If the fan breaks is it the cleaner's fault???

cgibson

cgibson

facilisales Machine
I saw this place last week....the electrical on the roof is full of grease.

Call me psychic but I can just see into the future.....




Lets just say we get hired, clean this place up nicely and then motor short circuts out the next morning.

Did we break the fan and are we to blame???
 
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Ah yes- the inevitable "You broke my little fan"
I always carry electrical tape and some wire nuts for just such an occasion.
I see alot of them where the conduit is WAY to short and the conduit comes apart then the wires get bared on the hole going through the pedastal.

Is this your fault? NO We will Not be responsible for antiquated equipment.

As soon as I see such a thing I drag whoever is in a management position up on the roof for a -look see-.
I show them the potential problem and ask them if I should proceed. If they say yes get there Jhonny Hancock on your paper work. Then tell em how much it will cost for you to fix it on a return visit. Easy fix most of the time. New conduit and extended lead for the tippable ones and simply new conduit with new feed wires for non tippables. Hit em up for a new weather proof box while your at it explain the benfits of a new weather proof box. Keeps weather and grease out, less possability of a fire.

At the very least new feed wire and conduit and move switch box to a more preferable location and extend the out blast part of the barrel fan with some heavy meatal and install one of those grease containment units under the end of the metal run. In this case I would build a sand box underneath the entire fan itself and the end of the metal run. Then you come periodically and change out the sand in the sand box. Sand is cheap, and it shouldnt take more then a hour from start to finish.

Plan B. Tell them they need a new centrifugal upblast fan and install grease containment unit. :D
 
I made fixing that electrical mandatory if they want us to clean that system.
 
Plastic baggies work good for that .. I always tell the customer that the wires are lose and that they will need to be replaced.. Thats where my Journeyman license comes in handy.. I wanted to get a masters but don,t have the time.. Plus in Mississippi you have to have other masters sign off on you just so you can take the master elec test.. Anyhow I once made an extra $ 500.00 putting two wires together and greasing the bearings on a fan at a nursing home in jackson..

We just got thru cleaning the VA Medical Center this past weekend .. $3400.00 not bad for two days work..
Well got to go clean BK tonight in Madison.... Hood and Concrete and Fire Systems and interior cleaning tommorrow night at BK.. What else can I do for them besides unstop the drains....

" And I thought Business was going to be slow because of the hurricane ????"
I guess insurance is paying for alot of this work....
 
Yes this is a good topic. First off we perform an onsite visit and any items that are not up to NFPA 96 Standards are listed, quite a few times it has to do with the fan, (faulty electrical cord, no hinge kit, no cover on the fan etc), we simply state that "We can not and will not be responsible for further damage that may occur as a result of these defiencies". Now and again I get a call from a location that the motor does not come back on after cleaning, I simply request that the customer call in a third party, (HVAC or Rest. Equip. Repair Company), to decide if the cleaning of the system caused the damage. Most of the time, 80-90%, the result was not the fault of the cleaner; if it is determined to be our fault we pay for the cost of repairs.

Win some and you lose some but the most important thing is that it gets taken care of ASAP!!

Rory Wilson
 
Great advise.......I let them know up front that this was a problem and that it needed to be corrected prior to the cleaning.
 
How about the fans without hinges. Are you guys tipping them, or requiring the installation for access?
 
I always trip the breaker on the fan before servicing it and also if its not running when you get there ask them to turn it on!
This way you can see if there is anything wrong with the equipment before you start.

We serviced a location and the owner went dowstairs and turned the breaker off after I had completed the job and turned it back on. I was standing on the roof putting the screws back in the pedastal when the fan cut out. I go to the kitchen Owner says you did something to my fan. Guy working with me says He just went dowstairs and I heard the breaker trip. I say OK So I proceed downstairs and turn breaker back on! Fan comes back on and sounds great.Had him sign off on bill stateing that all kitchen equipment was in working order upon leaving the premises.
99 percent of the time people are good, its the one percent that will burn you if your asleep at the wheel.
cheers GOAT
 
We do not require that the fan has a hinge kit but we do let them know that we can not be responsible for damage to the electircal wiring, fan housing or the roof without a hinge kit.

Rory
 
I will recommend hinges usually. Sometimes they can be installed no problem and whenever possible we'll install them.

I will require the hinges if the fan is falling apart or has bad conduit on the roof and I know we'll break something if we touch it. You can only lift those suckers off so many times before they get messed up.

Rusty has some good hinges.....do does Daryl "da hinge" Mirza.
 
We use Da hinge hinge kits. They can be ordered to fit any size fan; we also sometimes will use the extra heavy duty and non-heavy duty kits from WW Grianger. I just need a hinge kit that will fit a fan base where the curb is not the same size. Now that would be a good invention.

Rory
 
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