U.S. Water Heating Solutions Opens Tech Training Center

Photos courtesy of: Cary Miller, VP of Food Industry News

Our training center's mission is to provide our technicians with more opportunities for one-on-one and hands-on training on a wide variety of models from manufacturers like A.O. Smith, Bradford White, PVI, Rheem, Richmond, Ruud, etc. Although we had a rigorous training program and will continue to send team members to manufacturers' training seminars (such as Raypak training and PVI Industries training earlier this year), our new training center fills a logistical gap that often affects training: availability and scheduling. Manufacturers' training programs provide key insights: factory tours, classroom learning, and hands-on learning; however, training seminars may only be available select times throughout the year and technicians may be unable to attend for a variety of reasons. This posed a new challenge for our team during the pandemic. 

Having been deemed an essential business, the need for water heater repairs drastically increased. Our team continued to grow, but in-person training opportunities completely ceased out of caution. With team members eager to learn more and safety concerns in mind, we decided it was time to revisit the training center discussion.

Senior Technician, Field Staff Supervisor, and Training Program Coordinator, Kirk Warren, worked alongside our management team and HVAC Division to plan and build this training center, which is the first of its kind. At present, we have 11 fully functioning units: 9 water heaters, 1 boiler, and 1 combi boiler (which has the ability to heat water and serve as a heat source in residential settings); a majority of these units were donated by the manufacturers themselves, listed below.

Each unit can be individually controlled, virtually enabling the trainer to replicate almost any issue a technician may encounter in residential or commercial settings: gas pressure issues, negative air pressure, faulty gas valves, faulty hot surface igniters, etc. The benefit of having such a training center provides our team members with the opportunity to diagnose and repair units they may not see in the field with their trainer in a low risk environment.  

P.S. Since our internal beta launch and first training sessions, we have also received an additional unit from PVI Industries and were able to procure a used Bradford White commercial water heater in a recent changeout, for technicians to gain even more experience!