July 2023
Tap water is now over half a dollar. My wife and I took a break from distributing USA made swimming pool heaters and geothermal supplies when we picked up some food from the drive through at Burger King today for lunch. I am grateful that she is just as happy with a sit down expensive dinner or just some take out food that we can eat parked in the car in the shade at a local park. I asked for some water when I picked up my food as it is very hot today as anyone in the Northern Hemisphere is probably experiencing and we have been running a bit dehydrated. They said now it is .55 cents for tap water. Now I know they have a to pay for a plastic cup and straw, but in the interest of the happy customer experience that should be covered. We are paying more for everything on the menu this year and they could have added a couple of cents for that. We even used the app to order saving them the labor and the time of taking the order, collecting the payment and making change. Also we didn’t sit down in the store and cause a mess that they then would have to clean up. (I seem to knock over drinks and drop food lately) We didn’t even give them trash to dispose of. In my company we do everything possible not to nickel and dime our customers. I try to cover extra expenses if possible especially if it isn’t my clients fault. I even feel guilty sometimes when I suggest a winter cover for the heatpump or a chiller for aquaculture as I don’t like to pad the bill. I then did something that maybe someone with too much time on their hands might do. I drove across the street to a McDonald’s restaurant and got a large ice coffee and a large water for .99 cents plus tax. How could I resist. They have a closer business model to mine and seem to care. I don’t really know if they care but the person who took the money and the person who gave me my drinks were both smiling and seemed happy to see me, and I felt good when I drove out. If I feel good then I am better at my business and maybe that will rub off on my next interaction with someone. If your pool is too cold or too hot and you get a swimming pool heater or a geothermal heat pump from me this week then I promise I will cover all the drinking water you can drink and I will smile and will be happy that I have you as a new friend.
Be safe out there and have an amazing swimming summer.
Best,
Marcus
PS We recycled the cups and the vanilla ice coffee was really good. 🙂
PPS In the interest of insider trading and selfish self promotion I probably have McDonalds restaurant stock in an ETF in the retirement account. Come to think of it there is just as much chance I also have Burger King in there too. So ignore this paragraph.
PPPS Burger King just offered me a $5.00 credit today on my next mobile app order. That was kinda cool of them. Thanks BK. I wonder if I can use that to order 9 cups of water?
I am making up excuses lately instead of dealing with the brutal truth. Also it seems my wife and I are not communicating too well about food issues. I bought a new refrigerator and had it delivered and set up at my house while I was out of town visiting a geothermal heat pump factory to make sure they were doing everything right. That was a month ago. The refrigerator looks very nice and has some great features. It makes ice cubes and dispenses water too. I enjoy pure ice water. It is my favorite refreshing drink. I put the cubes in first and then the filtered water. When I just took water from the dispenser, I noticed that it didn’t seem very cold. My excuse was that probably the fridge doesn’t store water inside to cool it, and it is just passing through, & I am just drinking tap water at the same temperature as the kitchen faucet. Hey I am a refrigeration guy who has repaired 100’s of residential and commercial freezers, refrigerators and walk in coolers, so I should know better. I would take leftover food out to have a snack and my wife would smell it and throw it out before I could eat it. I can’t smell very well anymore. Maybe because I repaired too many ammonia refrigeration systems in 90 year old hockey rinks and dairy factories? Yes, they are still out there. Probably ammonia is better for the ozone than freon, but it is brutal on the nose when they leak. That was the second clue that I missed thinking maybe my wife nose was too sensitive and the food might have a few more days. I don’t drink milk much so I also didn’t know my wife was throwing the milk out after only a few days. She was thinking that my daughter might be leaving it out too long. Finally after being asked to buy milk too many times I saw the light & looked at the thermostat and saw the refrigerator was set close to 50 Fahrenheit. That is a tropical 10 Celsius for my friends outside of the USA. I adjusted it lower and now we enjoy 37F food and drink just like regular people. Reminds me of all the swimming pool and spa heat pump, geothermal, aquaponic, hydroponic and aquaculture service calls that I took where the only problem was the thermostat was set wrong or the heat pump was turned off. I hated telling people that news as then they feel stupid and that isn’t a good feeling as you write a bill for your labor. Now I know firsthand what that feeling is. Then I thought maybe I am slipping a bit in my middle kinda young old age? No that couldn’t be possible. I just installed a really quiet inverter variable btu condenser on my 18 year old Rheem Ruud heatpump split system. I squeezed into a nook in the crawl space next to where the air handler and a-coil was jammed with no room for my 182 pounds and changed the expansion valve and metering piston on the indoor coil so I could use 410A freon and stop using 2005’s Freon 22. That worked out pretty well so I must still have some diagnostic skills. My electric bill dropped too so I am happy.
