When I first started in HVAC my first manometer (water) was home built--a cheap pair of 6" rulers back to back, some clear plastic tubing, mounted on a thin piece of wood. It worked OK. Downside is water can "stick" and you need a tiny bit of soap to kill the surface tension, they can spill easily, and THEY CAN FREEZE
And sometimes when customers see such a thing, they think you are a "hack." The truth is, a water manometer, properly used, is as accurate as anything else "needs to be."
for many years I used a Bacharach blue oil manometer, but you do spill them once in awhile, and the oil for either them or the red oil for Dwyer was always a freckin rip off
This was before reliable digital ones came along.
So ANYHOW. my neighbor's furnace is acting up, and I found my old mechanical gas pressure gauge, but I thought I'd check it. The downside, is that the only water manometer I still have that will work is FOUR FEET TALL. I'm not even sure what you would use it for, measures out to over 36" water column. That works out to be just under 1 1/2 PSI
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So, today's story is about people who think you are a hack.
When I worked for the Lennox dealer, a customer had us add a humidifier to her furnace. She was a nutcase. She did a bunch of cooking, and had several kids, as well as a front room of the house that was basically a greenhouse. Hell she should have been installing a DE humidifier. But she INSISTED the new humidifier was not doing it's job. The shop did not have a wet bulb psychrometer set up so I built one. Bought a couple of alcohol thermometers, ordered a wet bulb sock, and went out there and took measurements. I don't remember the numbers but relative humidity was quite high, just as I expected.
So later, the boss told me "she bitched." She was claiming I was incompetent, that I brought "junk toys" instead of tools, and lied, and bla de blizhy blazh diz bla.
So we spent the money, in those days near a hundred bucks on a fancy Bacharach sling psychrometer, and I went out there AGAIN with my junk toys and the fancy new Bacharach, and showed her that THEY BOTH CAME UP WITH THE SAME NUMBERS within a degree!!!!!
What is it? Two thermometers, one with a wet bulb sock, and a conversion chart
And sometimes when customers see such a thing, they think you are a "hack." The truth is, a water manometer, properly used, is as accurate as anything else "needs to be."
for many years I used a Bacharach blue oil manometer, but you do spill them once in awhile, and the oil for either them or the red oil for Dwyer was always a freckin rip off
This was before reliable digital ones came along.
So ANYHOW. my neighbor's furnace is acting up, and I found my old mechanical gas pressure gauge, but I thought I'd check it. The downside, is that the only water manometer I still have that will work is FOUR FEET TALL. I'm not even sure what you would use it for, measures out to over 36" water column. That works out to be just under 1 1/2 PSI
============================================================
So, today's story is about people who think you are a hack.
When I worked for the Lennox dealer, a customer had us add a humidifier to her furnace. She was a nutcase. She did a bunch of cooking, and had several kids, as well as a front room of the house that was basically a greenhouse. Hell she should have been installing a DE humidifier. But she INSISTED the new humidifier was not doing it's job. The shop did not have a wet bulb psychrometer set up so I built one. Bought a couple of alcohol thermometers, ordered a wet bulb sock, and went out there and took measurements. I don't remember the numbers but relative humidity was quite high, just as I expected.
So later, the boss told me "she bitched." She was claiming I was incompetent, that I brought "junk toys" instead of tools, and lied, and bla de blizhy blazh diz bla.
So we spent the money, in those days near a hundred bucks on a fancy Bacharach sling psychrometer, and I went out there AGAIN with my junk toys and the fancy new Bacharach, and showed her that THEY BOTH CAME UP WITH THE SAME NUMBERS within a degree!!!!!
What is it? Two thermometers, one with a wet bulb sock, and a conversion chart
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