Nuclear Power Plant Employee Gives Mag-Probe Review
A Nuclear Power Plant Technician stated
“I can tell you this for sure:
I’ve used them myself (of course), and have seen them being used on:”
- All types of control relays (too many to count!)
- Control valve solenoids for air and hydraulic cylinders
- Reed relays (so many!)
- To detect the presence of the magnetic field used to trigger reed switches
- Detection of magnetic polarity for permanent magnet motors
- Quick and easy detection of current flow through wiring
- PLC output relay energization verification Outside of work, I’ve seen them used to detect polarity of magnets used for magneto style ignition system coils, and in some cases, to determine automotive injector firing. I don’t have specific names of people, but I know that Nuclear was one of the groups that made sure they were in our system for purchase. These guys work on all manner of power transmission and distribution systems including:”
- Transformers
- Circuit Breakers
- Reclosers
- No-Load Transformer Tap Changers
- Miscellaneous motors (not very common recently for various reasons)
- All manner of power tools that are used in the field
Mag-Probe Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet and Video Below
The profits generated by reduced troubleshooting time make the Mag-Probe the obvious choice for a CEO, President or Owner, of any service or manufacturing company. Why? Because typically the return on your Mag-Probe investment will be one test. The Mag-Probe is guaranteed to conduct 5,000 five second operations. So after the first test, you can begin to recover your Lost Potential Revenue. NOT BAD SINCE YOU WILL HAVE 4,999 MORE TESTS AVAILABLE
ENTER YOUR NUMBERS INTO THE SPREADSHEET BELOW
(If You Would Like To Re-Enter Different Numbers Double Click The Green Boxes To Delete)
Or
(You Can Refresh Your Screen To Delete All Of Your Entered Numbers In One Click)
(In Some Cases it may take a minute or two to populate your result)
(Double Tap Green Input Area On Cell Phones)
(To input on a cell phone please turn phone sideways)
If You Include Your Company Charge Number
We Will Ship the Mag-Probe To You Anywhere In the World
EXAMPLE OF A LOST TIME NIGHTMARE TEST IN THE AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY
An aircraft mechanics worst nightmare is to get a call from the flight crew that they can hear a relay cycling on and off (click…click…click….)
Not only is it hard to figure out which side of the cockpit it is coming from, it takes a great deal of time to pick the bad relay out of a panel that has 30 or more relays. We have all been burned by the “touch” method; you could swear that you feel the relay actuating, but you pull the tiny screws holding the relay to the socket, remove the relay, only to find that was not the correct one… (click…click…click….)
Enter the Mag-Probe… Since this tiny device senses magnetic fields, it will find your cycling relay in no time flat! Simply pass it along the row of relays and when it starts lighting up with the clicks you hear, you have found your cycling relay without dropping those tiny screws down into the abyss of the circuit breaker panel…. Now you can get right to work on finding out why that relay is cycling!
MATT COUTURE
Field Technical Supervisor at Southwest Airlines
Dallas/Fort Worth Area
The Question you are probably thinking about right now is, how much time does it take to conduct a typical test like this? And how many of these tests do I do per week? Then plug these numbers into the spreadsheet below to find out how much this time is costing your company in all of your facilities that do the same test using only a voltmeter. If you have a nightmare test in your industry that you solved using a Mag-Probe we would like to hear about it.
No matter what industry you work in
finding a clicking relay among a panel
of relays is the most difficult task you
will conduct when using a voltmeter.
Just Below is a Typical Scenario
Starting in the voltmeter column: The first, second and fourth row will be duplicated in order to get an accurate calculation.
Voltmeter or Test Procedure / Mag-Probe
100 100 Facilities
$35.00 $35.00 Wage
120 (minutes) 1(minute) Time It take to Conduct the Test
.25 = 1 test per month .25 Tests Conducted Per Week (1 per month = .25)
Just Below is a Screen Shot of how the Downtime Spreadsheet Works
(The Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet Is Near the End of This Post Where You Can Enter Your Actual Numbers)
The Actual Mag-Probe Downtime Interactive Spreadsheet is at the Bottom of this Post
Numbers May Vary Depending on Required Testing Protocol
READ HERE. . . What ACE Troubleshooters are Saying about the Mag-Probe on LinkedIn
Ace Trouble Shooter Furie Electrician
Good Morning Bob,
Thank you for the Mag-Probes. This product is one of the most useful tools in my tool bag, being an electrician/instrument tech, your product saves vast amounts of time. I work in the oil and gas industry which is mostly Class 1 Div 1 locations.
