins, corrosives, etc.).
• Store chemicals away from direct sunlight or localized heat.
• All chemical containers should be properly labeled, dated upon receipt, and dated upon opening.
• Store hazardous chemicals below shoulder height of the shortest person working in this area.
• Shelves should be painted or covered with chemical-resistant paint or chemical-resistant coating.
• Shelves should be secure and strong enough to hold chemicals being stored on them. Do not overload shelves.
• Personnel should be aware of the hazards associated with all hazardous materials.
• Separate solids from liquids.

Wouldn’t you prefer to find an easier, safer more environmentally friendly alternative? If so, now is the time to switch to solid water treatment chemicals. Packaged in recyclable materials which won’t spill, solids present an easy way to store your chemicals and protect your employees and customers. Drop us a line if you’d like to learn more.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

Let’s Celebrate Mother’s …

2011-05-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

With Mother’s Day this past weekend, it seems appropriate to give due to a mother that has helped propel EnduroSolv® and solid water treatment to a prominent standing in the industry. Who is this mother? It’s Necessity … the Mother of All Invention.

What necessities, you ask, have helped make EnduroSolv® and solid water treatment a growing choice among water treatment options? I think we can list a bunch:

• The need to provide treatment to a cooling tower on a roof with no freight elevator
• A boiler in a basement with a limited access will need treatment
• The need to save money due to high freight costs related to high fuel costs that currently exist
• Growing environmental concerns with the continued use of liquid chemistry

EnduroSolv® is a solution to all of these necessities. And because of these demands solid water treatment is becoming a more and more popular choice for boiler and cooling tower treatment.

The necessity for better feed reliability has also led to the development of better feed equipment. Outsourcing the manufacturing of the feed equipment has allowed for the development and production of a much better, much more reliable, better priced and overall better pieces of equipment. The feed equipment that has been developed was greatly needed. Had APTech Group continued to produce feed equipment on its own, it would have been difficult to really devote time and resources to develop EnduroSolv® along with being able to provide feed equipment that is as efficient and desirable as the options that are now available.

Overcoming the obstacle of not being able to get enough solid product fed into a system with a high chemical demand led to the invention of an eductor based feed system, the HydroDose. The need to feed more pounds of product per day has broadened the applications of EnduroSolv® products – now with the availability of 6” stackable discs. This option again makes solid water treatment a more desirable option for water treaters as they are able to envision these products being used in a greater majority of the accounts and installations they service.

So, as we celebrate mothers, it has been interesting to consider the Mother of All Inventions and look at some of the necessities that have helped shape what EnduroSolv® and solid water treatment are today. Please feel free to contact APTech Group to learn more about getting a cooling tower or boiler system set up with EnduroSolv®.

Posted on behalf of Matt Horine

Carbon Footprint Configurator Now on EnduroSolv Site

2011-04-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what the effect of engaging in “green” or environmentally sustainable behavior would be? Making the earth safer for those who come after us is a nice goal in theory. But how do we know our actions will actually have a positive effect?

For facility managers focused on treating the water in their cooling towers, boilers and closed loops, there now is a way to measure one of the benefits of going green from a water treatment perspective: reducing carbon footprint.

We recently developed and posted on the EnduroSolv website a configurator of sorts to help you understand the benefit of switching to solid water treatment chemicals. Just enter a few pieces of data based on your current usage of liquid water treatment chemicals and click on the big, green “Calculate Savings” button – and you’ll see your estimated carbon footprint reduction. We also provide an estimate of the number days leaving your car in the garage that reduction equates to.

It’s a pretty cool tool that begins to quantify one of the positive environmental results of taking the step to solid water treatment chemicals. If you would like to learn more, visit the EnduroSolv site or drop us a note.

AHA! Moments

2011-04-20T10:10:00.002-07:00

Aha Moment definition:
Part of Speech: n
Definition: a sudden understanding, recognition, or resolution; the instant at which the solution to a problem becomes clear.
Example: "Once she had that aha moment, she knew how to proceed."

Life is full of “aha moments”… those moments when something becomes crystal clear, perhaps even obvious. An aha moment could happen for just about anything… in grade school – long division… ugh (although for many of us, this particular moment may never come, thank you calculators); in high school – your career/college choice; for homeowners – the perfect tool to fix that leaky faucet. The list can go on and on…

At the recent National School Plant Manager Association (NSPMA) trade show in the beautiful city of Nashville, my colleague and I witnessed many “aha moments” at our booth. As the plant managers from around the country took a few minutes to find out about the benefits of our EnduroSolv line of products, the aha moments were numerous!

Take a moment to look over the EnduroSolv benefits here: http://endurosolv.com/why_solids

Lowering shipping costs, eliminating spill potentials, reducing risk of moving heavy drums… Could you be missing out on your Aha Moment for your mechanical room?

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Another Clean Installation

2011-04-15T05:27:00.000-07:00

Does this look like your mechanical room?

If the answer is no, why not contact us (www.endurosolv.com/contact)? We’ll put you in touch with one of our local EnduroSolv® solid-concentrate water treatment partners who can work with you to transition your mechanical room to an efficient, clean, safe and sustainable water treatment implementation.

This installation was done by our 2010 EnduroSolv® Distributor of the Year, Water Treatment Services, Inc. of Little Rock, AR. Water Treatment Services is one of many EnduroSolv® distributor/partners throughout the country (and increasingly, around the world). The EnduroSolv® partner in your geographic area can get your water treatment program switched over from a liquid treatment program to a solid water treatment program.

The above picture has a cooling tower inhibitor, bio-dispersant and a biocide – replacing at least 3 drums of liquid chemical and the shipping costs, mess and hazards that are associated with them. Let us know how we can help you get your mechanical room to look like this!

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

Reflecting on Rising Gas Prices

2011-04-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Upon filling my car with gas yesterday, it occurred to me that I went over the $50 ceiling that I have subconsciously implanted in my “you are paying too much” brain. But what can we do? Well, the obvious action is to shift to a more efficient automobile. Usually efficiencies are attributed to a “lighter” car.

Any mode of transportation takes energy to get from point A to point B. It’s no different In water treatment- it’s expensive to ship heavy drums of product -shipping costs are attributed to a value somewhere around 20% of the cost of standard liquid water treatment products (which contain up to 85% water).

Why not switch to a concentrated-solid product like EnduroSolv® to save on shipping costs, and add the water with an automated dispensing system at point of use? Research estimates show a savings of $80 per drum. It makes a lot of “cents”.

Posted on behalf of Jim Heimert

Preparing Your Cooling Tower for Summer

2011-04-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally arrived – well at least on the Calendar. Time to start planning for the start up of your cooling towers. Want to make it easier this year? We have a solution – our EnduroSolv® Sticks products.

With conventional liquid treatment it’s always a hassle to draw out a couple of quarts, or gallons depending on the size of your system and lugging that up to the cooling tower to add to the recirculating water when you start up. The alternative – turn on your chemical pump for a whatever the equivalent time is to dispense the correct amount into the recirculating line before you put load on the system. But don’t forget to turn off the pump – or you’ll have foaming to deal with.

With EnduroSolv® Sticks, one stick of the inhibitor added to the tower at start up will give you the proper amount of treatment for 4,000 system gallons. For an 8,000 gallon system – just throw 2 sticks in the sump. They’ll dissolve just fine without you having to do anything more. Even the wrap of the stick is water soluble – no fuss, no muss.

