commercial news
Basic first principles in commercial pool water service and maintenance Fulham Engineering Services principal Doug Fulham has offered some advice regarding the basic first principles of commercial pool water treatment (PWT) service and maintenance. Fulham has been active in the swimming pool industry since 1957 and has seen many changes over this time. Based on his experience as a designer, manufacturer, wholesaler and installing contractor, Fulham has acquired a unique insight into PWT plant and more specifically commercial swimming pool filters. By Doug Fulham ABOVE: Prevention is better than cure
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s a fourth-generation manufacturer, Fulhams is a strong supporters of Australian-made pool products. This commitment remains today with a current focus on the supply of replacement spares parts for Chadson, Atlas and Fulfab pool products. Fulhams also offers other services including advice on plant optimisation, plant sizing and replacement filters. The performance and reliability of PWT is directly related to service and maintenance. This also helps compliance with many diverse obligations. Effective service and maintenance are largely dependent upon the availability of replacement spare parts. Fulham Engineering Services believes the interest of owners and facility managers is best provided by using a specialist service provider. An experienced service provider will have the necessary trade skills. They will also have broad process experience, safe work methods (SWM) required by modern legislation and quality controlled (QA) check lists. Many accredited service providers are strong asset managers, with experience of common problems and knowledge of the likely service life for different products and individual components. In its various forms, this experience can prove invaluable and cost-effective for all owners and facility managers.
Performing to full potential
If your commercial pool filter is not performing to its full potential, the first step is to review 60 SPLASH! April/May 2020
the operating and maintenance instructions provided by the original installing contractor. In many cases, apparent issues can be resolved with simple reasoning. In other cases, this review will help identify possible causes so that you can better discuss your concerns with an experienced service provider. Lost your original operating and maintenance instructions? Filter manufacturers will gladly supply replacement instructions, if so needed. Without adequate service and maintenance, even high-grade commercial pool equipment will not provide optimum performance. Nor will it last forever. When it comes to service and maintenance, there are two broad options: Predictive maintenance (sometimes called preventative or corrective maintenance); and Run to failure (sometimes called repair only on failure – ROOF).
Predictive maintenance
Predicative maintenance replaces critical component parts prior to failure. This may be a simple age-based consideration. In other cases, it may be due to earlier inspections indicating the early stages of wear and tear. It can also include corrective maintenance designed to correct undesirable conditions indicating a potential fault or the possibility of introducing a better operational method. Regardless of the detail, the key benefit of predictive maintenance is to complete the work at a known time that is convenient and acceptable to the owner/