With the junction boxes having anywhere from 20 to 100 bolts holding the covers in place which also weigh up to hundreds of pounds usually in very loud and ho
t areas the Mag-Probe makes trouble shooting solenoids and relays faster and much easier than opening all these boxes to use my volt meter.
Some boxes may take up to an hour to get open due to having to use hand tools to break the bolts loose and often there are bolt seized in place and in some places, we cannot use a power tool to open them then to close them we have to do that by hand as they are torqued to avoid damage to the boxes.
Then most of the time the solenoids are remote from the J-boxes they might not even be in the same room.
Doing fire and gas systems we can check all the solenoids in a matter of minutes and there may be 50 solenoids on one suppression system instead of opening all the little junction boxes and using a voltmeter we can verify function just with the touch of the Mag-Probe.
I have used Mag-Probes for over 20 years now. Like I said this is the handiest little tool to have in your tool bag.
Thanks!
Roger Begor
Furie Electrician
Roger Begor went on to say in a phone conversation we had “There are much smaller valves we test frequently and are able to conduct tests right through the protective shields saving us a tremendous amount of time.”
I saved time and money when I used mine last night! We heard a relay cycling on a rack and could not not determine which one it was. I grabbed the mag-probe and we found the culprit in a few seconds. Finding that relay lead us to a bad flap switch. We replaced the switch and were able to get up and running for the morning. Thank you Bob Bartol!! Join Bob On LinkedIn
“One of the most innovative and inexpensive tools of this century that offers an astronomical ROI”
Don Fitchett bin95.com
Don Fitchett’s PLC training is simple and easy to understand. Go to The Business Industrial Youtube Channel to Learn More . . . . . .
Mag-Probe Test Keeps Boeing 767 from Being Grounded Permanantly
Below are emails from Saemi explaining how they found the problem.
Date: September 4, 2015 at 5:27:16 AM MDT
Hi Bob
Oh yes.. Boeing 767 Been flying around. Idle disagree problem was solved 19 Aug. I’ve been waiting for the problem to appear again. But so far so good. If this happens again I will aim for Boeing 767 Relay K207 with the Mag Probe 🙂 This was a very costly defect as many parts where replaced. With the right troubleshooting steps I’m sure the parts that were replacement could have been reduced. The hardest part trouble shooting this problem was it was an intermittent problem.. The air idle problem was on engine 2. Relay K207 was loosing ground intermittently. Without using the Mag-Probe this would be hard to detect.
Regards from Amsterdam Saemi
Date: September 7, 2015 at 3:44:49 AM MDT
Dear Bob
Like I promised before that I will send a statement on how the Mag Probe was useful shooting a B 767 “”” Boeing 767-300 / Relay Intermittent Defect. Engine 2. The Mag-Probe was a big help to solve an intermittent problem with one of the relays that controls the engine Flight Idle & Approach Idle on a Boeing 767-300. With the Mag-Probe it was possible to see the relay was loosing power intermittently, that helped us to determine the fault. It reduced trouble shooting time and a component change was made as a result of the trouble shooting.
Saemi / Aircraft Engineer.
Make no mistake here, there is no other product that we have found in the market place today that can lower downtime costs faster than a Mag-Probe. Why? Because the Mag-Probe requires no calibration, it’s ready to use right out of the box, and is the most versatile test instrument in it’s category. You hide a magnetic field. What does this mean for your company? It means it has the ability to work in every industry in the world that has a solenoid valve, relay or coil. So not only can it be used in your industry, but can be cross used by your auto mechanics, elevator technicians, at all your oil and gas locations, shipping fleets, manufacturing, aerospace applications, the list is endless. See the bullet list below to get more operational application information about the Mag-Probe.
If all of your similar facilities that could be using the Mag-Probe are not using it then you could be losing a lot of money needlessly. Watch the video and see for yourself. Below is a Mag-Probe Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet so you can enter your own numbers and compute your Lost Potential Revenue. This is Money you could be reinvesting in your business or putting in your pocket. (Computed Using a 52 week calendar year)
Don’t be mislead there are many companies that have tried to imitate the Mag-Probe but cannot. If you decide to purchase another cheaply made foreign product with a replaceable battery you will be let down because of many reasons. We can talk more about these reasons in another post that will follow this one. But for now here is a spreadsheet for you to input your own numbers after you do your homework.