While you’re at it, add sticks of ES3600 (our DTEA II product), a great dispersant to make sure you get everything taken care of.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

Better Handle Your Material

2011-03-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

Of all the things that are exciting this spring with APTech Group and EnduroSolv®, one of the most exciting are the prospects of moving into our new facility later this year. Late in 2010 we made the decision that the time was right to expand our operation. The focal point of this is a new facility, only several miles from our existing facility, which will double the square footage of our plant and in my opinion, will more than double our manufacturing capacity and product output.

We have taken much time during the last six months and worked with multiple consultants to analyze the process and procedures at the current APTech facility. From our own internal studies and conclusions, along with those of the consultants, we believe we have been able to streamline our processes and procedures to further enable us to better produce the best solid water treatment for cooling towers and boilers on the market, including the EnduroSolv® product line.

Many of the conclusions that we came to centered on how we handled and placed material in our current facility. It didn’t take too long for us to recognize how to implement the improvements at our new facility. We discovered there was too much double handling and lost time and productivity in just this handling and movement of the material through our facility. The new plant is being laid out in manner where we will be able to better handle material and better utilize our personnel’s time to produce better product as opposed to just moving it through the plant.

This can be analogous to the handling of water treatment in a facility. Whether you are a water treater or end-use customer of water treatment, there is a finite time that can be dedicated to the water treatment program. If you are a water treater, you may only have an hour a week or month at a customer or if you are an end-use customer, you only have so many man hours in a day to allocate to all of the tasks that need to be completed. In either case, why waste a portion of this finite time to handling the water treatment products that your facility needs?

By employing a treatment program that utilizes the solid chemistry water treatment products you can eliminate the excess handling required for liquid products. What is the benefit and bottom line of this advantage? If you are a water treater you can spend a greater portion of your time adding services that have value to your customer. And if you are the end-user you can utilize your employees’ time to better benefit your facility as a whole.

As we move into this summer we are looking forward to capitalizing on the new facility with a more efficient use of our resources. Give us a call and we can get you on your way to better utilizing your resources right away.

Posted on behalf of Matt Horine

New EnduroSolv® Dispensing Option Now Available

2011-03-21T06:15:00.000-07:00

Back in December of last year we told you about an exciting new option for dissolving and dispensing EnduroSolv® solid water treatment chemicals. To refresh your memory, the new Tower dispenser, will house up to eight of the new 6” discs of EnduroSolv® solid water treatment chemicals which equates to 40 lbs of solid chemistry (with the new double tower unit). That’s nearly equal to a 55 gallon drum of liquid water treatment!

This new configuration significantly increases the amount of cooling tower chemistry that can be “stocked” in the dissolving unit at one time with no disruptions in feeding the chemistry, in comparison to our plastic bottles (up to a 4X increase with the double tower unit). With this product and dissolver option, EnduroSolv® solid solutions are truly applicable for nearly any size cooling water treatment configuration.

Both the Tower dispensing units and the EnduroSolv® 6” discs are now available for immediate purchase. Contact us by clicking here for delivery times and pricing for this new exciting solid chemical delivery option Cooling Tower water treatment.

Happy Birthday Albert Einstein!!

2011-03-11T06:43:00.000-08:00

This Monday, March 14th marks Albert Einstein’s 132nd birthday. What do you think of when you think of Einstein… great mind, father of physics, E=mc2?

One of Einstein’s greatest traits was his ability to look at something differently than many – to think outside the box (or 55-gallon drum in our case). As Einstein said,

“All of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.”

Take a look at your water treatment program. Can the “everyday thinking” here be refined? Is there an easier way to do this? Is there something that would be safer for your employees? With these unstable and rising gas prices, is there a way to save money on delivery?

Take a minute to think about this and after you enjoy a piece of birthday cake in honor of Einstein, give us a call to discuss how EnduroSolv® can help your water treatment program get out of the box…. er, I mean drum.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Business Courier Awards Banquet

2011-03-04T06:15:00.000-08:00

Last night, the 2011 Green Business Awards banquet hosted by The Business Courier and the U.S. Green Building Council Cincinnati Regional Chapter took place at the Cintas Center on the campus of Xavier University. Our company, APTech Group, Inc. was honored to be a finalist in the Green Market Category. Congratulations to all of the other finalists
in each category and
all of the winners.

Although we did not win the award in the Green Market Strategy category, it was a great night of networking and being able to talk to others about APTech Group – the manufacturer of EnduroSolv® solid water treatment. Many of the people we talked with were intrigued with our story and wondered why people wouldn’t use EnduroSolv® products. It’s the same question we tend to ask ourselves all the time. With so many benefits that the EnduroSolv® product line can offer – including reduced shipping costs, safer handling, reduced carbon footprint and many others – doesn’t it make sense for you to check them out for the facility you manage?

If our story and products leave you questioning why don’t you have EnduroSolv® in your facility, let us know and we will get you in touch with an EnduroSolv® distributor near you. You can also check out www.endurosolv.com for more of the story.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

“Price Is What You Pay, Value Is What You Get” (Warren Buffet)

2011-02-24T05:15:00.000-08:00

A few data points:

A “typical” high rise office building (20 stories) utilizes about 500,000 sq ft of space. The annual utility budget for this space averages about $825,000. So, where does a water treatment budget fall into this scheme?

The answer is -- Somewhere around $12,000 per year (or 1 ½ % of the total utility budget).

EnduroSolv® Solid water treatment chemicals reduces or eliminates:

• Shipping concerns about corrosive liquids
• Shipping costs -- 50 lbs vs. 500 lbs
• Worker chemical exposure concerns
• Equipment room space savings
• Reduces the carbon footprint of the facility

Our partners indicate that switching to EnduroSolv® Solids is cost effective when taking freight and drum disposal issues into consideration, but may need an initial “changeover” investment for on-sight dissolving equipment. This dissolving equipment might average about $1,200 per installation.

Therefore, switching may constitute 10% of the cost of water treatment, which might seem significant to someone only considering his/her water treatment budget. But considering the total utility budget cost, the changeover cost is insignificant.

Sometimes, it’s imperative that the message is received by the people who can look at the big picture and have the power to change.

Posted on Behalf of Jim Heimert

Will This Work in My System?

2011-02-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

Frequently I hear – “this looks good for small systems”, with the implication being that EnduroSolv solid water treatment chemicals are limited to small systems. That is a miss-perception.

From a chemical standpoint, we use a mixture of liquid and solid versions of the same raw materials found in quality liquid blends. In other words, it’s the same actives you get with liquids.

From an operational standpoint, we are currently treating cooling systems in excess of 10,000 operational tons (and we not are limited to that size), and over 100,000 pounds per hour steam production. Our chemicals are used in steam boilers up to 1500 psig.

From a chemical feed standpoint we have made significant improvements with the introduction of the eductor feed systems, giving us effectively 18 gallons per hour chemical feed – with one eductor, and each dissolver can handle up to three eductors at the same time. We will soon be introducing a new form of the product that will allow us to maintain up to 40 lbs of solid product on line at a time – the equivalent of 55 gallons of liquids in actives.

If you have any questions about our ability to handle your specific system needs, please contact us – we’ll show you how we can do it!!

Posted on Behalf of Fred Lattin

Is There a Presentation We Can Give For You?

