Plumbing & Mechanical Chief Editor Nicole Krawcke recently had the chance to sit down with ServiceTitan Co-founder and CEO Ara Mahdessian during the company’s annual user conference, Pantheon 2019, held in Pasadena, California.

How far has water-heater manufacturer A. O. Smith’s training capabilities come?

Market disruption. It’s a hip, sexy new term that I hear everywhere nowadays. In fact, the last three industry conferences I attended all had sessions on how to become a “disrupter” or how Amazon has successfully disrupted numerous markets.

Richard Trethewey is the heating and plumbing expert on the popular PBS home improvement show “Ask This Old House.” For an October 2018 episode, Trethewey met with homeowner Scott Sanders, who needed to replace an ailing 20-year-old electric tank water heater.

As public drinking water quality has come under more scrutiny in recent years, reverse osmosis (R.O.) systems have become increasingly popular in homes and businesses as alternatives to costly bottled water and water delivery services. R.O. systems remove unwanted contaminants, bad tastes and odors from drinking water by forcing municipal or well water through a semipermeable membrane.

Mmanufacturer of air-to-water heat pumps called asking if I would be willing to visit a home to perform a heat loss/gain calculation where two of its heat pump systems had been installed and determine why the home was not heating and cooling to the homeowners satisfaction.

The Division of Codes and Standards, which is part of the state’s Department of Community Affairs, adopted the NSPC with state-specific amendments on Sept. 3.

That prophetic little quote from “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” pretty much sums up where our industry is today with residential ECM circulators. So many myths, many of them downright crazy, make it nearly impossible to make clear-headed and smart decisions for your customers.

Twenty-five years ago, I wrote a story for this fine magazine. I titled it, “Only Gus Touch.” Over the years, many people have told me they still remember that tale and ask if I can send them a copy. Sure, why not?

Over the years, our office has received requests for design assistance for systems involving two hydronic heat sources, each in different buildings, where the expectation is to have either heat source supply heat to either building.