Earth Day

Sunday was Earth Day. Earth Day is an annual day in which events are held all over the world to help increase awareness and appreciate the environment. The first Earth Day was held in 1970 and is held on April 22 of each year. These days it is not hard to find people trying to make the Earth a better place.

In fact, my 2nd Grade daughter came home from school last week with many things she wanted us to do at home to help the Earth. She started off by running and checking all our faucets for leaks/drips. She told us we had to turn off the lights in rooms we were not in and she even wanted us to unplug all the appliances in each room when we left it.

My favorite though, was when she asked if I could start using old cooking oil in my car instead of gas! It was hard for her to understand that I couldn’t just start filling my car up with the old cooking oil. (They had read an article about a car that was able to run on this type of oil and thought that every car had that capability!)

What she did understand though after a little explaining, was how the EnduroSolv® line of Solid Water Treatment Chemicals was making a difference in the environment. I explained to her that not only do our chemicals help re-use water, but they also reduce the carbon footprint. (As you might imagine, the concept of carbon footprint also took a little explaining).

But when I told her that if every facility in the United States switch to EnduroSolv® products, it would be like taking 52,000 cars of the roads (from a carbon footprint standpoint), she was able to understand that! And as was the case her desire for me to switch from gasoline to old cooking oil, she instantly wanted to know why everyone wasn’t using our products so that all those “cars” could be removed from the roads! I wish everyone could think this simplistically and just make the switch!

Besides helping the environment, EnduroSolv® Solid Water Treatment has many benefits that could help your facilities water treatment needs. If you would like additional information please let us know and we can get you in contact with an EnduroSolv® dealer near you.

Happy Belated Earth Day!

Image source: www.outlook.noaa.gov

Posted on behalf of Todd Lee

World Water Day

On Thursday, March 22nd we recognized World Water Day 2012.

So how did you celebrate or otherwise recognize this important event? Why do we even have to recognize water? Simply put, water is a limited resource. While over 75% of the earth is water, only 1% of that water is in a useable form. While not a diminishing resource, it is limited.


Water has unique properties: it can be used to heat or cool; it can be made into a gas (steam), or a solid form (ice). It can provide life, or in the event of pollution – death. We rely on it in many ways that we may never recognize.
At APTech Group, we deal with ways to conserve and reuse this valuable resource every day. Our products are designed to not only conserve water, but to do so in a safe, economical, and environmentally friendly manner.

We provide our dealer partners with many tools to assist them in finding the best solution for their customers. Here’s a tool that anyone can use to learn more about what they can do to help conserve this valuable resource.

Over 12% of the 7,000,000,000 earth population goes without safe drinking water on any given day. We are an active supporter of charity: water – an organization devoted exclusively to finding safe drinking water for those people that have none. Please join us to make a difference in this effort.

And have a great World Water Day!

Posted on behalf of Fred Lattin

Thoughts from the New Guy…

As one of the newest employees of
APTech Group, I find myself trying to understand everything from where to park my car each day at the office; to the acid/base reaction that makes our solid water treatment products possible.

It can be overwhelming being the newest person on staff. It took my 11 year old daughter to put everything I am doing back into perspective. A couple weeks ago, when I got home from work she greeted me with a big hug. She said she talked about me today at school. So I am assuming she was extolling my virtues about being a Dad. A Dad who understands family/ work balance. A Dad who rarely misses a soccer game or even a practice, demands family dinner time, and once a week family game night. Patting myself on the back a bit, I guess.

But none of that comes out of her mouth. “Dad, I am very proud of your company”. What? My Job? Okay, so she is going to say “your hard work pays for the things we have and the upcoming vacation to Disney”. I get it and that is very nice to appreciate the things we have.

What she actually says is “Dad, I talked about how your stuff in a jar (that's 11 year old speak for our innovative, sustainable, solid water treatment chemicals) can help the environment”. She explained to her class during a science discussion about the environment that my company can help reuse water, reduce pollution in the air and they (Dad’s company) even helps to drill wells in Africa for people who have no water.

I hope the teacher does not ask me to come in and explain the way a well is drilled! APTech Group does support charity: water with a donation for every case of product we sell, but there are no drill bits in the warehouse.

What everyone should be proud of is the commitment to the environment with each installation of APTech’s solid water treatment solution for cooling towers and boilers. To make a difference on this planet, it has to be a broad based effort making small behavior changes that, when performed collectively, can substantially decrease environmental impact.

If one company converts 1,000 tons of cooling to solid water treatment chemicals, it can reduce carbon dioxide levels equivalent to parking your car for 6 months. And, if everyone in America switched to solids it would be equivalent to taking 52,000 cars off the road.

I am very proud of what APTech Group is doing – as is my daughter evidently.

Posted on behalf of Marc Beller

Need for LEED Water Efficiency

According to National Geographic, 97% of water on the earth is saltwater. Another 2% is locked into polar ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for almost seven billion people to share.

Here in the US, fresh water concerns are becoming more widespread, affecting not just the Southwest and West, but rapidly developing areas like Charlotte and Nashville where once abundant water supplies are strained by rapid growth and development. Commercial and institutional buildings are major water users, so water efficiency measures for the built environment have a significant impact on our water issues.

The US Green Building Council’s LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance green rating system emphasizes water efficiency as one of its five environmental categories. One LEED EB water efficiency credit is a “gimmee” for EnduroSolv® solid water treatment adopters: Cooling Tower Water Management – Chemical Management. Your EnduroSolv® expert can develop a water treatment plan for you to earn this credit that addresses chemical treatment, bleed-off, corrosion, scaling, bio-fouling, metering, controls and training.

EnduroSolv® solid chemicals offer a host of other environmental benefits that support other LEED certification credits, too. Please contact us to help you with LEED questions – we now have a LEED Accredited Professional on staff – and advice on other water-saving strategies for your cooling tower, boiler or closed-loop systems.

Posted on behalf of Lew Bonadies, LEED AP

March Madness!

This is such an exciting time of the year. Congratulations to all the teams that will play in the 2012 NCAA college tournament.

Everyone at APTech Group, and I mean everyone, knows I am a huge Indiana University Hoosier fan. I have struggled through 4 years of 20 loss seasons from a program that rarely ever missed the tournament and has 5 national championship banners. Why this year? In my opinion it is Cody Zeller deciding to not go play with his brother in North Carolina and stay in-state. His decision to play for the Hoosiers has been called a “Game Changer”. I believe it.


Speaking of “Game Changers”, I was travelling last week and I had one of our solid water treatment distributors tell me that the solids program is a Game Changer for his territory – especially when the audience are members of upper management. At this level, the customer will not ask about what the phosphonate package is or how much yellow metal protection is in the formula. They get excited when they hear these four benefits:

1) Solids can reduce the company’s risk and liability.
2) Solids can reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
3) Solids can help your company Go Green.
4) Solids can make a positive economic impact.

Call us if you need help “scoring” with these 4 points and we will help you put on a full court press. APTech’s solids are no longer the Cinderella story in the big dance.

We are the number one seed and can take you to the finals – whether you are a facility manager considering our solid alternative or one our distributors sharing the solid story with your customers.

Go Luck and Go Hoosiers… (And - go Cincinnti Bearcats! -Blog Editor)

Posted on behalf of Marc Beller

New App Available to Calculate Water Treatment Indices

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!!!

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