2011-02-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

APTech Group, the manufacturer of the EnduroSolv® products, has a lot to offer to both water treatment providers and users. I have just returned from helping a distributor partner of ours give four presentations to four different audiences – all focused on the benefits of the solid water treatment products that we manufacture. The interesting aspect of this trip is that these four audiences each would have different and unique levels of interest in products like EnduroSolv®.

The first presentation was to a mechanical contractor who would manage a facility’s HVAC systems. This small group was well aware of the need to treat the water in the systems they manage but had only a passing familiarity with solid water treatment products. It would be common for a company like this to subcontract the water treatment services to a company much like our partner we were presenting with, so it was an excellent chance to educate them on the products. Hopefully, in the future, they will ask their subcontractors to provide solid water treatment at the facilities they oversee.

The next presentation was to a group of over 100 hospital facility managers and directors. This audience would manage and oversee all aspects of a hospital or healthcare facility. Our solid water treatment products would be very attractive to this group as many healthcare facilities are making decisions to have greener operation and to reduce the inventory of hazardous goods onsite.

On the second day of the presentation tour, we visited with a design and architecture firm that has an interest in what water treatment options are available so they can take them into account at the design phase. The firm must consider water treatment options based on the needs of the equipment and the demands of their clients. With this presentation we were able to educate the organization’s team members on an option that can free up space in a mechanical room and can alleviate some of the challenges associated with the delivery of water treatment products.

And finally, the last presentation was to a property management and operation group. This company is entrusted by building owners to ensure continued successful and optimum operation of their property. There were building managers from multiple properties attending this meeting and one of those buildings has already benefited from the success of the solid water treatment product. Combining a success story with our presentation really seemed to open the eyes of the decision makers in the room.

This grouping of four presentations highlights some of the the many constituencies who could benefit from solid water treatment alternatives. Whether you are a water treatment provider, an end-user customer or somehow affiliated in the service chain to treat commercial and industrial water treatment systems, APTech Group is available to provide education on the technology as needed. We have a talented staff that is able and willing to get out and talk and educate about our products. Feel free to contact us at info@endurosolv.com if this would be of interest to you or your organization.

Posted on behalf of Matt Horine

Can water treatment choices improve your Carbon Footprint?

2011-02-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

Those of you who are familiar with the solid water treatment technologies developed by APTech Group know that there are many benefits to transitioning your boilers, cooling towers and closed loop systems to our advanced EnduroSolv® solid chemical solutions.

In addition to financial savings derived from utilizing EnduroSolv® solid water treatment, there are environmental factors and savings to consider. “Carbon Footprint” savings from switching from 55 gallon drums of liquid chemistry to EnduroSolv® solids are many and include:

• Fuel savings from reduced weight in freight delivery
• Plastic savings from reduced container size
• Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) savings from reduced power to produce NaOH)

Let’s consider a Cooling Tower on a 20 story office building with 500 tons refrigeration. The following would be the estimated annual liquid chemistry, used to treat the water:

• 6 - 55 gallon drums of scale/corrosion chemistry
• 2 - 55 gallon drums of micro biological chemistry
• 2 - 55 gallon drums of cleaners

In this example, the liquid chemistry is shipped 600 miles to the office building via trucks using diesel fuel.

For this office building, switching to EnduroSolv® solids would generate the following Carbon Dioxide (CO2) reductions, also known as Carbon Footprint savings:

Transport fuel savings - 422 lbs of CO2 per year
Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) savings - 888 lbs of CO2 per year
Plastic used reduced - 542 lbs of CO2 per year

Total Savings - 1,852 lbs of CO2 per year

Keep in mind that while your Carbon Footprint savings may not be a really big number, it is the combination effect of you and others adopting greener practices that will have a powerful multiplier effect. And with EnduroSolv® solids already in use in over 3,000 installations, that multiplier effect is already occurring.

APTech Group Announced as Finalist for 2011 Green Business Awards

2011-01-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

APTech Group, Inc. – the manufacturer of EnduroSolv® solid water treatment - has been selected as one of the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2011 Green Business Awards finalists in the Green Market Strategy category. (Other categories include: Green Design, Green Education/Outreach and Green Policy.)

The Cincinnati Business Courier, in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council Cincinnati Regional Chapter, created the Green Business Awards to honor and recognize people, companies and organizations that are demonstrating leadership in sustainable practices in a variety of facilities and projects.

APTech Group and the other Green Business Award finalists will be honored at an awards cocktail and hors d’oeuvres reception on Thursday, March 3, 2011, at the Cintas Center at Xavier University in Cincinnati Ohio. At the reception, APTech will receive on-stage recognition and a Finalist Award. Once all of the Finalists have been recognized, the Courier will announce a winner in each of four categories.

Safe Shipping

2011-01-20T12:24:00.000-08:00

Each day in the United States, people and companies ship millions of packages across the country and world. Of these shipments, there are more than 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials that are shipped in the United States every day. Hazardous materials are everywhere and are a fact of life. In one form or another they are in businesses and homes everywhere.

One place you can definitely find hazardous chemicals are located in the equipment rooms that treat the water in cooling towers and boilers. These water treatment chemicals that normally come in 30 and 55 gallon drums in liquid form pose many risks, particularly when it comes to shipping them. They may leave the vendors facility perfectly fine, but once on the truck a number of things could happen. They could tip over and spill, they could be punctured by a forklift or the trucking company hauling the drums could be involved in an accident causing a spill of these chemicals and causing safety issues for many people.

Using the EnduroSolv® brand of cooling tower and boiler treatment can easily avoid any of these negative things from occurring. EnduroSolv® solid water treatment comes packaged in one gallon recyclable bottles. A case of four bottles would replace that 55 gallon drum that is being shipped. Since these products are in a solid from, the elimination of any spills would now be avoided. Wouldn’t you like the peace of mind knowing that the products you are using will arrive at your facility safe? And not cause harm to the populace while in transit?

Take a look at your water treatment program and all of the drums you may have and the potential problems that may occur either during shipment of them to your facility or even when they are on-site. If you would you like to avoid the chance of costly spills or accidents then check out EnduroSolv.com for more information and to find an EnduroSolv® water treater/distributor near you.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

The Before and After Photo Game

2011-01-13T13:10:00.000-08:00

Many of us are familiar with “Photo Hunt”, the popular touch screen game found in many bars across the country. The object of the game is to find the differences in two seemingly identical photos. Let’s take a look at two photos of the same mechanical room – the photo on the left shows the mechanical room before EnduroSolv® solid water treatment was implemented. The photo on the right shows the same room after transitioning to EnduroSolv® products. Can you find some of the differences in the photos below?

Here are several differences that we noticed:

• Floor space – EnduroSolv® products conserve floor space. Five cases of EnduroSolv® solid water treatment products take up the same footprint as just ONE 55-gallon drum.
• Containment area – Since there are no liquids to spill with EnduroSolv®, no containment or special storage area is needed.
• Caution signs/Eyewash areas – since there is no threat of a chemical spill with EnduroSolv®, there is no need for special safety stations that are required with liquid chemicals.
• Neater mechanical room – overall neater and safer work area

Now for the things the photos don’t show… With EnduroSolv® solid water treatment solutions:

• There are no offensive odors or fumes
• Shipping and handling costs are significantly lower
• There are no drum disposal issues. EnduroSolv® products are consumed 100% onsite and come in a recyclable plastic jug
• Risk and liability issues are significantly reduced

Try playing Photo Hunt with your mechanical room… Look at the area as it is configured now and then imagine it with EnduroSolv® products being utilized. Is the area you are imagining a much neater, safer and overall nicer work space? If you like what you see in your mind, contact us to discuss all the advantages of an EnduroSolv® solid water treatment program.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Big Moves Ahead for APTech Group

2011-01-10T05:33:00.000-08:00

Having just attended our Board of Director’s meeting this past week, I’m thankful for the team we have assembled and the forward thinking progress we have made-not only in the financial areas of our organization but in the environmental area as well. After some intense discussions throughout the past few months involving a doubling of production capacity by plant expansion and subsequent move, it was decided that this was the correct path to take.

