aplumma

I know that my personal business burden is $65.00 an hour per truck that it is on the road. This leaves me with $35.00 an hour to pay for business expansion, savings , bonuses and profit. This is not about someone being greedy which does happen but about the cost of business. I had an estimate to replace the stairs, planks and rails on my deck that I rarely use on the front porch. They came back with $3,200.00 dollars with $900.00 labor. I at first read it and choked but after pricing the job out it was $320.00 material mark up and 2 men 10 hours or $45.00 per man. That which looked expensive actually was one heck of a deal. I live in an area that is one of the highest cost of living in the nation (Metro area outside of Washington D.C.). It sucks when you need to hire someone who can do a job you used to be able to do. As I get older there are jobs that I prefer not to do anymore like taking down 2 trees that were close to the house. A phone call away was a guy who dropped the trees, cleaned up the area for $900.00 dollars and I got the job done . IF you had told me 10 years ago I would pay that instead of doing myself I would have called you crazy. The pill is not so bitter paying others because I have a trade that command a better price than most jobs and I am able to work as much as I want. "getting old is not for the faint hearted" was said by someone and I can't agree more. Art

If a company has to drive to your house to do the work then it will be at least $50.00. Remember it is a business which has overhead, insurance,equipment, employees and trucks to keep running. They have to account for the travel time to your house so if it is one house only then it will be a higher rate than if it is someone who has other jobs in the area. You also want to be able to do it on your schedule meaning you are not a steady customer. A professional will always be more expensive than a local kid so decide if you want the professionalism of a company which cost more or a local kid who could be more of a headache than you want. I would expect a bill of $75.00 a cut to be more than reasonable from a lawn company. Art

here is a little more of the backyard builds racing Art

Please do not argue or attack someone for their opinions, remember we all have one. Thanks Art

I do think that any restrictions that take away your ability to protect yourself is a serious subject and needs to be decided by the people who it affects. So I want to give it a chance to be discussed in a non political non name calling manner. If me hatetheguns shows up and has less than 20 posts I will put him in modQ. lol Art

Fair warning I will try to let this run but if it goes political like the last one it will be locked. Art

Sorry we had three replies and all three were political and inflammatory. Art

With the newer units that is a true statement. The amount of salt remaining on a unit working correctly is dependent on what the hardness is and if you drink the 8 glasses of water a day that is standard. The exchange between the water softener is an ionic level meaning one grain of hardness is replacing one ion of saline. I have never run it only on the hot water before but it will help save scale build up on the heater. The taste factor is when you strip out the minerals in the water it changes the taste. The only true tasteless water is after it passes through a reverse osmosis system or distillation. Art

The res-up is a fluid that we use down here. It is a super cleaner for the resin beads inside. It is used when a system does not remove all of the hardness from the water after it is rejuvenated. Think of it as super soap. The salt in the system is used simply as a cleaning agent for the beads inside. Think of them as sticky BBs that as the water passes through the minerals stick to them. Then the system sends water backwards through the resin to remove dirt particles. The system then sucks the salt solution into the tank and lets it soak just like a washer machine does. After it has soaked the system then runs water through the system to remove the salt solution. It then reverses the water flow inside and packs the resin back into place and puts the system back the way it started with a clean bed of beads ready to remove more hardness. So the only way salt can get into the drinking water is either the system while full of brine solution allowed that water to get into the water pipes meaning accidental or intentional water use at that specific point of the cycle. This is why we ask them rejuvenate at 2 am in the morning. The second reason would be that the water flow rate is to low to clear all of the brine out of the tank or that the time it takes to clear the brine tank is not long enough due to a malfunctioning timer. Third is that the flapper that controls inside of the head assy. is worn out and is not closing as it should and you are siphoning the salt solution into the unit when it should be sealed. Of those three the usual solution is to replace the head assy. on units that are less than 5 years and the whole unit if it is over 5 years. There is nothing worse in my opinion than spending $1000.00 plus to repair a system and then throwing it away in a few years because the resin bed or internal passages are failing. That is just my personal rule some people feel like it is better to just keep throwing money at something because it is easier to afford $ 1000 bucks every few years It is your choice though. Remember though if you have any water movement during the time like a humidifier or a toilet or any other water movement that can let water through during the 2-3 hours while it is soaking a new system will not cure your issue you will be just wasting your money on a system that will not cure that issue. A good test is to turn the valve after the water conditioner that feeds the house off and force a rejuvenation during the day. Let it run naturally through the process and then turn the valve back on and see if you still have a salty taste. If you don't then find your leak. If you do then the system is malfunctioning. Hope this helps Art

The old saying is " the early bird gets the worm." Wake up earlier. lol Art

As a matter of fact yes I have been there a few times. It happens to be about 15 miles away from my house and many of my visitors/ friends go there when they visit. It has an amazing amount of history for aviation from the smallest plane flown to the Space shuttle. If you get into the area it is well worth the trip. I am very luck being where I live with many of the big named pioneers in the political and science areas who I get to meet and talk to in my line of business. Art

Thank you for the invite and the effort you put into conservation of the fishing resources we have available. Art