Mag-Probe Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet Below
Mag-Probe Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet
The Mag-Probe Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet compares (the time it takes a Mag-Probe) to (the time it takes a voltmeter) to conduct the same (elimination) test when troubleshooting solenoid valves, relays, and coils. It computes the Lost Potential Revenue i.e. (the time difference between conducting a test using a Mag-Probe and the time it takes to conduct the same test using a Voltmeter) over a 52 week period – for one location. It then multiplies the result by the total number of facilities entered into the spreadsheet that do the same test. The result will be the revenue you could have earned if all of your facilities used Mag-Probes.
Since time is money then more profit could be realized if a plane got out of the hanger faster and back into service, or an elevator that was out of service transporting people in a busy high rise business complex. Or you might be loosing $1,000 + an hour at an oil pump station. The same applies for food processing and manufacturing. Some of our customers include Nuclear Power Plants across America. Imagine the downtime cost at a Nuclear Power Plant. I imagine it would be Staggering!
One Elevator Maintenance Group Conducted a Survey in Canada and reported they realized a net profit increase of $10,000 per year in maximized productivity based off reduced troubleshooting time for each Mag-Probe placed into service.
What we have done here is to create an interactive downtime spreadsheet so you can enter your own numbers. This post was initially intended to be directed toward companies that are already using the Mag-Probe, in only one or two facilities. Once you plug in your numbers the spreadsheet will calculate the amount of lost potential revenue for all your facilities and give you the total for a 52 week period. Just click the enter button after the last entry and the spreadsheet will do the calculation for you. The result will amaze you.
Here’s HOW “The Spreadsheet Works”
Simply type your numbers into the Green Boxes of the Mag-Probe Interactive Spreadsheet. For accuracy the 1st, 2nd and 4th green box numbers in the voltmeter column will automatically be duplicated in the red Mag-Probe column. They will have to be the same number in order to get a correct downtime computation. The only numbers that will be different will be the “Time it Takes to Conduct the Same Test” Please read the following 4 points before using the spreadsheet.
- Total Number of Facilities – You can enter the number of your facilities that make the same test. The spreadsheet will then multiply the time it takes to make the test for a voltmeter and the time it takes when using a Mag-Probe by the number of tests made per week and convert it to the amount of money you are losing by not using Mag-Probes in all your facilities.
- Technicians Wage or Production Cost (per hour) – Here you will enter the technicians hourly wage (which will work for service oriented maintenance calls) or your production cost per hour for manufacturing plants, bottling plants, shipyards or anywhere solenoid valves, relays, or coils are used in the production process. (Special Note: The dollar sign will appear automatically once you hit the enter key)
- Time It Takes To Conduct The Test (in minutes) – These are the only boxes that will have different entries (in these boxes you will be entering different times) you will enter the time it takes you to conduct a particular test using a Voltmeter and then enter the time it takes you to conduct the exact same test using a Bartol Mag-Probe in the Mag-Probe Column. (Special Note: This entry must be entered in minutes)
- Lastly, is the Tests Conducted (per week) – This will be how many tests you did with a voltmeter each week and now you are using a Mag-Probe instead to conduct the same test. This number should also be the same number so it will automatically be duplicated in the mag-Probe Column. If you only conduct one of these tests per month or even 2 or 3 refer to the chart below.
.0625 = 1 Test Every Two Months
.25 = 1 Test Per Month
.50 = 2 Tests Per Month
.75 = 3 Tests Per Month
1 = 4 Tests Per Month
“Mag-Probe Bullet List”
???????? No calibration required
???????? Works effectively from -80 to +160°F
???????? Requires no direct electrical connection
???????? Suitable for high risk explosive environments
???????? Waterproof, not affected by corrosion or salt spray
???????? Ability to check solenoid valves and relays while equipment is operating
???????? Isolates problems as electrical or mechanical in seconds, without a schematic
???????? Detects transient pulses and momentary loss of power as low as 10 milliseconds
???????? Detects residual magnetism – Great for checking relays before installing on aircraft
???????? Long life power source and low current LED lasts for at least 5000, 5-second operations
???????? Variable Sensitivity – detect 1 gauss using ring magnet – 3 gauss without using ring magnet
???????? Reduce Sensitivity by sliding on the white protective shield – Reduce detection of overlapping magnetic fields
???????? Magnetic sensing instrument used to troubleshoot AC and DC powered solenoids, solenoid valves, relays and heat controllers
3-1/2″ long. Wt: 1 oz. (USA) High Sensitivity Model, for all Electrical Solenoids, Relays, Coils and Reed Relays
WATCH THE VIDEO
Mag-Probe Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet
So if you know the time it takes to do a particular elimination test with a voltmeter and you know the time it takes to do the same test using a Bartol Mag-Probe you can enter these numbers into the Mag-Probe Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will then compute how much money you could be saving by using the Mag-Probe in all of your facilities. Or rather it computes your Lost Potential Revenue, money that you could be using somewhere else in your business..