When the meeting was over, one of the initial dissenters of the move came up to me and without reservation, began to discuss the move and how we could make the new facility greener by incorporating the use of “grey” water for plant operations (water that would previously been sent to sewer can be diverted for re-use). Our chemical water treatment industry needs more vision like this as we go forward. We will all reap the financial and environmental benefits and rewards as a result.

Posted on behalf of Jim Heimert

New Year’s Resolutions

2011-01-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

A recent survey by Yahoo! News revealed that the most popular New Year’s resolution for 2011 is to lose weight. So, let’s make that the same resolution for your cooling tower and boiler water treatment programs … LOSE WEIGHT!!

How can this be done?? It is simple … switch to solid, concentrated water treatment products, such as EnduroSolv®. These solid products have had the excess water removed and the equivalent treatment that comes from a 500 pound, 55 gallon drum is contained in four one gallon bottles weighing approximately 50 pounds. If only it was that simple to lose those extra pounds around the waistline.

The actual treatment of the water using the solid products is achieved through the same chemistry that is common to the cooling and boiler water treatment industry. Basically the way the water is treated has remained the same … there is now just no reason to carry around the extra pounds.

There are many benefits to losing this weight. Use of the EnduroSolv® or similar products provides a much cleaner and neater space. There are fewer hassles handling the water treatment products. This includes reducing the risk of injuries. And lastly, it is cheaper to ship and deliver the solid water treatment products due to handling less total poundage. Coincidentally the third item on the Yahoo! News survey of New Year’s resolutions is to save money.

Let us know it you’d like to make one of your New Year’s resolutions losing weight … er … switching to EnduroSolv® solid cooling tower and boiler treatment products.

Posted on behalf of Matt Horine

Keys to a Clean Boiler

2010-12-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

Want to keep your steam boiler clean, protected from energy robbing deposits, and protect it from oxygen corrosion? It's really pretty simple:

1) Provide only softened water for make- up, and
2) Keep a good residual (20-60 ppm) of sulfite in the boiler at all times.

Is that all? No, but that's 90% of the solution.

There's obviously more to boiler operation and maintenance than these 2 simple steps. However, if you fail to provide soft water, or fail to protect the boiler from oxygen corrosion - you will have system problems and failures despite everything else you do.

So, for your 2011 Resolution let's make sure we do these things.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

New Solid Water Treatment Dispensing Alternative

2010-12-20T08:28:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are familiar with the solid water treatment technologies developed by APTech Group you know that there many benefits to transitioning your boilers, cooling towers and closed loop systems to our advanced solid solutions. (Benefits include: Reduced shipping / handling costs and hassles; reduced environmental spill concerns versus liquids chemicals; safer dispensing than liquids chemicals; neater, cleaner, safer mechanical rooms; increased worker safety and no more triple washing and disposing of 55 gallon drums, among many others.)

With all these great reasons to consider APTech’s solid water treatment solutions, there have still been perceptions that our solution is better suited to smaller implementations. To counter those perceptions we have been working on innovative sizes and shapes for our solid chemistry and with our equipment partner, Hydro Systems, on a new chemical dispenser for use with the new shapes. The result of these efforts are new 6” round solid disks and a new dissolving unit that will allow up to four of the new discs to be placed in the unit at once. This new configuration nearly doubles the amount of cooling tower chemistry that can be “stocked” in the unit at one time with no disruptions in feeding the chemistry, in comparison to our plastic bottles.

We can now give you an update on this highly anticipated dispensing alternative. The new dispenser along with the new 6” discs will be available to order by the beginning of February 2011. Pricing is still being finalized but the new gear will be available as a complete new unit or the tube/tower component only to retrofit an existing bottle dispenser. Give us a shout if you want to learn more about this important advance in solid water treatment.

Risk Management and Your Water Treatment Program

2010-12-09T07:49:00.000-08:00

After doing a little research on risk management, I found that many times risk management does not have to be expensive or labor intensive to be effective. This certainly can be the case with your cooling tower or boiler water treatment program.

On a very simplified level, there are a few basic steps to risk management: Identify the risks, measure the frequency and severity of the negative outcomes resulting from the risks, consider alternative solutions to mitigate the risks and monitor the results of any alternatives applied.

Let’s see how these apply to a typical liquid water treatment program:

1. Identify risks – With a liquid water treatment program, there are many risks including:

• Heavy drums – A 55 gallon drum of liquid chemical weighs about 500 pounds. Not only are these drums expensive to ship, moving these can result in back injury, toe injury, or finger injury which can lead to costly Worker's Compensation Claims.
• Spills – Liquids can spill anywhere – on the way to your facility and inside your facility. These chemicals can be hazardous to both the environment and, most importantly, your employees.
• Onsite storage – Are your liquid chemicals being stored properly? Many facilities do not have the space to properly store liquids based on their hazardous classification. The different chemicals are often stored in one containment area which increases the potential for dangerous chemical reactions.

2. Measure frequency and severity – For a liquid water treatment program with the risks mentioned above, an accident could happen anytime the 55 gallon drums are being transported to your facility, moved to the boiler or cooling tower and even when they are just being stored!

3. Alternative solution? - EnduroSolv® solid concentrate water treatment.

• EnduroSolv® solid products are packaged in 1-gallon, recyclable containers (each weighing about 10 pounds). One case of four jugs offers the same amount of treatment as one 500 lb 55-gallon drum of liquid. Imagine the savings in freight costs alone.
• There is no potential for spills as EnduroSolv® is a solid concentrate.
• Five cases of EnduroSolv® products occupy the same footprint as one 55-gallon drum. Also, since there is no leak potential with EnduroSolv® products, special storage containment areas are not necessary.

4. Monitor results – Because EnduroSolv® products contain the same active ingredients as their liquid counterparts, you will see the same scale and corrosion protection for your boilers and cooling towers you expect in a safer, cleaner and economical program.

Take a look at your water treatment program. Do any of the risks mentioned above apply to your facility? If so, contact us to discuss how EnduroSolv® can help reduce your risk and liability while maintaining your facility’s well run chemical program. Isn’t the peace of mind for both you and your employees worth it?

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Hidden Drum Costs

2010-12-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, we discussed the topic of triple rinsing a drum. Triple rinsing is one of several “hidden” costs when it comes to traditional liquid water treatment.

At a previous Association of Water Technologies (AWT) Convention, a speaker from a large university talked about his decision to switch from liquid water treatment to solid water treatment. In his presentation, he touched on the many hidden costs of drums. He calculated that at his facility handling drums cost him $143 per drum. This number was derived from the following tasks that are involved with handling and disposing of a drum along with the labor rate of his employees:

 Unloading the drum from the truck and moving it to storage
 Move the drum to the cooling tower/boiler
 Setting up the new drum and removing the old one
 Drain and triple rinse the old drum
 Move the empty drum to storage
 Loading the empty drums for disposal.

