Case Studies

Customer

Abbott Northwestern Hospital
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Problem/Solution

Abbott Northwestern Hospital needed to identify a local incoming water treatment company to handle a variety of water treatment needs for the firm. Culligan approached Abbott Northwestern Hospital with a comprehensive incoming water treatment solution that includes softeners, reverse osmosis water for dialysis systems and other laboratory water applications.

I’ve worked with Mark Delebo and Culligan for roughly the past 12 years and I have been very pleased with the reliability of the equipment they provide as well as the level of customer service.

We utilize Culligan’s incoming water treatment services in a variety of ways including softeners, reverse osmosis for dialysis systems and a number of other laboratory water applications. As you can imagine, clean water in a hospital setting is a critical deliverable that has the potential to adversely affect the lives of our patients. Abbott Northwestern Hospital simply cannot afford to ask just anyone to take care if its incoming water treatment needs.

We believe strongly that Culligan has the sterling reputation and proven history of service that our hospital--and virtually any hospital--requires.

Culligan, and their incoming water treatment technologies, has done a fine job of handling our facility’s strict water quality needs. I’ve worked with Culligan, and Mark Delebo specifi cally, for the last 12 years and intend on working with them for the forseeable future.

Robert E. Hallman, Jr.
Technical Project Manager Plant Superintendent

Download the full Abbott Northwestern Hospital case study.

Customer

Camille Beckman
Eagle, Idaho

Description of business

Manufacturer of high-end body care and bath products, creams and lotions

Situation/Problem

There are two possible sources of water for the Camille Beckman facility: city water and an Artesian
well that’s on their property. The city water is extremely hard, so they use the well water, which is 4
grains of hardness. The products that Camille Beckman manufactures soften and moisturize the skin,
so even 4 grains of hardness is too hard for these types of products. If the water is substandard,
not only might the products be less effective, but the impurities in the water might have a negative
interaction with other ingredients in the products.

They met with a number of companies and consultants to explore the possibilities around water
treatment. They wanted to ensure that they were getting the right system – one that would be
tailored to their needs and not an "off-the-shelf" solution.

When they contacted Culligan, they were impressed by the knowledge and consultative style of the
representative. Mr. Roghani and Paul Beckman, another Camille Beckman principal, collaborated
with Culligan to develop a system that would supply them with the quality of water they needed.

Download the full Camille Beckman case study.

Customer

Four Seasons Resort and Club
Dallas, Texas

Description of business

World's leading operator of luxury hotels and resorts. This facility is the only 5-Diamond rated hotel in Texas. They have an upscale clientele which includes celebrities. Room prices are as high as $2200 per night.

Situation/Problem

Four Seasons had a softener but it was not a quality system. It had numerous valves that didn’t seem to have a real function, and they frequently got stuck. The system was obsolete. Gerald felt it was time to replace it.

Four Seasons had to frequently descale the boiler – six 5-gallon buckets at a time. They had a 2" copper line that had been reduced to an internal diameter of only 1/2" due to scaling.

Download the full Four Seasons case study.

Customer

Georgia Pacific
Phillips, Wisconsin

Georgia Pacific is a leading manufacturer and marketer of building materials, including plywood,
gypsum boards, lumber and engineered wood products. They have 300 locations in North America, South America and Europe. At this location, they manufacture interior hard board paneling and paint and finish it.

Problem

• They have 2 boilers: primary boiler is a York-Shipley fire tube boiler rated at 24,000 pounds per hour; standby boiler is a Cleaver Brook water tube boiler rated at 20,000 pounds per hour.
• Their steam usage in the summer is 8,000 to 12,000 pounds per hour; winter usage is 14,000
  to 20,000 pounds per hours. A significant amount of hot water is needed to produce the steam,
  resulting in high energy usage.
• After dissolved solids build up in a boiler, the equipment needs to “blow down” in order to send
  the impurities down the drain. Prior to the installation of equipment, they were blowing down
  approximately 4500 gallons of waste water per day.
• Feed water to boiler was 210 parts per million (TDS), or 12 grains per gallon on average. Heating
  water with a high level of TDS causes significant scale build-up. Heating elements in the boiler have
  to heat through the scale before reaching the water, thus causing high energy use. For boilers, it’s
  best to have no more than 3-5 grains per gallon or ideally, less than one grain per gallon!