The Bartol Mag-Probe is Very Simple, Portable and Easy to Operate. There are many applications for the Mag-Probe and it has the ability to dramatically increase incremental profits by reducing troubleshooting Costs.
Typically CEO’s at large corporations conduct their business like the conductor of an orchestra. A CEO truly is the master of observation and implementation and that is why he was selected to conduct the orchestra. Just like the conductor of a great orchestra, a Great CEO listens to his employees and vendors that continually give him updated information he can use in order to make decisions that make sense Lowering Downtime while raising the incremental profits is very important to a company in order to raise the bottom line. So it stands too reason, if someone in the the orchestra came up with an idea to help the composition of an arrangement to become much better, the conductor would take a closer look at the suggestion. Once he determines this choice could dramatically raise the performance of the orchestra he decides, “Yes this will be a Good choice let’s do it.” This is no different than a CEO seeking out best practices through input from employees and vendors in order to lower downtime and create a profitable choice.
So again the Mag-Probe is the best choice a CEO, President or Owner of any service or manufacturing company could make. Why? Because typically the return on your Mag-Probe investment will be one test. The Mag-Probe is guaranteed to conduct 5,000 five second operations. So after the first test, you can begin recovering your investment. NOT BAD SINCE YOU WILL HAVE 4,999 MORE TESTS AVAILABLE
I would like to thank David Posey, Ryan Posey, Travis Posey and all of the employees at HSI Sensing for continuously helping my company on this long journey to keep the Mag-Probe manufactured in the United States at the highest quality. It has been a blessing to have one of the highest quality driven and customer service oriented manufacturers in the world, HSI Sensing manufacture the Mag-Probe.
www.HSISENSING.com
Join us on . . .
LinkedIn – Facebook – Youtube
A Special Thanks to:
Walter Anderson for creating the Stack Flow Meter Validation Monitor Procedure and giving us the video to post. I can’t thank you enough Walter and You are a man of your word and an excellent creative troubleshooter. It is my pleasure to have met you here on LinkedIn.
Bob
Walter Anderson
Global Process Automation – Project Manager / I &E consultant (706-940 2727) wanderson@global-business.net, wa727@icloud.com
Connect with Walter Anderson on LinkedIn
Matt Couture for developing the elimination process and the skid control test. Matt you are a gentleman and a scholar and one of the best trouble shooters I have ever met. Thank you from my heart Matt.
Bob
Matt Couture
Field Technical Supervisor at Southwest Airlines
Dallas/Fort Worth Area
Connect with Matt Couture on LinkedIn
Saemundur Johannssson for all his feedback and helping us better understand aircraft applications and different uses for the Mag-Probe and the value it is bringing g to the aircraft industry. Thanks you so much for all your hard work. You are one of the hardest working aircraft technicians I have ever met.
Bob
Saemundur Johannssson
Shift Leader at WOW air
Iceland
Connect with Saemundur Johannssson on LinkedIn
Don Fitchett for all of his help in the application of the Mag-Probe in conducting tests on PLC’s. I have always enjoyed our valued conversation I always come out of them feeling good with quite a bit more knowledge. I value your abilities as one of the best trainers on PLC’s and I believe you are the best PLC Trainer in the world. Thanks Don looking forward to our next conversation. Talk soon.
Bob
Don Fitchett
Industrial Training Instructor – PLC Training Seminars and Onsite at BIN95.com
Greater St. Louis Area
Connect with Don Fitchett on LinkedIn
Thank you for using the Mag-Probe Interactive Downtime Spreadsheet
I hope this information helps you when making your decision
to purchase Mag-Probes for all your facilities
Kindly,
Bob Bartol
(208) 866-7895
Matt Couture Field Technical Supervisor at Southwest Airlines