Water Flow Meter Exclusive:Interview With The New TM Series Water Flow Meter (Yes! The Actual Flow Meter)

The following interview took place at the GPI Flow Meters Media Center the day before the new TM Series Water Flow Meter was released.  This interview included other celebrity types like the Industrial Grade Flow Meters, Positive Displacement/Oval Gear flow meters and a few other crowd pleasers from the GPI Industrial flow meter family.

Note: This interview is an exclusive to The Official GPI Flow Meters Blog

TM displayed on a billboard on Water Measurement Boulevard

It has been several years now that people around the world have enjoyed the reliability of our blog guest today.  The TM Series water flow meter has been re-engineered and is looking better than ever.  Today we have “TM” with us and he is going to tell us what he and his flow meter entourage have been doing over the last year.  We hope you enjoy this interview and in the process learn more about these types of economical water flow meters.

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
Good day TM, I couldn’t help but notice your arrival to the studio.  Do you usually travel with this many water meters?  It seems as if you have a lot of family with you.

TM Water Flow Meter:

I work solo most of the time.  However, sometimes I get to work with a lot of my family because it takes more than one of us to do the job right.  Just ask any sub-metering plant manager.  They love us everywhere we go. If we were a rock band they would be our groupies.

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
Ha Ha! That is great that you feel that way about sub-metering plant managers.  Recently, I ran across a flow process control paparazzi Web site that had some pictures of you on vacation.  That is rare for your kind.  It seems that you are always working.

A blurry picture taken by a paparazzi of the TM while on vacation after 9,000 hours of continous work.

TM Water Flow Meter:
I do look nice and tan in that picture that is for sure.  As you can tell my color has changed because of that vacation.  Who knew that applying tanning lotion instead of sun block would make you look gray?  Those pictures were taken without my consent but “it is what it is.”

I decided to take a vacation because I had to get new batteries in me.  You know I worked for about 9,000 hours straight on two lithium batteries.  I needed to get away for a bit.  It is always nice to get new batteries after all that intense labor.

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
Wow! That does call for a nice vacation.  I want to ask you some questions that we received through Twitter.  Here is a question from one of our readers.” I researched water flow meters and I found you but in your white PVC incarnation, has your body changed?  Are you the same great meter?” That question came from @davidengineer, a water treatment systems engineer.

TM Water Flow Meter:
David, my man, lucky for you I have been pumping some iron, saying my prayers, and taking my vitamins, as the great Hulk Hogan once said.  I have been working out in the gym for about six months and I now meet schedule 80 specifications.  I have bulked up.  I can now sustain pressures of up to 225 PSIG.  I know you water treatment engineers like the schedule 80 so while I was in the gym I had a picture on the mirror of one of you.  This helped me focus so that someday I could work hard for you. I am here to let you know that I am ready for action.

Spigot Model TM Series Water Meters can be used with different glue-on fittings, male or female. SMILE!

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
You have been upgraded from schedule 40 specifications to meeting schedule 80 specifications; that is really great because that makes you tougher.  A lot of questions also came from Facebook and one that seems to come up a lot was the type of fittings that you work well with.  Can you give us some information on that?

TM Water Flow Meter:
Yeah, I can inform my fans out there (or soon to be fans) that I can start working for you with any type of fitting imaginable.  You can buy me with a spigot fitting or a female NPT fitting.  However, if you order me in a spigot model you can go to a hardware store or your local plumbing supply store and buy any type of fitting you want to use and glue it to both of my ends.  This means I can mingle with flange fittings, union fittings, couplers, or any other threaded fitting, male or female.

I hope this doesn’t sound pretentious but can I brag a little about my family. I am the big dude in our family of water meters, 2″, but other members include ½”, ¾”, 1″, 1 ½”.  You can buy one of us or all of us; we can work alone or in a group and will work hard for you.

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
Do you all vary in how many gallons or litres per minute you can measure because of the difference of size?

TM Water Flow Meter:
Yes, we are all hard workers but we have our limits when it comes to running water through us.  Below is a picture of our latest specification that includes our model, size flow rate abilities. This picture was published in a snazzy flow meter magazine.  I liked the editor of the magazine a lot.  He took me to a fancy restaurant where they used nothing but Fiji water; you know that fancy tap water that comes in a square looking bottle and is sold for more than the others.  He had tea and some type of sweet bread.

