Comfort Supply launches HVAC Web apps

Comfort Supply, a Nashville-based wholesaler of Ruud HVAC products, teamed up with KB Watson Enterprises to provide contractors with a suite of cloud-based calculators designed to simplify the most common tasks performed by HVAC comfort advisors, system designers, installers and service technicians.

The platform of cloud-based Web apps – ranging from Manual J (heating and cooling load calculations) to Ductulator to Heat Pump Capacity – runs on any device with a Web browser. Given the wide proliferation of mobile devices and their increasingly common use by workers in the field, Watson designed a platform that is accessible by any technician, anywhere, regardless of the device being used.

“The best thing about the platform is that it combines a bunch of tools in one location,” Comfort Supply salesman Wayne Dube said. “You don’t have to have a refrigerant chart, a pipe size chart and a Manual J, for example, when you’re at a worksite. Calculations that used to take contractors up to an hour to compute now take about a minute.”

Lochinvar opens Chicago DC

Lochinvar® opened a new distribution center in the Chicago area on December 5. With the continued growth of Lochinvar’s business and the ongoing expansion of its product lines, the strategic addition of this new DC is intended to meet increasing customer demand.

Like Lochinvar’s other warehouse facilities, which are located in Detroit, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Pompano Beach, Dallas and at company headquarters in Lebanon, Tenn., the new warehouse stocks the company’s complete line of water heaters, boilers, pool heaters and storage tanks. Most products are available for immediate pick-up or delivery.

The facility is located at 801 Chase Avenue, Unit E, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007. Its staff can be reached at 847/725-6627 (phone) and 847/725-6628 (fax).

Crane Supply opens new location

On December 8, Crane Supply held an official celebration of its new supply house location (for the GTA and Canadian headquarters) at 141 Royal Group Crescent, Vaughan, Ont.

This new 122,000-sq-ft facility now provides 100% indoor pipe storage, which makes it easier to maintain “heat number” legibility on its pipe as required by the TSSA. There is indoor parking for some of its newly expanded delivery fleet that enables the operation to make faster and more frequent deliveries — a critical service requirement for most projects. The size of the warehouse enables Crane Supply to more effectively store inventory and to improve its already impressive fill rates.

More than 70 guests including contractors, vendors and media were invited to participate in the opening celebration, which featured a facility tour and refreshments. Both inside and outside sales staff led facility tours. Tom Frazer, Crane Supply’s president, took this opportunity to re-emphasize the importance of indoor storage of steel pipe for numerous reasons, such as clean, rust-free pipe and, most importantly, legible heat numbers for corresponding mill test reports, which is a major contractor requirement.