Investing in a new or improved industrial ventilation system can greatly boost the efficiency and well-being of people, products, and processes in your facility. But how can you be sure the ventilation system will work as intended? In this blog, I’ll explain equipment vs. system guarantees, and which one you should trust.
Equipment Performance Guarantee
The Air Movement and Control Association International (AMCA) provides performance ratings for ventilation equipment. Since 1917, AMCA has set common standards for testing ventilation equipment performance. Ventilation equipment makers can use AMCA testing standards in two ways to provide performance data:
- Tested According to AMCA Standards – This is the basic level of assurance for ventilation equipment performance data. It means the manufacturer has used AMCA’s strict testing standards to measure their equipment’s performance in their own testing facilities.
- AMCA Certified – This is a higher level of assurance. To get AMCA certification, a manufacturer must be an AMCA member and pay extra for AMCA to test their equipment and certify the performance data.
While both methods should give some confidence in the performance data, neither is a true equipment performance guarantee. To know if a manufacturer guarantees their equipment’s performance, you need to carefully read their terms and conditions. If they don’t guarantee their products’ merchantability, you can’t rely on their performance data, even if it’s AMCA certified.
System Performance Guarantee
Even the simplest industrial ventilation system needs more than one piece of equipment. How any single piece of ventilation equipment performs in the field depends on how it interacts with other system components. A manufacturer’s equipment guarantee doesn’t cover how their equipment works with other ventilation equipment.
This is where a ventilation design expert’s skills come in. They use the manufacturer’s guaranteed equipment performance to design a system that delivers the desired results for the application. If the design expert doesn’t provide a system performance guarantee, you can’t rely on equipment guarantees to ensure the system’s performance. Only a system performance guarantee can assure you that a ventilation system will work as designed.
Which Guarantee is Better?
In computer science, they say “garbage in, garbage out.” This means that even the best computer program will produce bad results if you feed it bad data. The same is true for industrial ventilation system design. A manufacturer’s equipment performance guarantee ensures good input data. A design expert’s system performance guarantee ensures they’ve used the best design process to get good results. You should rely on both guarantees to get the best ventilation system solution.
Conclusion
At Eldridge, we’re unique as both ventilation equipment makers and design experts. As manufacturers, we back our Eldridge Fan products with a full performance guarantee. Our fan data is reliable, developed using strict AMCA testing standards.
In our 75 years as ventilation design experts, we have honed our skills to apply the best system design process to any job. Our seven design patents show we can solve even the toughest industrial ventilation challenges. Whether it’s a simple or complex project, we guarantee every ventilation system design will fully satisfy the customer.
Eldridge is your one-stop shop for both equipment and system performance guarantees. We’ll create a successful environment for your facility, no matter the challenge. Our dual expertise ensures you get reliable equipment that works seamlessly within a well-designed system. When you need a ventilation solution you can trust, reach out to Eldridge. We’ll deliver results that meet your needs and exceed your expectations.