A few years ago, Burton Hydro-Vac Services was dealing with a client’s evaporator that kept plugging up. A crew began drilling with a set of tube cleaning nozzles.
They were working fairly well for the job aside from one problem — after only 8 to 10 hours, the nozzles would snap and curl, causing significant delays and additional cost, cutting into the company’s profit margin. That’s when Chuck Burton, owner of Burton Hydro-Vac, decided to place a call to his Jetstream sales representative. The company has a relationship with Jetstream dating back to 2016 and operates five Jetstream waterblasting units.
After listening to Burton’s issues, Jetstream sent information on the DrillJet tube cleaning nozzle. Burton ordered a few right off the bat and immediately noticed a difference.
“We went from 10 hours maximum runtime with our previous nozzles to 50 hours with the DrillJets,” Burton says. “Combined with the fact that our drilling increased by almost triple the speed, it’s safe to say Jetstream has a pretty happy customer.”
Prosperous partnership
Burton Hydro-Vac Services, based in El Paso, Texas, specializes in industrial cleaning in environments such as refineries, chemical plants, mines and quarries. It serves customers all over Texas, Utah and surrounding states. The 50-employee team keeps quite busy and still at the end of the day, there is always more work that could be done. That’s why when Burton Hydro-Vac ran into a Jetstream team member at the 2016 WJTA show in New Orleans, the company was intrigued by what he had to say.
Interested in the potential results and proven benefits Jetstream discussed, the Burton Hydro-Vac team purchased its first Jetstream waterblasting pump. Jetstream’s product line and service offerings have since produced an ongoing relationship between Burton Hydro-Vac and the manufacturer, especially when it comes to the pipe and tube cleaning side of the business.
The new nozzle difference
The difference made by the new DrillJet nozzles on that evaporator tube cleaning job was significant. Rather than going through 15 to 20 nozzles each 18-hour shift, Burton Hydro-Vac was able to buy three DrillJets and be set for the week.
Burton estimates by switching to DrillJets, they saved a minimum of $5,700 per job, a 75% cost reduction compared to completing the same project with their original set of tube cleaning nozzles.
One success doesn’t always mean it’s repeatable, so the Burton Hydro-Vac team brought a DrillJet to a water recovery unit cleaning job to see what it could do. The normal benchmark for this job was about three nozzles per shift, so when a 13 mm DrillJet nozzle lasted the entire 40-hour week, Burton knew they’d never go back.
The DrillJet utilizes water-bearing technology to eliminate any need for seals, bearings or lubricants, creating a bulletproof tube cleaning tool. Nozzles are assembled from only three components: the nozzle body, rotor and retention cap. The compact design enables them to navigate and clean tubes in U-bend style heat exchangers, a task nearly impossible for mechanical cleaning methods.
There is a six-jet configuration for standard cleaning and polishing or a powerful seven-jet configuration for blasting through tough build-ups and blockages with ease. A wide selection of flow rates and sizes are available.
Saving customers money
When it comes to Burton Hydro-Vac’s customers, speed — while important — is not the only thing to be concerned with. Heat exchangers go through a cleanliness inspection after cleaning. If they fail, it creates additional downtime and expense for the operation. With DrillJets, Burton Hydro-Vac immediately drove both speed and efficiency to new heights.
“With our older nozzles, we were doing two or three passes to get a bundle clean enough for inspection,” Burton says. “One pass with a DrillJet and we already have a cleaner tube in a fraction of the time, saving our customers money and allowing us to get their equipment back into service more quickly.”
Ahead of the competition
Successful inspections and time-savings mean that Burton Hydro-Vac can take on more jobs — in some cases taking them right out of the hands of the competition — than they might have been able to do in the past. An oil refinery in Texas offered them their first opportunity to do so.
When a large oil company took over the site, it naturally brought in an industrial cleaning company it had used in the past for blasting and getting tubes ready for inspection, in addition to the Burton Hydro-Vac team that was already on site. At six to seven passes for each tube, the other company could not keep up with Burton Hydro-Vac’s rate of just one pass. The customer noticed too and gave Burton and his team the rest of the work.
Before long, Burton Hydro-Vac was taking up too much space with clean bundles that the oil refinery couldn’t take back fast enough — a good problem to have according to both customer and contractor alike.
Striving to improve
Time, efficiency and competitive advantages are not the only things Burton Hydro-Vac gains with DrillJet nozzles and the partnership with Jetstream. Customer loyalty, fuel savings and heightened safety also come to mind. But perhaps most importantly, the service and support Burton Hydro-Vac receives from Jetstream has made a world of difference.
“Jetstream is not just another manufacturer,” Burton says. “After the sale, the Jetstream team doesn’t disappear. They actually serve as a true partner to our business and constantly offer their expertise and support to ensure we have the products and knowledge we need to best serve our own customers.
“Burton Hydro-Vac may be the ‘little guy,’ but that doesn’t mean we take our work lightly. At the end of the day, we are continually looking for ways to improve our business and ability to serve our customers. That is exactly what the DrillJet and our partnership with Jetstream allows for.”
