Rant: older techs telling me to always swap the whole pump instead of just the seal kit
Had a guy in Tulsa tell me at a supply counter that rebuilding a Whirlpool pump is a waste of time and I should just sell the customer a new one for $180, but I've done 14 seal kit jobs this summer at $45 parts and not one has come back. Are we really helping people or just padding tickets at that point?
And thats the thing, the seal kit job isnt just cheaper for the customer, it keeps YOU busy too. If every tech just swapped pumps all day, the supply houses would run out and we'd all be standing around waiting on backorders. Ive got a guy in my area who rebuilds the motors too, new bearings and a pump seal and that unit runs another 8 years easy. Customer saves $300, you make $120 in labor, everybody wins except the guy selling pumps. The old timers learned on a different setup where pulling a pump was a 20 minute job, now half these units you gotta tear out the whole housing anyway so the seal kit is the smarter call 9 times out of 10.