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Keson Case Study: Southern California Sewer Cleaning Business Goes Extra Mile with Keson Measuring Wheels

Customer Profile:

Based in Anaheim, CA, Empire Pipe Cleaning and Equipment Company has provided storm and sewer cleaning and video inspection services to municipalities, water and sanitary districts since 1975. The company depends on Keson measuring wheels every day, and would not be able to get paid without them.

Business Situation:

Empire Pipe Cleaning serves municipalities throughout southern California, from San Diego north through Los Angeles to Bakersfield and eastward to the Coachella Valley. It cleans and creates closed circuit video (CCTV) of their sewer systems.

Empire Pipe Cleaning’s field superintendent, Ross Flynn, manages seven teams that all use measuring wheels to document the company’s work videotaping and cleaning sewers. Each of Flynn’s crews either clean or videotape the equivalent of about 1 mile of sewer every day, and without the measuring wheels, the company would be unable to provide its clients with accurate reports on completed work.

“We use the wheel to verify the footage of our production and we bill our work off of that footage. We do the same thing on the CCTV side, we have trucks that have cameras on a tethered crawler device that we send down into the sewers.”

“So basically, we torture your wheels,” he said. “My guys wheel the footage, then drag them back to the truck. Your wheels can see up to 12,000 feet of wheeling each day. I've got some Keson wheels we've been using for more than four years.”

Even better, Flynn said he’s only had one Keson wheel that has ever needed to be replaced, when one of his crew accidentally ran it over with a truck.

Otherwise, as parts on the wheels have worn down, like counters or handle grips, Flynn just orders parts and replaces them himself, as needed.

But this was not always the case for Flynn, who still recalls the large pile of broken measuring wheels that used to litter his office when he used another brand’s equipment.

“I first used a competitor's product as a project manager for a fiber optic construction company in the east,” he said. “When I started here, I went back to that same brand. However, those wheels wouldn’t last even six months in the field, and the company that made them were deliberately giving me bad service just to get me to buy new wheels instead.”

One day about four years ago, Flynn found himself back at Roseborough Supply in Orange, CA, again looking for a new wheel to replace one that had broken in the field. But Roseborough did not have any more of the old measuring wheels. "Mainly because I had bought them all," he said. Without his old brand available, he grabbed a Keson measuring wheel instead.

"It has been a love affair ever since," he said. "It is all I ever use now. And my guys are just as abusive to the Keson wheels as they were to the old brand, but the Keson wheels take that every day.”

Benefits:

Rugged measuring wheels proven to take a beating in harsh conditions, rolling up to two miles daily

Reliable counters on measuring wheels deliver accurate data

Molded handle is easy to grasp, even with wet hands

Great customer service and no hassle replacement parts

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