Solution

• Lower the TDS rate, thereby decreasing the amount of blow-downs and improve energy efficiency.
• Decrease water usage and chemical usage, resulting in cost savings.

Equipment Installed

• RO system to lower TDS and reduce blow-down rate
• Carbon filter that protects RO system by filtering out chlorine that could be harmful to an RO system’s membrane
• Storage tanks
• Cleaner for RO system
• Annual inspection/servicing of equipment

Result

• Total annual savings of $52,711.
• Since the installation of the RO equipment, they’ve reduced blow-downs from 4500 gallons of water per day to less than 200 gallons per day.
• The estimated energy savings from blow-downs and the savings in water and sewage costs is $31,000 annually.
• Chemical costs went from $38,905 in 2002 to $24,694 in 2005, for a yearly savings of $14,211. (Equipment was installed in 2003)
• With the RO system, Georgia Pacific was able to direct the concentrate water directly to storm (to the river) rather than going through a waste water treatment facility, thus avoiding fees.
• TDS of the feed water to the boiler has gone from 210 parts per million (12 grains per gallon) to approximately 24 parts per million (just over 1 grain per gallon), resulting in 8 times less solids entering the boiler.
• Georgia Pacific received a rebate check from their state’s energy company because they improved energy conservation.

Download the full Georgia Pacific case study.

Customer

Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites
Lewisville, Texas

Problem

Holiday Inn replaced 2 sets of recirculation pumps for their boiler in 2 years, costing a total of $3000. These pumps are used to continuously circulate hot water throughout the large hotel. Hot water accelerates scale build-up and causes equipment malfunction or damage. Gene was familiar with Culligan, since it’s a well-known name and called us to see if we could solve his problem.

Solution

Prevent scale build-up by softening the water.

Equipment Installed

Side-mount Softener.

Result

• This customer has experienced extensive benefits beyond the solution to the original problem.
• "At current gas price levels of $1.00/therm, it costs us about $95 to heat 10,000 gallons of water. Without our softener this would be in the range of $119,” contends Gene Smith.
• Monthly calculated savings of $720 which more than pays for Holiday Inn’s investment in the softener and its salt requirement in less than 1-1/2 years.
• Annual savings of 29% in fuel operating cost for hot water. In addition, saving significant amounts of money by keeping their boilers scale free.
• Although occupancy has increased 18% over the past 2 years, linen purchases have decreased 19%.
• Linens look and feel better
• Detergent usage in the laundry was reduced by 32%
• No more need to use CLR (acid used to break scale/lime) to clean their showers.
• Reduced spotting and scaling keeps their property looking sharp
• Reduction of cleaning time by about 4%
• They have not installed a replacement pump since the softener was installed, over two years ago.

Culligan Advantages

• Water analysis performed.
• Sales representative provided research papers on energy savings from New Mexico State University and WQA (Water Quality Association).
• Sales representative used a consultative sales approach to thoroughly understand the customer’s needs, assess the situation and provide on appropriate solution.

Download the full Holiday Inn case study.

Customer

Kelley Williamson Oil
Rockford, Illinois

Problem

We originally approached them when they had a competitor’s equipment. Kelley Williamson claimed that they had the best coffee in town. When our sales representative asked them questions to explore just how well the equipment was working, and how reliable it was, an opportunity was uncovered. There was a lack of quality both in product and service. The customer wanted spot-free rinse and improved coffee/beverages.

Solution

• The customer agreed to a trial of 4-6 stores, testing our equipment and service against those of the competitor.
• A Series Reverse Osmosis system for car wash; B Series RO for inside stores with carbon and softeners
  for pretreatment.
• We service the inside of the store with softening, filtration and RO They need high purity for beverages, coffee and ice machines. Outside, we service the car wash with softening for boiler make-up, hot water pre-treatment for RO (spot-free car wash).

Equipment Installed

• Reverse Osmosis with pretreatment in car wash
• Reverse Osmosis inside store
• Salt service, preventive maintenance and filter changing

Result

• Spot-free rinse in car wash. Substantiation of "Best coffee in town" claims
• Culligan now services 70 stations between Rockford and Madison. In fact, the customer is so pleased that, although the provider of the car wash equipment also provides RO and softeners to all their customers, Kelley Williamson Oil has opted to buy that equipment from Culligan!
• Customer satisfaction
• Energy savings
• Soap/detergent savings

Culligan Advantages

• Culligan’s success with other similar businesses
• Well-trained service technicians
• Regularly scheduled preventive maintenance program. A monthly service log is provided to the customer

Download the full Kelley Williamson Oil case study.

