Turbine Cleaner LLC
Unethical Dirty Secrets

Dirty Secrets of the
Industry

There are less than a dozen companies in the United States that offer high velocity flushing services as their core business. Unfortunately, this means many companies that dabble in flushing, offer inferior service and often resort to unethical tactics to win contracts and extract customer money.  Project cost is driven by ‘days on site’ because flush companies have no way of knowing how dirty systems are or how long they will take to clean.

HOW TO BUY FLUSHING SERVICE


Unethical Points

Unethical Practices by
Unethical Contractors

• 
  Bid a very low price and then once on site extend the project to charge double or triple the original contract value. Send two men on a job requiring four to eight people. This will increase setup and breakdown time substantially.
• 
  Send undersized pumps and use minimum filtration to extend days on site. Real flush rigs need 480V power or are driven by diesel engines. If company shows up with 120V or 240V equipment, do not let them pass the guard shack.
• 
  Do not put filter bags or cartridges in housings for hours, shifts, or days at a time to extend project duration.
• 
  Use 25-micron filtration, when 10 micron or multi-layer filtration will be faster.
• 
  Use the minimum Reynolds Number acceptable to the customer. Reducing flush temperature, pressure, and velocity will dramatically increase flush time.
• 
  Mandate the Owner or Prime contractor personnel setup and breakdown flush equipment. Even skilled pipefitters, mechanics and millwrights will take longer than trained flush crews.
• 
  Use customer system oil, instead of low viscosity flush oil, to dramatically increase flush time.
• 
  Do not flush continuously 24/7. When shutting down overnight, systems will cool down and ‘dirty up’ overnight. Bringing the flush loop back up to temperature daily wastes valuable time.
• 
  Do not Reverse Flow when system architecture allows, as this is critical to quick and effective cleaning. If a contractor does not own reversing manifolds, you hired the wrong company.
• 
  Do not filter new oil when delivered to the customer. New oil = Dirty oil.
• 
  Do not clean flush equipment or replace filter media from the last job. Unfortunately, it happens all the time.
• 
  Do not isolate pipe deadheads / dead legs as they are dirt traps, which will release dirt slowly during cleaning.
• 
  When taking oil samples, intentionally contaminate the sample prior to testing.
• 
  Do not isolate heat exchangers from the flush circuit as they will introduce contamination and reduce oil velocity.
• 
  Ensure the customer is not around for oil samples and changing screens, filters and bags so either dirtier or cleaner items may be presented to the customer depending on whether projects need to be delayed or prematurely terminated.
• 
  When trying to prematurely end a fixed-price project, bring your own oil samples from off-site or run filters and screens for a shorter period to make the system appear cleaner.

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