FloPro-MD™ Cracks the Case in Home Boiler Issue

Keefer Rader, owner of Albuquerque-based Outlaw Mechanical, received one of those dreaded no-heat calls from a customer in the middle of a winter night. Rader had recently installed the customer’s boiler, a natural gas-fired appliance that also served as the heat source for the home’s domestic water. When he arrived at the house an hour after the call, all systems were functional. “We played this game three more times; I’d leave after checking on things. He’d call me back. I’d return to dig deeper while the boiler and all components were working fine. It was very frustrating.”

A few days later, and on his third return to the house, Rader took the diagnostic tool he’d purchased a month earlier. The Dormont FloPro-MD™ is a hand-held device that allows technicians to perform gas equipment start-ups, commissioning, and maintenance with accuracy. The device quickly measures gas pressure and flow for gas-burning appliances while logging data via Bluetooth.

“The first thing I did was check gas pressure at the manifold within the home, and everything looked perfect,” he said. “Then, I installed the FloPro on the incoming gas line to the home and left it there. Sure enough, around 11 pm that evening when it got cold enough to freeze the gas line buried underground, the line clamped shut. Gas doesn’t freeze, but water does.”

Thanks to data logged by the FloPro-MD, Rader was able to resolve the boiler issue and restore the heat in his customer’s home. After disconnecting the gas line at the regulator outside the home and at the main trunk to it, Rader used compressed air to blow out the gas line, pushing out about 10 gallons of water.

“I was just glad that the challenge was over and done with, and that I’d had the right tool to diagnose the problem,” Rader said. “It’s a very beneficial tool. Having the right tools on hand always increases productivity and efficiency, especially when the jobsite is remote.”