Gallons and Litres Per Minute by Model

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
I can’t help but notice that your display decal is a different color, blue looks good on you.

TM Water Flow Meter:
My distant relatives like the G2 Series flow meters have had blue decals for a long time.  I decided that I needed to step up my game so I went ahead and made the change.  If you are out there looking for me all you have to do is “LOOK FOR THE BLUE LABEL!” and I am sure you will find me or one of my compadres.

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
TM you are internationally used and known.  I wanted to clear up some confusion on the types of readings and information you show on your display.  However, I feel like you know more on this matter than I do, can you explain this to our readers?

A Breakdown on what the TM Water Flow Meters Read on their Display

TM Water Flow Meter:
It is simple, my man, I can read rate of flow and total, which is both batch and cumulative.

Let me break this down for you, my cumulative totals are just like your odometer in your car, you can not reset them but it keeps track of everything that has gone through me.

My batch total is like your trip odometer, you can reset it once you are done measuring for your application. I know some of the people I have worked with in the past enjoy this feature of mine because they can reset me at the end of their work day to see how much work I did for them that day.

However, I can also give you the flow rate just like your speedometer in your car. If you press the gas pedal in your car your speedometer tells you how fast you are going.  Well if you run water with a certain amount of pressure I can tell you how many gallons per minute are flowing through me at that very instant.

For my metric peoples I also read in litres per minute. I want to take this time to shout out to my good buddies in Canada, I will be working for you all soon, eh! (Also long live Bret “The Hitman” Hart and the Hart Foundation)

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
We are running out of time but we have a couple of more questions for you that came to us through e-mail.  Here is the first one: “I am a manager and I usually am not close to where my water meter is installed, it is a pain for me to have to walk all the way to where I have it installed, can you be remotely installed?  Can I get you with a remote kit so that I can just sit in my comfy chair and see what you are metering for me?”

TM Water Flow Meter:
Definitely!  You can add the standard remote kit and have my display about 100 feet away give or take a few feet.  I know some of you don’t think you want my display in your office and I am cool with that.  If you decide you want me to give you the latest and greatest at a convenient location you can always add this remote kit down the line.  No biggie.

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
TM what about if someone doesn’t want a display and they just want to be able to get you to send them pulses so that they can be viewed in their Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)?

TM's can send pulses to PLC's

TM Water Flow Meter:
That is easy!  All they need to do is buy one of my cousins like the TM200-P or any other cousin with the last letter being a P.  They will then be able to get pulses to go straight to their PLC and make their life a lot easier.

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
And the final question that came from our online readers is,”I see your display is on horizontally but my pipe is installed vertically.  It is difficult to read the display unless I turn my head 90 degrees. Can I modify your display so that I can see what you are displaying easier?”

TM Spigot Water Meter with 90 Degree Adapter

TM Water Flow Meter:
Oh, don’t turn your head, that’s uncomfortable and might cause a cramp in your neck.  Just modify the display by having me team up with the 90 degree kit.  He and I go way back!  He allows me to be installed vertically but gives me the flexibility to show my display horizontally.  This makes it easier for you to read my display and it will save you a trip to the chiropractor.

GPI Flow Meter Blog:
TM we want to thank you for granting us this exclusive interview.  Our blog readers will enjoy reading about all you have to offer in your upgraded version.

TM Water Meter Then and Now Comparison

TM Water Flow Meter:
Thank you for having me and my water meter family.  I want to let anyone reading this blog know that if they want to buy me they can go to www.gpimeters.net/distributors and find their local GPI distributor.  They are good people and will take care of any question or need that you might have.

As for me and my water meter family ½”, ¾”, 1″,1/ ½”, and me the 2″ we hope to be working for you in the near future. Remember once installed, we’ll be on for 9,000 hours straight before we take a battery break. We are accurate, economical, and simple.  Also, remember to keep looking for the blue label because that is how we roll!

If you have comments about this post please feel free to leave them in the comments section of this blog.

For flow meter questions of any kind you can contact the GPI customer service department at 888-996-3837 or 316-686-7361.  If you prefer to send an e-mail you can do that by sending it to meters@gplains.com. Feel free to check out our online flow meter catalog at http://catalog.gpi.net and you can also view some of our flow meter videos at the GPI YouTube Channel.

