#boilers

Tech Tips:

Reviving History: Upgrading an 80-Year-Old Steam Boiler in Portland, Maine

This tech tip was written by Jennifer Manzo. Thanks, Jennifer! As an HVAC technician in Maine, I've seen my fair share of aging systems, but nothing quite prepared me for the sight that greeted me while responding to a “no heat” call in a multi-family apartment building this winter. Stepping into the boiler room of […]

Principles Of Troubleshooting: Seeing the Big Picture

If you’ve been in this trade for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve run into situations that have left you scratching your head. If you’re lucky enough, you have the ability to call a senior tech, service manager, or company owner to bail you out of this situation. But have you ever run into […]

Boiler Basics Part 2 – Components

This article is the second in a series on boiler basics by senior boiler tech Justin Skinner. Thanks, Justin. There are many types of boilers that do many different things, but almost all of them have some of the same basic components. It's partially because regulatory agencies require them, and other times, it's because they […]

Boiler Basics Part 1 – Types and Components

This series of articles is written by senior boiler tech (and all-around swell guy) Justin Skinner. Thanks, Justin. There are quite a few different types of boilers out in the world. They come in all shapes, sizes, pressures, and types of fuel burned. I'm going to go over some of the more common ones, their […]

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Bryan answers a listener-submitted question: “Am I toxic for caring?” He gives advice on how to maintain professional relationships while still maintaining very high standards of quality for your own work.

Having high standards is great, but it can be frustrating when you perceive coworkers as having lower standards than you. A poor-quality end product is fairly objective, but other ways of judging coworkers’ standards are a lot more subjective and may vary by culture, and we end up judging the person rather than the work. While we should care about the objective outcomes of a job, we want to challenge ourselves when we start comparing others’ work to our own unfavorably.

Judging others’ work isn’t inherently bad or “toxic,” but it has to be controlled and done in service of something greater. When we confront others or judge their work, we need to make sure it comes from a place of professional pride (rather than personal pride) and personal humility.

As tradespeople, we don’t always do the best work, either. In some mission-critical applications, we need to rely on workarounds to get a quick outcome. In those situations, it’s a lot more important to be honest about what we’re doing and the value we promise. When we find opportunities for our colleagues to do things better, we can offer advice in service of the job and allow the other person to take it or leave it; we don’t get to decide that for others. We also have to acknowledge that people have different natural inclinations, and we’d be wise to respect those differences.

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