An interview with Mark Tyler, Sales Business & Development Manager
1. What are the primary markets for your technology today?
QuikWater provides hot water solutions anywhere a process requires large amounts of hot water on demand such as: Aircraft washing, bottle and can washing, car washes, food processing, fruit washing, vat warming, and at concrete mixing stations.
2. What new products are you bringing to the market this year?
QuikWater is excited to introduce a new product in 2013, the HotShot 750 Model. To add to the hotshot family, we are introducing a bigger HotShot 750 capable of heating 12.5 to 30 gallons per minute from 120F to 50F temperature rise.
3. How can your product(s) impact the environment and help get more gas water heating equipment installed?
QuikWater direct-contact
water heating systems deliver pure, potable, hot water on demand using ultra-low NOx capability with 99% energy efficiency – cutting monthly energy costs virtually in half while eliminating the safety risks associated with standard pressurized systems.
4. What are the competitive advantages of your product compared to other water heating technologies?
QuikWater's direct-contact water heaters are the first systems of their kind to meet the stringent NSF/ANSI standard 3A and 5 certifications for food processing applications. We've engineered our products to help our industrial and commercial customers work smarter, cleaner, more energy efficient, and more economically than ever.
5. What misconceptions do you deal with when talking to potential customers about your product?
Many potential customers are not familiar with direct contact water heating technology; therefore they compare QuikWater direct contact heaters with boilers.
Here is a comparison between Quikwater direct contact water heaters & boilers:
- Reduce water heating costs 35% - 40% compared to a boiler
- Instant & continuous hot water, boiler systems require heat exchangers
- Precise water temperature, boiler water temperature fluctuates
- Reduce maintenance labor, boilers require certified technicians to operate
- Non pressure vessel, boilers are pressurized to provide steam
- Small footprint compared to boilers
- QuikWater direct contact hot water heater can use water that has not been chemically treated or deaerated. Boilers must be operated using strict and costly water quality guidelines.
- Stainless steel construction, boilers are usually a carbon steel vessel construction
- Stack temperature below 70ºF, a boiler’s standard stack temperature is around 800ºF
- Reduced oxygen in heated water
- QuikWater heaters are less expensive to install than a boiler, due to the reduced weight, smaller installation area, non-code piping and single wall stack
6. Who is your direct customer – a property/homeowner, a contractor or a distributor, and why?
Our customers are contractors, end users and commercial facility owners. Our product is large capital equipment and is not intended for residential applications.
7. What are your strategies to communicate with and educate these customers?
Our communication strategy consists of meeting with potential customers via "face to face" lunch and learn meetings and attending targeted industry shows.
8. What are the market barriers to greater deployment of your product?
The number one impediment would be getting potential customers to recognize that direct contact water heating technology exists and has been very successful in heating water at 99% thermal efficiency.
9. What could gas utilities do to promote the deployment and acceptance of your product?
Gas utilities can play a very important role in educating end users to recognize how QuikWater direct contact heaters stand in contrast to more conventional water heaters and boilers, which use heat exchangers to heat water indirectly. Our direct contact technology cuts monthly energy
costs virtually in half while eliminating the safety risks associated with standard pressurized systems.
Thank you to the following for their amazing work and talent to make Quikwater the company it is today:
Kim Sanders – General Manager
Jeff Pruitt – Engineering Supervisor
Essam Edwar – Applications / Sales Engineer
Jose Pereira – Electrical Engineer
Michael Gibbons – Sales / Lead Service Technician
Kay Weiman - Sales & Marketing Specialist / Paralegal