You can contact the local plumbing warehouses that are in the area and see which names they carry. The way to pick a good contractor in my opinion is let them come out for a water test and an evaluation. Ask them what system they use and ask questions as to how long they have been doing water treatment. How long have they used the systems and what exactly will it do for your water condition. If that person can answer your questions without making you feel like he is talking down to you and you are comfortable that his answers are truthful then he has passed the first hurdle. If the company is the type who does everything then find out how many technicians are factory trained and do they have access to the factory manuals. A company that specializes in water treatment is a better bet but may not be possible depending on the density of the population. Find out if the person who is there is a sales guy or does he actually do the installs. I don't talk to sales guys because they are commission sales and that is an incentive for them to lie. (think Culligan) if you have those crooks up there. The price should be the middle one of three estimates. If it is to low pass and if it is to high pass. The way a contractor can make a price small is one of three ways. First cheap material, second cheaper labor, and third less profit. No contactor unless he has a really good reason will cut his profit. He can't tell his installer he will pay him less per hour so that leaves materials. Once you decide that the price is correct he should be comfortable with 50% down and balance on successful installation. Finally remember contractors are only bound by what is written on the contract. Anything verbally said before, during and after is called fluffing and he has no obligation to fulfill his promises. Art

The base unit that we use is my cost $800.00 it has programmable electronics, Brass gears, turbidity filters, and actually measures the water so it only cleans itself when X amount of water is consumed. I purchase nothing from big box stores because of the lack of support and the product make up is usually of a lesser quality. A mistake a lot of people make is that what the big box stores sell may have the same name tag on it but the plumbing industry has a pretty strong hold on making sure that the upgraded models are only sold through our warehouses. On average down here the plumbers are charging $125.00 to $175.00 an hour to offset the cost of doing business here which for me is $82.00 and hour. I do live in one of the more expensive places in the US which is good to do business in but tough to plan to retire in. Here is one of the units I install https://www.water-right.com/sanitizer-plus/sanitizer-plus/ Art

If it is the timer assy or a restriction in the head assy. then it is time to call in a professional. It could be as simple as a port has debris in it or the head needs to be replaced. Since there are so many different styles of head assy. without a service manual specifically for the unit it is difficult for the untrained to know the difference. With the cost of the head assy. if the unit is older than 8 years it would be a better approach to consider replacing the whole unit. The average life expectancy is around 10 years before the bed is fatigued and then you are dumping money into something that is not worth saving. The timer on some units can be replaced but it will not fix an internal issue in the head assy. The component they will replace is most likely will replace is everything on top of the tank reusing the bedded resin and the salt tank. The good news is we have made great advances in the technology and the new units use less water and salt to maintain themselves. I am in the US so prices are going to be wrong but an average price for replacement is $2000.00 USD so my guess of $2500.00 CDN should be close. I do recommend you place food coloring in the toilet tank for 1/2 hour without flushing it and if you see any coloring in the bowl then a flapper is leaking by before you call a Plumber. Art

Most likely you have a water source asking for water while it is regenerating. The unit does not actually close a solenoid valve and cutting off the water supply to the house. This means a humidifier, toilet flapper or other action that water can initiate by itself is letting the water to flow into the lines. While this is not dangerous or a health concern it does mean you are losing water that you are paying for. If you do not find anything running then your water softener may not be functioning correctly meaning the backwash cycle is restricted or the timer does not allow the correct amount of time to flush the bed on rejuvenation. Art

For me it is the journey that is the joy of fishing. I started fishing for bluegills using balls of dough in a local pond that I rode my bike to. It evolved into saltwater and freshwater fishing for all species. This grew into multiple boats for different bodies of water and more equipment than I should have. At 57 you are waiting for me to say I am now fishing with dough balls again but in reality I still have the same old passion so all of the equipment is still being used. I enjoy the contest of finding where the fish are and how to lure them in to bite. Art

The member stevekabacha did not read the rules and has been banned. Art

WHAT PART OF THIS IS A FAMILY SITE THAT IS PROMOTING GOOD FEELINGS AND TOURISM DO YOU ALL NOT GET??????? We are all part of this and throwing mud at each other and there political leaders is not acceptable. Art

No harm no foul thanks for the note it means a lot to me. I try hard to be impartial here and apply the rules fairly to all Nationalities. The mission of this Forum has always been to allow kids to elderly people to come here and not be afraid of what they get to read. We also have not ever had a political or religious thread end in a good way hence the rules we follow. I want to give you all some insight on this Forum. The mission of this Forum has not changed since day one which is to support T.J. (our fearless leader and my good friend)at https://duenorthmarketing.com/ which is how he makes a living. While he started this site many years ago I have been here since the beginning and when the site needed someone to step up and keep it from going under I took on the site and became a co owner here. We both dug into our pockets and we did some major updates to the site and the security on it. Another gentlemen entered the picture called Blueyes or Chad who is our IT guru and to date has spend a wack load of hours fixing and addressing our problems and to date has also not taken a dime for compensation. So please go easy on me I am here to keep the vision of the site in focus and make it a place where people from all Nations can see how great Canada is and spend money at the places that support the fishing destinations we dream about. Thanks for letting me speak Be safe and be well Art

Next political statement and this is locked. We are not going to play the US vs Canada crap here. I have no patients for it and it does nothing but divide our two Great Nations. Akrisoner You are warned this thread was just fine till you joined it. Art

Well this went wrong quickly. Art

Please remember no politics, no religious, all they do is start fights. We also ask that you remember that kids read this forum so if you wouldn't show this to your kids or grand kids then please do not post them here. Feel free to share it by P.M. with your friends that like blue humor. Thanks Art

If you are using the battery and then charging it like you should then you can continue using your lead acid ones. I switched to AGM optima batteries in all of my boats and some are 7 years old now. I fish in some places where I can not plug in at the end of the day so I went with the AGM. I also do not like the acid venting in the battery compartments and while the AGM also vents it is much less and will not spill if it is cracked or tipped. Art

What a loss to us all. My boat is named after one of his songs Art