Keeping spare parts on the shelf in an aquatic facility is a common point of contention between administration and maintenance. It can be hard, for the powers that be, at any facility to see the point in spending money on parts that are just going to sit around; that takes away from money in the operating budget and takes up space.
A better point of view can often times be found by comparing the cost and space to keep spares on hand against the desire to seamlessly stay up and running. In a perfect world, all equipment would work exactly as it should ALWAYS. This is not a perfect world. One of the biggest administrative complaints we run into with our customers is when they lose a system and have to hand feed Cl while they wait for a replacement and the additional cost that comes with shipping parts overnight. By simply having a spare on the shelf, there would be no down time for the facility and possible, no extra or unforeseen costs. Also, keep in mind that manufacturers and factories generally shut down near the end of the year for inventory. During this time, no parts can be ordered which can lengthen a facility’s time to get back up and running.
There is also an additional benefit to keeping spares on the shelf: troubleshooting. Many times, a troubleshooting situation for a system that is down can be a lengthy back and forth between the operators and our techs. But many troubleshooting situations could be very quickly addressed by being able to drop in a spare of whatever part we think is failing to have an immediate answer as to whether or not it solved the issue.
Not all replaceable parts need to be kept on hand as spares. If you would like to know what we recommend keeping on hand for your facility, give us a call.