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Texas Special Dr. Marlo Dean
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is senior
support services manager at Kärcher North America in Camas, Washington. Up until very recently, he was also secretary of the Cleaning Equipment Trade Association (CETA) and a member of CETA’s executive board,
Roger Walz
Dr. Marlo Dean
wash industry in 1958. He started out
serving as the Technical Committee
producing cleaners at Electronics Inc. in
chair (essentially its chief legislative
Vermilion South Dakota, which became
lobbyist). Arguably, no one has done
Electro-Magic.
more through the years to protect the interests of pressure washers, manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors from a technical standpoint than Dean. In his 41 years in the business, Dean says without hesitation that the biggest problem he’s faced as the face of the industry is people (and regulators) who think pressure wash equipment is a boiler. “We’re clearly not boilers,” Dean said. “We don’t produce pressure in a closed vessel. Our equipment doesn’t heat water when the gun is closed, only when the gun is open, so we don’t heat water in a closed vessel.” Through the years, many companies that ply their wares in the pressure wash industry have encountered obstacles in states from Missouri to Utah to Kansas who assume pressure wash equipment qualifies as a boiler
joined the pressure
He left the profession for a few years to and therefore needs approval from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In California, for instance, under the state’s former boiler designation, power wash operators once needed a $3,500 permit to operate—enough to nearly put a power wash operator out of business in the state. Working with regulators there, CETA (through Dean) established a new state category for pressure washers, terminating their definition as boilers. Companies still need a permit to operate in the Golden State, but it doesn’t cost nearly as much, plus meeting the requirements is pretty easy. Nowadays, most states classify products properly as pressure washers and not boilers since the pressure washer industry (at the direction of
... continued
farm. Then he reformed and came back
Roger Walz
to the pressure wash industry. He’s spent the last 44-plus years at Alkota Cleaning
burner, Walz helped improve the 12-volt
Systems, supervising the Engineering
igniter, providing it with a shelf life that
Department. In all, he’s spent almost
was finally acceptable to the industry and
seven decades in the industry.
which survives even to this day.
And thank goodness he did. There isn’t a manufacturer, a supplier, a distributor, or even an operator in the
Accessories, unloader valves—you name it and Walz has had a hand in developing them over the years.
pressure wash business who doesn’t owe
However, Walz’s impact goes beyond
Walz a debt of gratitude for his work and
the cleaning equipment he helped to
contributions to the industry.
develop. It extends to all the help, friend-
It could be said that just about every
ship, training, and education he provided
pressure washer on the market has a
to countless people in the industry
characteristic or mark that Walz put on
through the years.
there somewhere.
It’s why the Cleaning Equipment
He had a lot to do with developing General Pumps.
Trade Association (CETA) named him one of its two lifetime achievement award
He had a lot to do with developing burners—he’s as good a combustion engineer as there is in the industry. In the early days of the 12-volt
winners in 2018. “I’m speechless,” Walz said when given the award last October. “Thank you.” No, thank you, Mr. Walz.
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