As you can see there are many hidden costs involved in getting drums delivered to your location that you might not even think about. These costs along with the potential for your employee to be injured by moving a drum (back injury, smashed hand, etc.) are just some things to consider when making your water treatment decisions. Switching to the EnduroSolv® brand of solid water treatment chemicals can eliminate these hidden costs in your water treatment program.

Benefits of EnduroSolv® include:

 No heavy drums to move
 Eliminate spill potentials
 No pails of chemicals to move
 No drum disposal issues
 No on-site storage issues

Check out EnduroSolv.com for more information and to find an EnduroSolv® water treater partner/distributor near you.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

Real “Green” vs. Fake “Green”

2010-11-29T05:49:00.000-08:00

Channel surfing last night led us to a re-run of the movie “The Simpsons”. This was the movie where the whole town of Springfield was put under a glass bubble by the EPA due to their (Homer’s, naturally) inability to cope with years of dumping toxic waste into Lake Springfield. The crux of the story is that while the citizenry as a whole finally wake up to fix the problem, it only takes a handful to tip the balance and ruin it for everyone.

The movie allowed my mind to wander about the whole environmental movement and the misguided efforts of many to wrap an existing product into a new package in order to call it “green”. These items cover the whole spectrum of offerings-from gadgets that attach to domestic water pipes with promises to “soften” the water without conventional salt chemistry – to products that have been “certified green” by some agency that only requires a fee for this certification – to items such as light bulbs that extend the life of the bulb and require less energy, but are loaded with environmentally hazardous materials.

Fortunately, EnduroSolv® Solid Water Treatment is not one of those products. We don’t pretend or promise a panacea for eliminating all aspects of dealing with chemical water treatments, but we have made great strides in providing a product that eliminates most of the hazards of shipping and handling of corrosive liquid products. Simply put, EnduroSolv® is:

• existing water treatment technology
• produced in a different form
• that is easier and safer to use
• as well as being more environmentally friendly

So, if you are in need of a best-of-breed water treatment program for cooling tower, closed loop system or boiler applications, we encourage you to consider EnduroSolv®. You’ll get the water treatment you need, plus really help to sustain the environment.

Posted on behalf of Jim Heimert

Improving Cycles of Concentration

2010-11-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

Cycles of Concentration, Cycles, and Concentration Ratio are all terms used to define how many times we can reuse the water in a system, before we have to remove some of the concentrated water (Blowdown) to prevent scaling or depositing from occurring. The more times we can reuse the water, the more efficient we are in the use of that water and improve the Sustainability of the process. To help understand how the term is used, how it is calculated and what the significance of it is, I’ll use a cooling tower to illustrate the principals involved.

A cooling tower is designed to evaporate heat from a process or HVAC system. As the higher temperature water evaporates, it leaves behind the minerals in the water. Think of a glass of distilled water in which we put a tablespoon of salt and stir it up. We can’t see the salt now; it is dissolved in the water. If we allow that glass to sit for a week or so, at least until all the water is evaporated, what do we have left in the glass? Salt – a tablespoon to be exact.

If we now add another tablespoon of salt to that glass and enough distilled water to fill it, and then stir it a bit, we now have 2 tablespoons of salt dissolved in the same volume of water. We can repeat this evaporation process and adding salt until we reach a point where no matter how much we stir the salt, we see it immediately start to settle on the bottom of the glass.

To measure what that limit is, we use a simple process of measuring a very soluble ion – Chlorides for example, in the city water (Make up Water), and compare it to the chlorides in the tower water (or concentrated water). The formula is:

Cycles = Chlorides in the Tower Water / Chlorides in the Make up Water

If our Make Up Water has Chlorides of 25 (ppm, but that’s another discussion), and the Tower Water has 100 Chlorides (ppm), then we have 100/25 = 4 cycles.

So what? Well, the more we can reuse the water before we have to send some to the drain to prevent scaling or settling, the less water we will need for makeup and the less chemical we will need for the new water being added. In fact at 3 cycles of concentration, 1/3rd of the water we are adding is due to blowdown. At 5 cycles, only 1/5th of the water being added is due to blowdown.

To help you increase your water, sewer and chemical dollar savings, ask your water treatment representative what you can do to increase your Cycles of Concentration in your systems.

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

The Unknown… Fear It? Or Embrace It

2010-11-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

In recent weeks, one of the key, ongoing discussions within our organization has been that of size and space requirements for APTech Group to continue to effectively and efficiently manufacture and distribute EnduroSolv® and other solid water treatment products. With the extraordinary continued growth and acceptance of the solid cooling tower and boiler water products that APTech Group manufactures, there will come a point in time where the existing manufacturing set-up will be insufficient. Many of these discussions focus on the ability to rethink and reorganize the processes we have and adapt them to the facility we currently occupy. And from there determine the practicality of continuing to conduct business in the current setting.

All this leads to lots of introspection and evaluating of what is done at APTech. The time, cost and overall effort to move APTech’s process would be a seismic event and has to be approached with the best possible plan in place. In the end it will be hard to make the move or at least make the decision to move. The current facility is familiar and constant … we know how to produce great product at a cost we know we can manage if we remain where we are. But often this fact is overridden by our intuition that we have to do something different, better. When do we make that leap of faith?

I believe there is a parallel in this decision to the decision of deciding whether a switch should be made to either solid cooling tower or boiler water treatment. Your intuition tells you that the solid products are better because of all of the benefits that they provide to your facility and staff but the incumbent treatment product is the familiar constant much like our current production facility is. While the switch to solid products may not be a seismic event like moving to a larger manufacturing facility or changing production processes, it is none the less a very critical decision to make a move to working with something that is a relatively new.

If you are interested in EnduroSolv® and solid water treatment products in general please contact us and let us tell you our story … hopefully it will help make your “move” easier.

Posted on behalf of Matt Horine

AWT Recap

2010-11-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

It’s been a couple weeks since we got back from the annual Association of Water Technologies Conference and Expo in Reno Nevada. But I’m still buzzing about what a great week it was for APTech Group. Our booth was constantly busy with water treaters interested in taking on the EnduroSolv® solid-state water treatment product line – and checking out the new multi-puck “Tower” dissolving unit.

In years past there may have been some skepticism. After all, EnduroSolv® solids were a bit revolutionary when we introduced the product line in 2002. But with thousands of successful installations across North America and abroad and tremendous sales growth year after year (up 30% 2010 alone!), EnduroSolv® has proven to be a winner.

We’re busy following up with possible future distributors, but there are still opportunities for additional water treater partners. If you’re interested, just fill out a contact form on the EnduroSolv® site – www.endurosolv.com.

The Trouble with Triple Rinsing

2010-10-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

In Tim’s previous post, "What is Water Worth to Your Business?", the importance of water management was discussed along with the potential water savings by using EnduroSolv® water treatment products.

Let’s run the numbers and see how much water can actually be saved.

