Cooling Solution

[Tom Droege <tdroege@veriomail.com>]

Having more money than physical endurance, I just ordered a chiller from 
ElKay.  I will not tell you what is cost but I at first said "No thank you" 
when the rep called back with the price.  It has the same basic parts that 
come in a de-humidifier but costs 4X as much.  But then I 
reconsidered.  Even 15 years ago I would not have hesitated to find a junk 
yard and search out a few water coolers in the hope of getting one that 
worked.   But I just can't crawl around tearing things apart anymore.  So 
it is worth it to me to get a packaged solution that weighs only 40# or so 
that I can just connect up.

The Plumbing business is a whole different world from what I am used 
to.  It is almost like a trip to Mars.  You call the company.  First, they 
are rude, transfer you to someone on vacation, and the like.  When you 
finally get through to a person, they say they can't talk to you, only your 
local distributor can talk to you.  No prices given out over the 
phone.  Your local distributor does not know anything about the product.  I 
had to fax the spec sheet to the local distributor so he could call the 
factory to find out about the product.  Looks like an opportunity to me for 
someone with modern business knowledge to take over the Plumbing business.

Droege Rule.  "When you run into an Injustice, Something that makes you 
angry, and the like, figure out how to make money out of it and you will 
correct the situation."  My favorite example.  If women are paid less than 
men, then form an all women business.   You should make more money.  Others 
will observe you making more money and will form all women businesses 
too.  This will bid up the wages of women and correct the injustice.  No 
government intervention needed.  Of course, there is that assumption.

I will now sit down with the Cole-Parmer and order all the parts to put 
together a system.  Sigh!  Everything you buy comes with a different 
fitting.  One ends up with an endless number of things like 3/4 NPT to hose 
barb converters.  I will end up buying a pump not for it's technical 
specifications but because I can buy the necessary fittings to plumb it in.

Tom Droege