Taco

During the AHR Expo, John White III, Sr. VP/OEM Sales of Taco Comfort Solutions, presents the Dan Holohan Lifetime Contribution to Comfort Award—which is given annually to an HVAC professional or company that has made a substantial contribution to comfort technology advancement or training while displaying the exceptional good humor and love of people exhibited by Dan Holohan throughout his career—to Bob Barbour for passionate commitment to the industry and shared company success. Referred to as “Mr. Taco” from White III, Bob has been with the company for 44+ years and held at least seven different positions within Taco.

Barbour was certainly surprised and honored to receive the reward. “If you look at the whole Taco family, they are all trying to pull on the rope together in order to service our customers and grow the overall business. And because we are a family, we put that extra effort forward to help you and the rest of the industry.”

According to Robert O’Brien, owner at Technical Heating Co., in Mount Sinai, NY, he’s currently spending 80 percent less time working than usual. With New York appearing to be ground zero of the US COVID-19 threat, the company – and many other HVAC and mechanical contracting firms in the area – is responding to emergency calls only. Not that many customers are inviting technicians into their homes for anything less than an emergency anyhow.

O’Brien has made use of the time, though, in part by attending online training hosted by a wide variety of suppliers in the heating industry. No time like the present to sharpen the axe.

Over the past six weeks, he has logged in to webinars hosted by no less than a dozen manufacturers. O’Brien is learning for his own sake, but he’s also a NORA consultant, and wants to stay abreast of the issues, techniques and technologies affecting the industry as a whole. In the process, he’s found that some companies excel at online presentations, while others still have progress to make.

“I think the biggest pitfall for manufacturers is to turn online training into a sales pitch,” said O’Brien. “Also, our attention spans aren’t so short that a webinar can only be 20 minutes long. If I’m going block time out of my schedule, it may as well be worthwhile. The best, most compelling webinars are interesting, insightful and maybe even entertaining.

“I’m not usually a fan of webinars, but given the circumstances, there’s not much choice,” he continued. “I’ve been watching the Taco After Dark series of presentations and, without a doubt, it’s by far the best I’ve come across. Having incredibly talented trainers helps, but they’ve done a few other things right, too.” The content for these webinars comes from Taco’s full-day hydronic courses, broken into one-hour segments.

O’Brien thinks that the Wednesday night Taco After Dark series has been able to capture and hold the attention of hundreds of attendees each week for several reasons. The webinar is hosted by Mechanical-Hub.com, increasing its visibility, and its format keeps people coming back.

“Taco After Dark is presented by John Barba, Dave Holdorf and Rick Mayo,” said O’Brien. “There’s back-and-forth discourse between these guys, so the content is conversational instead of feeling like a lecture.  Also important, viewers can see the presenters. The entire screen isn’t filled up with a graph or an image.  This lets you stay connected to what’s being said.  Boring webinars, on the other hand, take too much effort on the part of the viewer to remain engaged.”

The Taco After Dark series is one of several online training platforms currently offered by the company, including Taco Tuesdays and personalized webinars, the latter being available for reps, wholesalers, and their customers.

Taco Tuesday is a weekly webinar hosted each Tuesday at noon EST. The webinar alternates between residential and commercial topics. John Barba and Dave Holdorf host the residential webinars while Rich Medairos and Brett Zerba host the commercial webinars. These webinars last about an hour, with roughly 15 minutes dedicated to Q&A.  More than 1,500 attendees have been signed up for a single session.

“Our goal with these training sessions is to learn, socialize and have fun in an otherwise difficult time,” said Holdorf, who appears in the webinars wearing a suit and ascot necktie. “It’s always lighthearted and the feedback has been fantastic.”

Taco’s current online courses aren’t the company’s first attempt at providing online education. Far from it. Taco was an early adopter with FloPro University, beginning in 2009. They’ve been conducting webinars since 2010, all of which are archived on the Taco website. The company has provided a steady stream of online learning opportunities since; over 40,000 people have gone through one of the 12 available programs.

It’s not Mechanical-Hub’s first online education rodeo, either. They also feature Shop Talk on Monday evenings. Their Beyond The Service show on its YouTube channel helps small business owners run successful firms, and they’ve provided content online via Jobsites Plus+, Hub on the Road visits and ProStaff team reviews.

“We’ve pursued online training opportunities more aggressively since the virus showed early signs of escalating,” said John Mesenbrink, Mechanical-Hub president and director of editorial content. “In late January, I reached out to our manufacturer partners, telling them to use Mechanical-Hub.com as a resource,” he said. “Several responded quickly, and the turnout has been great.”

“I think the success of our current online training platforms—with more than 7,000 trained over the past five weeks—is revealing of two things,” said Barba.  “Of course contractors have more time right now than usual, but there’s no doubt that we, as instructors, are finding better ways to engage the audience and present the material online. And, participants are becoming better online learners.”

“I’ve been asked if this is ‘the new normal’ for all manufacturer training,” continued Barba. “Definitely not. Online training will never completely replace classroom training. This business has a major hands-on element, and a human element.  Relationships are so vital to the trade, and it’s much harder to build those through a computer screen. Though, under the circumstances, we’re doing the best we can.”

The Taco Family of Companies Executive Chairman and owner John Hazen White, Jr. has announced the promotion of Cheryl Merchant to Chief Executive Officer of the 100-year old, third generation family-owned company. Merchant, who joined Taco in 2019, was previously President of Global Operations.

“During her time at Taco, Cheryl has proven herself a capable and talented leader. I feel confident that our company will continue to move in a positive direction under her leadership. This promotion demonstrates the full confidence and trust that the White family has in her,” said White.

White added, “I will remain actively involved in the company. This executive transition will allow me to focus on global growth of the company as well as continue to nurture and strengthen the crucial relationships we have with our employees, reps, suppliers, customers, and the communities where we work.”

Prior to joining Taco, Merchant spent the last 19 years as the President and CEO of Hope Global Industries, based in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

When you take pride in your work, the craftsmanship shines through, and the customer receives a reliable, comfortable radiant heating system. Tim Kuhlman, plumbing tech, Grasser’s Plumbing & Heating Inc., McNabb, Ill., is no stranger to meticulous installs and a job well done. Grasser’s is a family-owned plumbing and HVAC company serving the Illinois valley for more than 60 years.

To put it directly, the Oglesby, Ill. customer at a larger residence—3,186-sq.-ft. main floor; 3,300-sq.-ft. basement; and 1,200-sq.-ft. garage—wanted a professional install that worked. As a result, “The customer is very happy with the boiler install and performance of the system,” says Kuhlman.

As part of the solution, Kuhlman used tekmar 4-way mixing valves to raise the return temps for the garage and basement — the main floor set point is 140 degrees F; the basement and garage set points are 120 degrees F. The garage is set to 58 degrees F, the basement at 65 degrees F and the main floor to 68 degrees F.

Inside the Mechanical Room

• Boiler — Weil McLain/ultra 230 series 3
• Water heater — Navien 240A (not shown)
• Pumps — Grundfos UPS15-58FC, 3 speed circulator Relays
• Zone controls — Taco 4 Zone pump relay
• Piping – All primary and secondary piping done in copper with sweat fittings • • Main Tools Used —Bernzomatic TS8000 torch,
• Valves — Webstone isolation pump valves
• Separators —2” spirotherm air seperatore, Flexconsole expansion tank holder
• Expansion tanks —#60 Extrol expansion tank
• Other—three 12-loop 1” stainless steel uponor radiant heat manifolds and one 4-loop uponor ep manifold for garage.