Keep an eye on symptoms. They are your friend. 🙂
Best,
Marcus Miller Cell 360 348 7574
I repaired a household refrigerator from the 1940’s at a hotel in Miami a few years ago. The thermostat was bad. It stopped working after 60 plus years. It was about the size of a grapefruit or small coconut. The replacement that I put back in was the size of a match book or maybe a driver’s license. I know the new thermostat isn’t going to last 60 years. Sometimes the old technology is better than the new. Many times not though. I just replaced my Rheem heat pump condenser at my house with a dual tonnage inverter compressor with the new freon. It is drawing 1/2 the electricity as the old one and is quieter and is supposed to heat at a much colder outside air temperature than the 18 year old Rheem. Have not tested the low temperature claim, but it looks reasonable. The amount of controls in the service panel is intimidating though. I have never seen so many components stuffed in a heatpump. I thought I was a HVAC mechanic that could handle any heat pump repair. Not too sure with this new one. I’ll report in a year if any issues. It does have a 10 year parts warranty. If you might need a new air to air package unit or split system heat pump for your home of business then you might want one as it doesn’t get any better than 10 years parts and labor. I also saw a heat pump in Miami that was 45 plus years old. It was a Florida Heat Pump. They were bought out by Bosch and I doubt we will ever see 45 year old heat pumps again. Bosch, Climatemaster, Waterfurnace and Enertech were all bought out by foreign companies. It is amazing that the United States is losing most of its geothermal heat pump factories. There are still some good ones left. Ask me and I will tell you my favorites. I did see a new geothermal company in Spain called Ecoforest. The factory is amazing. Their technology looks impressive. Instead of buying an American company they want to enter the USA market the old fashioned way: exporting. We will see how that works out. I know that my USA built swimming pool heat pumps are better than they ever have been. The warranty on some brands can start in the spring for winter deliveries and you will still get last years price. The photo is a recreation of the worlds first motorcycle. About 1885 I think. That was amazing technology for the time but I don’t think it aged well with 1” ground clearance and a 3 horse power engine that won’t get you very far. It will be going in my living room one of these days if Mrs. Miller can work it into the decorating style.
Have a great Thanksgiving.
We are here for you.
Marcus
Cell 360 348 7584
If you are a service person in people’s homes you must observe The Omertà .
(The code of silence)
I did HVAC and pool heat pump service for 20 years and I am sure that I have been in at least 5000 homes and 100’s of businesses in that time. It is a privilege and honor to earn the trust to enter other people’s worlds. Many times I have been alone repairing air-conditioning or refrigerators because the customer needed to work. That trust I took seriously. I did work for a few big factories. The employees would ask if I could help them at their home. I saw many alternative lifestyles that the employees didn’t feel comfortable anyone knowing about at work. I always kept my mouth shut. I found sexy things in freezers while I was repairing them that mom and dad didn’t want the kids to see. Guess they were too short to reach. Don’t hide your money in the air conditioning closet please. Saw that a couple of times too. I was fixing a heat pump at a night club at 8 am on a weekday and I got off the roof to get something from my truck and when I got back to my ladder 2 big goons were ruffing up an all night customer. The guy was thrown into my ladder and moved it. The two goons looked at me horrified and stopped their fight and both started apologizing and trying to reposition my ladder. I remember the exact words of one of them; “Mr. Miller we are sincerely sorry if we did anything to interrupt your work day. Please accept our apologies.” 2 hours later the customer was drinking in the cool air from the repaired AC like nothing had happened. I didn’t say anything. I saw people drunk in the morning who called in sick to work. Saw married couples fighting about all kinds of private subjects in the same room as me while I worked. I helped contractors who were afraid to work in their own neighborhoods at night. I visited many famous people who didn’t want anyone to know where they lived. I fixed the air conditioning in a home that was going to host one of the most famous singers in the world at the time that night. Didn’t tell anyone. Well, maybe only my Mom. There were answering machines broadcasting private messages next to where I was installing a thermostat. Personal videos playing on big TVs that were not meant for strangers. Mortuaries with stuff going on not for the faint of heart. Famous Hollywood, Football, Tennis and Hockey players who liked their privacy too. swimming pool parties with bathing suits optional and 100′ yacht parties with their own special kind of decadence. Your job is to be a hero and make people comfortable and solve their problems. Never do or say anything to make customers uncomfortable or cause stress in their lives. We all have enough of that.
Be safe out there.
Best,
Marcus
P.S. It goes without saying that if I saw anybody being abused who needed help or any type of animal cruelty, I would talk as fast as an auctioneer who got paid by the word to anyone who would listen.
P.P.S. I know whether young men or young woman keep cleaner homes. 🙂
