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Rapid-Dose Flexibility gets ‘Thumbs Up' from Installers

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Sentinel’s exciting new domestic chemical water treatment dosing system – Rapid-Dose – launched towards the end of 2008, has really taken off in the New Year and is getting the ‘thumbs up’ from merchants and installers up and down the country that are recognising the time saving opportunities the product offers, along with the fact that it’s mess free and simple to use – put simply, it’s an installer’s dream!

And it’s the flexibility of the product which is proving most popular. Sentinel’s Paul Friend has been collating the initial response to the new product and he’s struck by the uniformity of the response – it’s a new product that shows that Sentinel has been listening to the installers out there!

“Feedback has been brilliant with installers liking the product and liking the application method. The connector sets have become sought after tools of the trade, with recognition already that they are quality connectors and that they will last,” he says. “And with many installers saying that rather than use a radiator dosing point connector and take it with them, they are leaving it in the radiator permanently to make dosing simple the next time they visit a home, there’s a recognition that selling the dosing point as part of the job offers an additional ‘value-added’ extra, a little additional profit and saves even more time.”

The connector sets are proving popular through the merchants, but you can buy the direct radiator dosing point and the filling loop dosing point separately and try them for size before deciding to buy the full connector set – so it’s a ‘try before you buy’ option that many installers have found useful.

Each can of Rapid-Dose contains the same quantity of active ingredient as a standard litre bottle of the equivalent product. The contents of the Rapid-Dose canister are under pressure, but the propellant is simply compressed air – so it’s an environmentally friendly product too – even the can, can be recycled!

Sentinel Rapid-Dose is available off the merchant’s shelves in the familiar X100 central heating inhibitor and protector, X200 noise reducer, X400 system sludge remover and cleaner and the popular and highly effective Leak Sealer – that can be used to dose any indirect central heating system in seconds.

Rapid-Dose’s novel system is designed to make the addition of water treatment chemicals quick and easy, soon restoring system efficiency to older systems and maintaining the efficiency of new ones, minimising CO2 emissions in the process.

To apply Sentinel Rapid-Dose into a heating system, you simply need one of the easy-to-use re-usable connector kits available from merchants across the country – either a Filling Loop Adaptor, a Radiator Dosing Point Kit or a Vent Pin Adaptor Set. You can also purchase a Universal Dosing Tool Kit which includes all these individual options if you prefer.

Case Study:
Wales & West Housing Association Specifies Sentinel Rapid Dose

And Sentinel’s Rapid Dose continues to gain more and more converts, as increasing numbers of organisations specify it for the homes under their control.

The latest to do so is Wales & West Housing Association with more than 9,000 properties in management providing homes for well over 25,000 people in the Principality. The Association has offices in Cardiff in South Wales and Flint in North Wales from where it manages its operation and the on-going maintenance of its properties. The partnership that has transformed their heating system maintenance procedure involves the use of the Sentinel product, contractors P H Jones and suppliers Grahams and Curzons, for whom Area Contracts Manager John Chicken has been instrumental in seeing the switch to Sentinel Rapid-Dose for the Association.

Tim Mann, Senior Manager for M&E Contracts at the Association, has a BSc (Hons) in Building Surveying and is a qualified heating engineer, and he says he and his team have become increasingly aware of the need for correct water treatment in the heating systems in their homes. He was introduced to Sentinel’s Rapid-Dose system originally by John and Lee Pritchard from contractors PH Jones, and is sold on the concept and the process: “Getting it right may seem like a small job – and frankly it is – but it’s so important. By doing the job properly we can save significantly on the maintenance of the heating systems in our tenants’ homes and reduce call outs to faulty heating systems by up to half every year. For this reason we decided to seek out the best, simplest and quickest way to apply water treatment products to our heating systems so there was absolutely no excuse for not doing the job as it should be done.

“After looking at a selection of options we decided that Sentinel’s Rapid Dose offered us exactly what we were looking for – a high quality product that was quick to apply to a system – around 30 seconds is all it takes – and one that is easy to use as well – you simply have to screw the can of Rapid Dose into the radiator valve and it does the rest for you!”

Sentinel’s Paul Friend says he was confident that the Association would go with Rapid Dose within minutes of introducing it to them: “You could see their eyes open wide when they had the cans and the adaptors in their hands. After we had shown them how the system worked and how quick and mess free it was to use, there didn’t seem to be anything else in the running!”

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