What is it supposed to look like?

BY ERIC AUNE

contributing writer

I stood in the doorway of a mechanical room for a rather large home somewhere in the northern reaches of a Minneapolis suburb with a look on my face that, I’m sure if the homeowner were there with me, would likely downgrade any amount of credibility I may have had when promptly returning his call for help. After all, seeing such a menagerie of shiny copper piping assembled in such intricate patterns going in every direction, you too might be a little overwhelmed. But first, let’s get a little back story.

Owning your own business has its perks and, depending how much you like to get away on the weekend, one of them is that you are on call all the time. It was Saturday afternoon and a great start to a wonderful July 4th weekend at the family cabin. Everything was great; we had already cleaned a fresh catch of walleye from the morning bite, and the weather forecast had promised a superb day. This, of course, is about the time when the cell phone rang (dreaded now, because I definitely like spending time with the family at the cabin up north). On the other end of the line was a customer from a past hydronic install with a problem: No domestic hot water and an almost empty glycol static fill tank waiting to pump out the last bit of fluid that remained. Luckily, the property of the subject was only a quick four-hour drive away, and the wife completely understood the situation.

Now, if you’re paying attention you might have put two and two together; this is where I own up to the fact that the mechanical room I was standing in front of was one of mine. The “menagerie” of piping was all put there with pride by my two hands, with shoulders held high and a sense of mastery rivaled by only a few. At least, that was how I felt back then. Now? Well, the look on my face would have likely told a story all too familiar to many of you. As I stood there, with jaw gaping and eyes wide, I thought to myself, “Why does everything look so complicated?

Hydronic heating systems in general are intimidating to look at. I’m not saying that when you, the professional, enter a mechanical room you are intimidated, but put yourself in the shoes of the end user. The immensely intelligent Robert Bean (healthyheating.com), says it nicely, “One of the things people like about a forced air system is that they have a comfort level with what it looks like; a furnace looks like a furnace, a condenser looks like a condenser. They're in an enclosure, so the homeowner doesn't have to look at any of the inner workings. It looks like an appliance.”

Does your latest hydronic creation look like an appliance? The one I stood in front of today could be called an appliance; Yeah, if NASA had built it, and even then it would probably still have been tucked away in a remote room somewhere, only to be accessed by the guy who designed it, because who else would know what the heck was going on?

Currently, there are no parts of a hydronic heating system that can’t be purchased in some preassembled configuration. Aside from the final gas, electric or venting connections you could design/build your system right out of a box. As recently as this spring we have witnessed the national unveiling of a complete boiler (electric) system, all piped and ready to go from a major manufacturer. So why do we insist, as tradesmen/women, that everything be assembled piece by piece?

John Barba of Taco has a great explanation in a recent blog post of why the math doesn’t work when you try to justify your operating costs and time available when you choose to “do it yourself” instead of buying a system preassembled. My argument follows the tail end of his: Why does it have to be so customized? Why do we make everything so complicated? Shouldn’t we be moving toward uniformity?
Do you buy and install preassembled components? Why do you do it? Why not? When will we see the day when uniformity, as a system, is the norm? I know my latest service call had me wishing for it. Will your next call have you thinking the same?

Eric Aune is the owner of Aune Plumbing LLC in Zimmerman, Minn. He can be reached at eric.aune@gmail.com.