Proper procedure for triple rinsing a 55-gallon drum is as follows:

• Empty drum to the lowest possible level.
• Fill drum with water to 25% of capacity. Replace and tighten bungs.
• Tip drum on to its side and roll it back and forth, ensuring at least one complete revolution, for 30 seconds.
• Stand the drum on its end and tip it back and forth several times to rinse the corners.
• Turn the drum over on to its other end and repeat this procedure.
• Carefully empty the rinsate into the spray can.
• REPEAT THIS PROCEDURE TWO MORE TIMES.
• Carefully rinse cap over spray tank opening and then dispose of appropriately as regular solid waste.
• Puncture the base of the drum with a drill so that it cannot be reused.
• Store drums under cover where they will be protected from rain.

Sounds easy, right?? So how much water is actually used to complete this procedure correctly? The procedure requires that each drum is filled to 25% of its capacity three different times and rinsed, so…
55 (gallons)
x 25% (of the drum’s capacity)
x 3 (number of times to do procedure)
= 41.25 gallons of water per drum

Now, what does that add up to? A facility that uses five different boiler and/or cooling tower products (one drum for each product) at a rate of one drum of product every other month, uses approximately 60 drums per year. An astonishing 2,475 gallons of water would be needed just to triple rinse those drums… and that’s just for one facility!

A company can eliminate this expense and waste all together by switching to EnduroSolv® water treatment products. Because EnduroSolv® is a solid concentrate, the need for 55-gallon drums and all of their disposal issues is eliminated.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Reno

2010-10-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

We are here in Reno at the annual AWT Convention. It sure is good to see so many water treaters looking for the newest and best technology to treat cooling towers and boilers. EnduroSolv® solid water treatment is one clear advantage that can be used to gain new business. With so many advantages, EnduroSolv® should be able to open many new doors for these water treaters.

If you are at the show please stop by our booth today or tomorrow to learn more about our growing numbers of chemistry delivery systems and learn how you can add our EnduroSolv® solids to your water treatment product options.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

What is Water Worth to Your Business?

2010-10-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

A colleague shared this article with me this morning:

http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/business-brains/what-is-water-worth-to-your-business/10990/

It’s from SmartPlanet Daily and it’s yet another article on the growing importance of managing water. It’s becoming a bigger and bigger issue and everyone is wondering what they can do.

One thing companies can do is transition their cooling tower and boiler water treatment to solid chemistry by EnduroSolv®. As a solid, EnduroSolv® uses water efficiently when being applied. Additionally, there’s no triple rinsing of liquid chemistry 55 drums when using EnduroSolv®. Huge water savings.

Water Treatment Chemical Exposure

2010-10-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

A typical chemical water treatment delivery system requires mixing of 2 or 3 corrosive chemicals into a day tank. Best case traditional scenarios have eliminated operator mixing, whereby the blended chemical is supplied in a liquid form, but once on site still needs to be pumped into the system being treated. In each case, there is a worker exposure element that must be addressed due to the caustic nature of these items. Using EnduroSolv® products and delivery systems eliminates these exposure concerns and the related liability issues.

The first priority in considering your need for an EnduroSolv® dosing system is always the safety of people. In other words, is anyone’s health being affected by the chemicals you’re using or their contact with them? If the answer is yes, then you should immediately begin implementing a plan to minimize this exposure.

A secondary consideration is the potential for incorrectly mixing incompatible chemicals, resulting in wasted product, or worse, the violent reaction that might occur-resulting in toxic gases or vapor release.

One last exposure/handling issue is the physical work it takes to move a drum of chemical – some weighing as much as 500 lbs. Accidents such as back injuries or smashed fingers (when setting these oversized drums into place) can easily be eliminated by utilizing the EnduroSolv® solids system.

Until end users begin to re-think their chemical dispensing philosophy, or come under a clear mandate from regulatory authorities, traditional dosing systems will continue to be employed. Still, with an ever-increasing desire to minimize chemical exposure, EnduroSolv® delivery systems offer efficiency and safety benefits that clearly establishes it as a best practices approach.

Posted on Behalf of Jim Heimert

Solid Chemicals - Lessons from the Food Industry

2010-10-05T04:34:00.000-07:00

The idea of using solid powders and concentrates to reduce shipping weights and costs has been a source of innovation in the food industry for years. Instant coffee, for instance, was developed in the 1930’s. During WWII, the US Army developed its infamous K-rations to permit a lightweight, nutritious meal for its field soldiers. (At the time, the rations also included cigarettes!)

In the 60’s, I was part of an effort to replace latex in chewing gum with solid rubber, an effort that reduced process times by about 75%. And in the 1970’s, I participated in various projects involving concentrating tomato juice during fresh tomato harvesting season which could be reconstituted and shipped as a concentrate, then reconstituted to juice strength at a location closer to the end user.

The reason for such a slow development time in the food industry is that maintaining flavor while drying or concentrating was and is a technological challenge. Fortunately for us who manufacture products to treat the water in boilers and cooling tower, we are not faced with such a huge challenge. Indeed, once the manufacturing nuances of solids are met, the technology of using the product is exactly the same as for liquids.

With EnduroSolv products you can start realizing the advantages that the US Army was after when it developed K-rations in WWII:
• Lighter weight - enabling reduced shipping costs.
• Convenience - no need to wheel around heavy drums, totes, etc.
• Ease of use - the technology is the same as for liquids.

Thousands of facilities are already making use of this Solid Water Treatment technology for sustainable boiler and cooling tower water treatment. And since we have done the work of “solidifying” the chemicals, by removing the water, you can take advantage of one of the easiest ways to reduce shipping costs and create a greener planet.

Posted on Behalf of Al Heimert

Sharks and Solid Water Treatment

2010-10-01T05:45:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a week of Cage Diving with Great White Sharks off the Island of Guadalupe Mexico. Suspended 40 feet beneath the sea, with curious Great Whites swimming around you will get your heart pumping!

During our week at sea, I had an opportunity to meet 12 divers who weren’t with our group. One night after dinner, I was explaining what I do "in real life", and after a brief discussion that focused on the benefits of 1) improved safety; 2) convenience; 3) savings and the like associated with using Solid Water Treatment, one of my new friends asked - "Why doesn't everyone use solids?".

Pretty good question don't you think? You don't have to understand any chemistry to see why solid water treatment could benefit you and your company.

Posted on Behalf of Fred Lattin

The Shape of Things to Come

2010-09-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

As the Solid water treatment products have become more popular and accepted in the market, there have been questions as to how the use of the products can be expanded. Early on, after the initial introduction of Solid cooling tower and boiler products, it seems, at least anecdotally, that the products were being pigeonholed to “small” accounts. It wouldn’t be uncommon to hear at trade shows and meetings something like, “the Solid products are really good for small cooling towers …” but certainly those of us at APTech hold the belief they can be made to work at accounts of all sizes.

It seems that this may have become a real life example of perception becoming reality. In actuality the chemistry that we offer in the Solid form will work on cooling towers and boilers of all sizes. We will acknowledge that as the cooling tower system gets larger there will be some challenges and there may have to be some creativity employed to make the chemical feed more convenient for both the water treater and the customer. As a system gets larger thus using more make-up water, the 11 pound Solid bottles are consumed faster and have to be changed more frequently. While many users in the market are willing to work around this to realize all of the benefits of the Solid system (see www.endurosolv.com for details) many are not.

This posed a challenge for APTech … how do we eliminate these concerns and further open up the market? Many customers have seen the successes of Solids on the “smaller” systems and want the Solids on all of their systems. With this knowledge in tow, APTech has been able to work on alternative packing and delivery of the Solid scale and corrosion inhibitors for cooling towers. The idea was to take this product out of the bottle and consequently be able to load as much product in a feeder as needed.