Customer

St. Jude Medical's Cardiovascular Division-Woodridge Technology Center
St. Paul, Minnesota

Problem

St. Jude Medical opened the Cardiovascular Division-Woodridge Technology Center in 1993. Based on increasing production demands, the company struggled with consolidating their incoming water treatment needs.

Solution

Culligan approached St. Jude Medical with a comprehensive incoming water treatment solution that includes critical manufacturing processes, process fume scrubbers and clean water for sensitive labs. Culligan even stepped in and reused several water softeners from another St. Jude Medical facility to help the company save additional dollars. Culligan also installed a larger central RO unit with a larger metered, regenerated softener system.

Result

Culligan provided St. Jude Medical with a comprehensive incoming water treatment solution that allowed the company the convenience and peace of mind of working with one exclusive vendor. This system was able to save St. Jude Medical $4,800.00 in salt over a 12 month period.

I’ve worked with Jay McNab and Culligan for roughly the past 15 years and
I have been very pleased with the reliability of the equipment they provide as
well as the level of customer service. The water is used in critical production
processes that require a continous and uninterrupted source of quality water.
The Woodridge Technology Center manufacturers the pyrolytic carbon used in
the St. Jude Medical® mechanical heart valve. The pyrolytic carbon used in
heart valves is a specialized form of nonporous, high-wear resistant and
high-strength carbon. When implanted in a human body, pyrolytic carbon has
inherent qualities that make it compatible with human tissue and reduce the
risk of blood clots forming on or around the valve.

The Woodridge Technology Center is a 180,000 square foot facility that was
designed with state-of-the-art technologies. Over the last 30 years, St. Jude
Medical has manufactured over two million of these devices that have been
implanted into patients with heart valve problems.

Culligan, and their incoming water treatment technologies, has done a fi ne job
of handling our facility’s strict water quality needs. I’ve worked with Culligan,
and Jay McNab specifi cally, for the last 15 years and intend on working with
them for the forseeable future.

Steve Seviola,
Plant Engineering Unit Manager

Download the full St. Jude case study.

Customer

Treasure Island Resort and Casino
Red Wing, MN

Problem

Treasure Island Casino had recently purchased a triplex softener system and was asked to be a test site for Culligan’s MVP controller. The customer was interested in the new controller because it offered the ease of programming; with the push of a button, all of the softeners take on the same setting. Treasure Island had a relatively new softener system with older controls, so as part of the field test, we upgraded the Treasure Island system with MVP (in 2002).

Mike Siegfried had heard about brine reclaim technology from another company, who touted a possible 15% - 20% salt savings. Mike was interested in saving money on salt and asked Culligan for information on their brine reclaim system.

Solution

Culligan offered Treasure Island Casino the opportunity to, once again, be a test site - this time, for Culligan’s new brine reclaim kit. Mike would be able to try the product for 3 months, and Culligan predicted a 30% savings in salt. The testing began in the summer of 2006.

Equipment Installed

• Water Softener
• Brine reclaim kit

Result

There are 2 areas in the facility that have softeners: the hotel area and the receiving dock, which feeds the casino and kitchen. The brine reclaim system was put on the softener for the kitchen. That system used 21,900 lbs. of salt from January to August. The cost of the salt is 10.25 cents per lb. They’ve been saving 30% of that cost, which equates to $673 for a 6 month period. Mike Siegfried and Larry Biefort can compute the actual savings because the truck that pumps salt into the softener has a scale that can measure the salt usage.

The hotel area of Treasure Island Casino uses 31,000 lbs. of salt per year. They’re considering putting brine reclaim on the hotel softener, as well, which would result in a total savings of approximately $2,000 annually.

The brine reclaim system will pay for itself in 2 years.

Mike likes the fact that one brine reclaim controller feeds all 3 softeners. He believes it will be dependable over a long period of time and it’s cost-effective.

Culligan Advantages

• Localized service
• Factory support and training
• Ability of the product to adapt to most any system.
• The Culligan sales representative’s expertise in accurately assessing the problem and creating a customized solution that met the customer’s needs.
• Brine reclaim ROI tool that calculates savings and payback time for the customer.

Download the full Treasure Island case study.