Innovative Plumbing Solutions: Series Introduction

If you have followed the Gorilla Weekly for a while now, you may have come to realize that we like initiating a new series every once in a while. Whether it be an open ended series like Freelance Friday, or just a temporary series like the Ultimate Guide to Toilet Clogs, series can be a great way to put out consistent contect and keep readers interested. Well today, I want to introduce our latest series: "Innovative Plumbing Solutions".

With this series, our goal is to educate readers about the latest in innovative plumbing systems and how they work. For example, we are planning on starting out with institutional plumbing solutions such as Sloan's PWT MicroPlumb and Acorn Engineering's AcornVac. Although those are the two we plan on starting with, we will be keeping our eyes open for any new systems that come along and we may even cover innovative residential solutions. If you have any recommendations for plumbing solutions that we should cover, please tweet at us or leave a comment below. Happy Friday to all, and be sure to keep an eye out for new blog posts covering innovative plumbing solutions.

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Why Plumbing Maintenance Supervisors Need a Smartphone

Whoever is in charge of the plumbing maintenance at any given commercial facility has a lot of responsibility. After talking to a fair amount of plumbers that do institutional maintenance, I have come to realize that a there's a sizable percentage of them that don't own smart phones. I'm not here by any means to oppose the idea of still having a flip phone; if that's what you like and are confortable with, then go for it. My goal is to bring to light how a smartphone could be highly beneficial in this particular line of work.

The first way that a smartphone can benefit plumbing maintenance supervisor is e-mail communication. Most supervisors have their own e-mail with the facility, but without a smartphone that access is limited to desktop computers. Even if you don't have an official e-mail with the facility, you can have access to your personal e-mail address at any given time with a smartphone. E-mail can be highly beneficial to someone in this line of work because not only can you communitcate quickly and efficiently with other people who work at the facility, but you also have the ability to engage in e-mail communication with different vendors. With a smartphone, you can have constant access to your e-mail, potentially making your job a lot easier.

The second way that a smartphone can benefit plumbing maintenance supervisors it it's ability to take pictures. Yes, some flip phones can do this, but more than likely if you aren't willing to embrace smartphone technology you are probably not going to bother taking pictures with your flip phone. Smartphones have not only take higher quality pictures, but it is also easier to send those pictures to others. This plays a huge role when doing certain plumbing repairs within the facility. Truthfully, the stamp you found on a fixture or valve you are trying to repair is most likely not a part number or model number. Most odd ball stamps like that are serial numbers, which is not nearly enough information to ID a part over the phone. Sometimes the best way for plumbing supply companies to figure out what you need is through a picture. Having a smartphone enables you to easily take that picture, send it off to your vendor, and get a much quicker response.

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Water Conservation

Water conservation has become quite the trend over the past couple of years. What really helped the trend takeoff was the water shortage in California. This kind of brought to everyone's attention the fact that there really isn't an infinite amount of water and we are seeing that in a very tangible way. In this week's article, I want to give my opinion on the world's state of water.

The Truth

The truth is that there is a finite amount of drinking water on this earth as it stands right now. The problem is, our means of getting water are depleting rapidly. This will eventually lead us to find new or more efficient ways to produce clean water, or else we face the consequences.  Farther down the road we will likely have to rely on glacier water or even desalinization.

The Problem

The problem I have with the water conservation movement is that the issue presented above is being disproportionately blown up. Yes, it will be a problem down the road, but people making a huge deal out of an issue that has little to no effect on us right now. Some people are so consumed by this idea of water conservation that they recycle used water within their home. Not to say that they bathe in the same water twice, but intra-home water recycling seems unsanitary, labor intensive, and barely rewarding.

The Solution

In the short term, the solution to this problem is to have a healthy respect for the fact that water is a finite resource. That means being mindful of how much water you use, but at the same time not going to extreme measures to save water. What needs to be realized when talking about earth's depleting water resources is that only like 3% of the earth's water is able to be drank. The other 97% is sitting righ there waiting for us to figure out an efficient way to turn it into drinking water. With the extreme exponential increase of technology within the last century, it would be logical to think that in the near future we could come up with solutions for our water dilemma.

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Appreciation for Modern Plumbing

Unfortunately, many people in developed countries (particularly America) too often take things for granted. This is definitely the case with modern plumbing. Not only does having the advances of modern plumbing simplify our lives in a way, but it also preserves our lives. So many diseases break out in third world countries due to a lack of modern public safety standards, and plumbing is a big part of that. Let's take a look at a few ways you can exercise your gratitude for modern plumbing and even help make a difference in third world public safety.

Plumber Gratitude

Plumbers are the ones that make the magic happen, so you should definitely be appreciative towards them. By no means do you have to go out of your way to do something nice since you are already paying him, but what you can do is be the best customer you can be. That means being at your house when you say you're going to be there, have a pleasant personality, and just be easy to get along with. Ultimately he's just trying to do his job and help you out.

World Plumbing Day

The second way you can exercise your gratitude for modern plumbing is through the plumbing industry's holiday, "World Plumbing Day" (WPD). You can read all about world plumbing day here, but the gist of it is raising awareness for modern plumbing concerns. This can mean anything from social media presence to organizing group events, but if you feel inclined to get involved in the community and raise awareness for plumbing, WPD is the best way to do so.

Donate to Charity

Last but not least, donating to charity is a huge way in which you can make a difference. From the small amount of research I have done, I have not been able to find a charity that specifically aids public health in third world countries (tweet us if you can find one). However, there are many centralized donation websites that allow charities to post donation opportunities on their page. One I found, Global Giving, is a donation website with an international focus that even offers a "health" section of charities. If you are interested in making some kind of monetary donation towards public health in underdeveloped countries, I would highly recommend looking into doing so as every dollar you put in goes a long way.

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