In 2011 APTech and EnduroSolv will introduce new six inch diameter discs of the cooling tower inhibitors. These discs will weigh approximately five pounds each and will load into a feed system that is currently under development at Hydro Systems. These discs will allow for more than 20 pounds of product to be loaded into a feeder at one time … twice the amount in a bottle. And along with twice the quantity of the product, the other benefit will be that the system can be loaded with more inhibitor at any time. No more waiting until the bottle is empty!! This can guarantee long runs of interrupted feed for towers of all sizes.

We believe this concept can further expand the market and acceptance of the Solid cooling tower products. The benefits are clear and people are becoming aware of that … now we need to make the benefits available to all who want to realize these benefits!!

Matt

Reduce Chemical Spills - Use EnduroSolv®

2010-09-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

I have subscribed to a number of “Google Alerts” germane to the water treatment industry and I am constantly amazed at the number of Hazmat-type spills that occur around the U.S. There seemingly are several spills each week and a representative percentage involve liquid chemicals used to treat the water in cooling towers or boilers.

Every time I see one of these articles, I think about the opportunities for reduced shipping costs and increased safety that these companies are missing. If they would utilize the EnduroSolv® solid water treatment chemicals, not only would shipping costs be a fraction of the cost of shipping liquid chemistry, but the improved safety is also significant.

The good news is that more and more facilities are switching to solid state water treatment chemistry. So hopefully over time, I will see fewer and fewer of these chemical-spill stories.

Training the Troops

2010-09-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

As demand for the EnduroSolv® line of solid water treatment products increases, it is more important than ever that our distribution partners – both here in the US and abroad – are properly trained and can spread the word about all the benefits of EnduroSolv®. To address this need, we launched a series of training and informational webinars in June of this year.

The purpose of these webinars is to provide a means of informing and training our distributor network on new products, selling tools, equipment and best practices. The webinar format allows us to reach our entire distributor network in an efficient and timely manner. And since we are able to record the webinars, we have found that many partners have been using the recordings as training sessions for their entire sales and service staff. Initial response to the first few webinars has been very positive and we look forward to continuing the series into the fall and 2011.

Posted on behalf of Kathleen Collier

Everything’s Kosher

2010-09-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

As a reminder to all of you who may have the need for Kosher approved water treatment products for your food plants: All of the EnduroSolvTM solid products are Kosher certified. If you have the need for Kosher approved products, let us know and we can get you a copy of the certificate to you.

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

Considerations for Choosing a Responsible Water Treater

2010-08-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

Picking a water treatment product line for your facility ought to be easy – “I want something Greener, Safer and more Environmentally friendly for my boilers and cooling towers”. That is why we created EnduroSolv solids.

Picking a company to partner with seems to be more of a challenge. What should you expect from your Water Treatment Consultant? How important is cost? How can this company help me do a better job of protecting my equipment, improving my energy efficiency, training my staff, problem solving– while effectively communicating with our company and our staff?

Sometimes we take the easy approach – which company can provide me water treatment products and services at the lowest cost? Not bad on the money saving approach, but how much are you really going to save? In most facilities water treatment costs represent 0.5% to 2.0% of their Operating Budget. If you could magically cut that in half – and get all the things you really expect from your partner – what would you really save – 0.25-1.0% of your budget.

A substantial part of the growth and success we are realizing is a direct result of the outstanding Partner network we have with over 150 distributors covering North and South America from Alaska and Canada, to Brazil and Argentina; from the Far East to Europe. These are the companies that can provide you the real savings in Operating Costs and do it with EnduroSolv products that provide all of the things you are really looking for.

To find a distributor near you, just click on the contact page on the EnduroSolv site and we will provide you with a qualified Water Consultant that not only provide responsible water treatment products and service, but can help be part of increasing your profits, not your costs.

Posted on Behalf of Fred Lattin

Ruminations from the CEO

2010-08-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

We are extremely fortunate to manufacture a product that is increasing in acceptance, during these tough economic times. While other manufacturing sectors struggle for survival, we are experiencing a huge demand for our EnduroSolv™ technology and have seen production increase by over 30% this year. As a result, we have hired new plant personnel and staff people to keep up with this demand.

How is this happening? We’re offering a concept that is heads above existing technology when addressing safety, lowering the carbon footprint, and reducing worker exposure to corrosive chemicals now being used in the water treatment industry. Simply stated, we have taken existing technology, and produced it into a Solid Encapsulated form which makes it easier, safer, and greener to use-all without compromising performance. Coincidently, the industries that are especially interested in our technology are those that are still maintaining – and in some cases, growing their economic posture: Healthcare, Education, Food, and Government (facilities and buildings).

One lesson we are learning as we observe some of the down sectors of our economy is to never grow complacent in what we are doing. We always need to look for better ways to do things and make those available to our partners. Some of these projects include: more accurate dissolving and dosing equipment, more biodegradable products, implementing additional manufacturing efficiencies and better ways to communicate our successes with potential users of our technology.

Posted on behalf of Jim Heimert, CEO of APTech Group, manufacturer of EnduroSolv solid water treatment solutions

Hittin’ The Road

2010-08-16T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I am at the end of a long week of travel where I have been busy spreading the word about solid water treatment and EnduroSolv. My travels have taken me from Texas to Toronto … so if you know of anyone with cooling tower water or boiler water treatment needs in those areas, I can get you in touch with the right company.

It has been very interesting and enlightening to discuss with people how they personally or their water treatment company receive the solid water treatment products. I have talked with companies where these products range from 5% of their business to a company where it is 90% of their water treatment business. I would say this kind of range of reception is common … so while we are seeing much success and growth of the acceptance of our products in the market, we still have lots of work to do.

As I write this as I wait to head to the airport in Toronto, I am amazed at how big of a metro area this is. Driving around I see all of the different types of target markets that our products have a perfect fit for… hospitals, commercial buildings, schools and there is lots of industry. And I have noticed driving around the sprawl of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), is that there is quite a fair amount of new construction compared to what I see at home in Cincinnati. Along one stretch of highway as we headed away from the airport, I saw what must have been at least a dozen high rise condos being built. Think those might have some cooling towers on the roof? I know people don’t want to lug those pails and drums of liquids through that high dollar real estate to the mechanical room on the top floor.

That’s about it … I need to pack up the suitcase and get on home. I have really enjoyed my trips across North America and am proud to see how our work has helped our products gain acceptance in both the US and Canada. I look forward to the next chance to get out and talk about EnduroSolv and solid water treatment.

A few thoughts from the “new guy” at APTech Group …

2010-08-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

I am looking forward to getting out on the road later this month and in September, to visit several of our dealer partners. I have trips planned to Texas, Tennessee, New York and Minnesota. In addition to meeting with several distributor team members, I will have the opportunity to visit sites where our environmentally friendly EnduroSolv solid chemistry systems are installed. Can’t wait to see those organized, clean installations – with no 55 gallon drums in sight!

One of my responsibilities is to reach out to organizations who could benefit from switching to EnduroSolv solids (which, let’s face it is nearly everyone –hospitals, universities/schools, factories, office buildings, etc.). I have two observations to make about this process.

1. While no one likes to have their day interrupted with a phone call, people are universally pleasant, in a business-like manner, and;
2. Even if they aren’t interested in pursuing a relationship currently, they are all impressed with the simplicity of the sustainable, cost saving safe approach that the EnduroSolv system employs.

