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INDUSTRY NEWS
Florida HVAC contractor uses locking cap to fight refrigerant huffing
FOrT MyErS, FLA. — Every year there was at least one unexplainable low refrigerant service call, but when more than 10 occurred in 2009, exec- utives at hVAC contractor Advanced Air and refrigeration suspected more than just phantom leaks that are dif- ficult to find.
Professional thieves, who are
stealing r-22 and r-410A refrigerant nationally at an alarming rate during the recession, were service manager ronda Szymanski’s initial suspects. however, when a company service tech found a butter knife lying next to a central air conditioning con-
denser, which was depleted of refrig- erant and had its service port visibly damaged, Szymanski knew the prob- lem was huffing. She suspected that the teenage trend of inhaling refrig- erants for a free high — killing hun- dreds of teenagers nationally — had finally reached Fort Myers, where Advanced Air has been in business 25 years. “I researched huffing on the Inter-
net and realized it was no longer somebody else’s problem; our own customers were being victimized,” said Szymanski. The company immediately made a
service policy change. All new and replacement units now get a locking, tamper-resistant Novent® refrigerant service port locking cap distributed by Airtec Products of Fall river, Mass. All service call customers get a Novent brochure and an installa- tion option. Additionally, the com- pany’s next tri-annual, six-page customer newsletter will include a locking cap story. The Fort Myers hVAC distribu-
See contact information on page 194
tion branch of Clearwater, Fla.- based Florida Cooling Supply introduced Novent to Advanced Air. Szymanski bought one, installed the first one on her own central air con- ditioning condenser and challenged her teenage son to try and remove it. The locking cap won the battle. “I don’t want to sell something to cus- tomers that I haven’t tried myself,” explained Szymanski. Wyatt Schwartz, branch manager
at Florida Cooling Supply, said that as many as 15 contractors are regu- larly buying locking caps from the Fort Myers location, but Advanced Air is leading the sales trend by far with more than 100 sales. Five of the other 11 Florida Cooling Supply branches are carrying locking caps. “After the news media [Naples Daily News] reported the recent death of a local youth, interest escalated and
See contact information on page 194
LEuSDEN, ThE NEThErLANDS — AcousticEye has signed a multi-year agreement with Qatari company In- spection Technology (Itech). Itech will deploy AcousticEye Dolphin™ systems throughout the Middle East and North Africa, making the break- through tube inspection technology available to the region for the first time. Itech is part of a Qatari group of companies under the Al Khalifa um-
•THE WHOLESALER® — MARCH 2011
now local code jurisdictions are pro- posing a locking cap mandate for air conditioning condensers,” said Schwartz. “We’re expecting a con- tinual increase of sales and interest in this product.” united Parents to restrict Open
Access to refrigerant (www.up-
roarorg.org), a parental activist group with members who have lost children to refrigerant huffing, is lobbying building code groups with great success and actively recom- mending locking refrigerant cap technology to parents with a nation- wide campaign. Locking caps already comply with
the International Mechanical Code (Section 1101-10) and the Interna- tional residential Code (Section M1411-6), which mandate tamper- resistant outdoor access ports for all new air conditioning and refrigera- tion installations. The locking caps can only be re-
moved with a special key available to licensed technicians through hVAC distributors. Szymanski has outfitted each of the company’s five service truck key rings with a Novent key. Locking caps are color coded
green for r-22, pink for r-410A and silver for all refrigerant types. Szy- manski stocks only the universal caps on trucks and manually marks them with a system’s respective re- frigerant. Advanced Air service techs have a
10% success rate when presenting locking caps to clients. Now that Airtec Products has provided Novent brochures, Szymanski expects a 40% to 50% success rate increase. The locking cap is a win/win situ-
ation for all. Advanced Air bolsters sales with a new product and con- sumers get peace of mind knowing that their refrigerant won’t fall into the hands of thieves or huffing teenagers. “It’s hard for a contractor to realize
the importance of locking caps until they start seeing an abnormal rate of low refrigerant service calls like we did,” Szymanski said. Visit
www.airtecproducts.com.
AcousticEye signs strategic agreement with Itech
brella, including Akkila W.L.L. and Quest Plus W.L.L., which operate in the non-destructive testing market. Akkila is an NDT service providing company that specializes in advanced NDT services. Quest Plus is the Qatar distributor of GE Measurement and Control Solutions. AcousticEye utilizes breakthrough acoustic-based technology to revolu- tionize the way companies perform heat exchanger maintenance.
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