It sure makes the “prospecting” process more interesting – and almost fun…

Water Treatment Technology

2010-07-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

When buying or managing a building, water treatment may not be the first thing on your mind. But for maintenance leads and facilities managers, it’s a common concern: which water treatment technology is best for boilers and cooling towers?

Clearly, there are many options to consider. Many of them consist of heavy liquid material handling equipment like drums and totes when introducing liquid chemicals into systems. These chemicals act as disinfectants and scale/corrosion inhibitors, which reduce bacteria and prevent mineral build-up and metal removal in boiler or cooling water systems.

Maybe your facility’s water isn’t contaminated, but you’re noticing a lot of pipe corrosion or scale build-up. That could mean the water needs to be adjusted and chemicals may be necessary.

Boiler chemicals combined with reverse osmosis or softening is another, albeit complicated way to go, so it’s no surprise that giant drums of liquid chemicals have been the standby method for many years.

While standard liquids have certainly worked, they aren’t without downsides. One downside is that liquid chemicals are much more likely to spill or leak either in transport or storage, causing dangerous toxic messes. Though this may be a somewhat obvious risk, it can be entirely avoided with a solid water treatment chemical solution such as EnduroSolv: same benefits minus the risk of spills.

Aside from the risk of spills with liquids, many people don’t realize the added energy (and therefore cost) it takes to actually transport those liquids. They’re heavier and bulkier than the solid water treatment solutions because they require added caustic chemicals to maintain the pH levels. By eliminating this added weight, it’s much cheaper and better for the environment to ship solid.

Another important benefit of a solid solution is that it can help buildings go green and qualify for LEEDS certification, because the water treatment technology uses eco-friendly products, eliminates exposure to hazardous chemicals, and does away with drums that may not always be recycled and end up in landfills.

Speaking of those 55-gallon drums: they typically weigh about 500 pounds. Why choose to move those around (and perhaps risk injury to yourself or employees while doing so) when you can handle our 10 lb. solid containers (a case of four containers weighs about 40 lbs)?

Water treatment technology is an important aspect of building maintenance and ownership. Consider all options before choosing your preferred method.

New and Improved Website

2009-12-18T06:58:00.000-08:00

Please check out the new and improved www.endurosolv.com. The new website looks great and APTech is very pleased with how it turned out. Hopefully everyone that goes searching for water treatment for either cooling towers or boilers will land here and contact us for more information.

Air Water Earth Incorporated Visit

2009-11-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

We just enjoyed a great visit here in Cincinnati with the guys from Air Water Earth Incorporated out of the Toronto area. These guys have been very successful taking EnduroSolv into many types of industrial accounts in their area. They are now starting to reap the rewards of offering the EnduroSolv products for cooling towers and boilers. EnduroSolv has become a key component of their product offerings along with items related to air and wastewater treatment.

Feel free to contact me or check out the AWE guys at www.awe-env.com. I'm sure they would be glad to speak with anyone interested in learning more about EnduroSolv from a distributor's point of view. There is also a good profile on a YouTube video of AWE at a recent tradeshow ... check it out at http://www.gogoeco.com/index.php/science-technology-menuitem/82-a-blue-company-that-is-truely-green

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Real Life Reason Why to Use EnduroSolv

2009-11-18T18:11:00.000-08:00

Do you want a real life reason to use solid water treatment products, like EnduroSolv?? Read the article below from the Cincinnati Enquirer's webpage (written by Carrie Whitaker):

"A chemical spill took the rush out of rush hour Wednesday when northbound Interstate 71 had to be shut down for nearly three hours to clean up boiler cleaner from the roadway, a member of the Norwood Fire Department said.

Norwood police called the fire department at about 4 p.m. after pulling up behind a disabled medium-sized truck that was leaking some sort of liquid, said Norwood fire Capt. Steve Rump.
“We did a quick survey of the scene and realized it wasn’t something we wanted to get too close to,” Rump said. “The placard said ‘Corrosive.’”
As a steady rain threatened to spread the caustic material, authorities at the scene chose to close all lanes of traffic and an overpass just north of the Smith-Edwards highway exit.
Three members of the Greater Cincinnati Hazardous Materials team used a neutralizing powder on the liquid while wearing spaceman-like suits, one in red, one in yellow and another in silver.

Authorities are not sure how the 55-gallon drum of boiler cleaner began to leak, Rump said, but it is believed that the load shifted causing at least one drum to overturn.

The highway reopened around 7 p.m., but the closure caused traffic back-ups all over town."

Here is the link as well: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091118/NEWS01/311180012/1055/NEWS/Chemical+spill+snarls+I-71+N

Power Gen International

2009-10-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

APTech Group is busy getting ready to present the EnduroSolv products to the power generating industry at the Power Gen International show in Las Vegas in early December. This will be a good opportunity to show this industry the EnduroSolv technology for boiler and cooling tower water treatment.

By the time of the show there should be good early results from the dechlorinating trial. Hopefully this success will open doors to get EnduroSolv a start in this industry. This trial with ES-Dechlor for removing chlorine from cooling tower blowdown is a little bit of a step away from the traditional water treatment applications that EnduroSolv has traditionally been associated with but the benefits and positives of EnduroSolv are a perfect fit for this application.

ES-Dechlor

2009-10-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

We went today to check on the progress of the EnduroSolv product being used for dechlorinating the cooling tower blowdown water at a power plant. The trial is using the solid ES-DChlor as opposed to the traditional 38% bisulfite solution. The product is working and doing its job but we may be overfeeding the product for the demand that is currently present.

But all in all it is a good start and I think we'll get the feedrate for the ES-DChlor nailed. It is exciting to have an opportunity for EnduroSolv at a power plant.

EnduroSolv Spreading to Mexico

2009-10-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Very exciting that last evening I received an email from a gentleman in Mexcio who had just gained business there using our EnduroSolv water treatment products. He is excited for this account to become a reference account to gain further business. Hopefully this is a start for us gaining business in another part of the world.

Power Plant Dechlorination Trial

2009-10-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

APTech Group, Inc. is excited to announce that we will be conducting a trial for dechlorinating cooling tower blowdown water with one of the EnduroSolv solid water treatment products. The goal is to have results prior to EnduroSolv being displayed at the Power Gen International show in December.

The hope is that this trial leads to further opportunities at this facility and others ... in both dechlorination applications and with other water treatment needs. We view this as a big step for EnduroSolv. We'll keep the blog up to date with results as we get them.

Twitter and Facebook

2009-09-23T17:57:00.001-07:00

You can follow the latest with EnduroSolv and APTech on Facebook and Twitter. Search us on Facebook and become a fan. And you can follow us at @aptechgroup on Twitter.

The First EnduroSolv Blog Post

2009-09-23T17:42:00.001-07:00

Well here is the first blog post for EnduroSolv. For those of you who don't know EnduroSolv is the world's leading brand of solid cooling tower and boiler water treatment. Solid water treatment for cooling towers, boilers and other water systems is quickly becoming the popular choice for water treatment as we move forward into the 21st century.

EnduroSolv is the brand of solid water treatment produced by APTech Group, Inc. in Cincinnati, OH; the industry leader in providing a green option for water treatment. For further info and a great video displaying all the benefits of EnduroSolv and solid water treatment, check out http://www.endurosolv.com/.