Looking for GPI Flow Meters in your area? Find a distributor near you

If you are familiar with our current web site (www.gpimeters.net) you probably have looked at our online catalog from time to time.  You have also called us or e-mailed us asking where you could buy one of our flow meters or other flow control instrument.  Well it is official! You can now find a GPI flow meter distributor near your area by simply filling out an online form.

You can check this new feature at www.gpimeters.net/distributors

We also want to encourge you to take our 10 question online survey to enter to win an iPod shuffle. The survey will help us improve our website with some of your suggestions.

Currently, we are looking at some of those suggestions and seeing how we can implement them to our current website.  Thank you all for making our site better.

As always if you have flow meter questions or need help with a GPI flow meter or any other flow control product please call us at 316-686-7361 or 888-996-3837.  If you are like me and love the internet by all means shoot us one of those fancy things we call electronic mail at meters@gplains.com.

Finally, let us know what you think of the new distributor feature.

New Flow Meter for Agricultural and Industrial Chemicals Application

If you are looking to see how an oval gear flow meter is being used in the industry check out this flow meter application.

http://www.flowmeterapplications.com/flowmeter-for-agricultural-industrial-chemicals/

While you are there feel free to check out other ways people are using GPI flow meters in their applications at www.flowmeterapplications.com

Feel free to post comments on what you think on these applications or GPI flow meters in general.  Do you like them, dislike them?  Let us know.

Also check out our online flow meter catalog as we have are working on some simple yet helpful improvements: http://catalog.gpi.net

Finally, if you haven’t already, check out the GPI YouTube Flow Meter channel.  You will find some of the GPI informational flow meter videos.  If you have suggestions on a topic please post a comment on this blog or e-mail our e-marketing geek at emendoza@gplains.com

Thanks again for visiting our blog and don’t forget to check out our web site at www.gpimeters.net

Online Flow Meter Customer Help Chat

We want to improve the experience for our online visitors to GPIMETERS.NET. We added a new feature on the “Contact Us” page. This new feature allows online visitors to ask questions about any flowmeter issue. Visitors will have the ability to type into a meebo chat interface, that will let them type their inquiry and a GPI Customer Service representative will be chatting live.

We hope this will enhance the visitor experience on our Web site. If you have questions about this feature or any other questions, contact us.

Contact us via the new Web site feature, e-mail or even toll-free at 1-888-996-3837. Check it out at www.gpimeters.net/contact

Hey, how about a beer?

I just got back from great trip to Colorado for some holiday skiing.  Everyone was gone for the four day weekend so I decided to test my knees with some additional weight and see if they hold up.  Well, I’m happy to say the knees are good with only a few strains.  I think for the new year I will commit to loosing some weight. 

 The best part about this trip and the reason I’m writing this blog is what I discovered while visiting the Breckenridge Brewery in of course Brekenridge, Colorado.  After a hard day of hitting the slopes and remembering how good I used to be “back in the day”, I decided to stop  for a beer and have an Avelanch Ale to whet my whistle.  Much to my surprise while sitting at the bar, I noticed a GPI meter being used in the brew process.  I can’t tell you how proud I was to see one of our meters displayed where everyone could see it.  

President’s Council was Great!

We just finished this years’ Presidents Council and I must tell you it was great.  We talked about new product ideas and some of the things GPI has coming up.  We had great response from our members and a lot of good comments and suggestions.  I can’t say much about the new products other than everyone agrees we could have a few great flowmeter products.  Keep in touch and watch the blog to see what is coming.

Marque

ISA – Not what it’s cracked up to be.

We attended the ISA show in Houston this week and quite frankly it was a bit disappointing. I know a show can be good for some and not for others but this year we didn’t have an overwhelming experience. We did have a chance to see many of our good customers, international prospects and some potential new accounts. That helps make us feel better about our investment.

For those of you who stopped by we were glad to see you and we appreciate you stopping by and checking out our products. I would be interested to see what you have to say, so please comment.

Marque

See you at ISA in Houston

Hello All,

I am headed to the ISA show in Houston next week and I look forward to seeing everyone.  I will be there Tuesday and Wednesday and I’m interested to see what the attitude is at the show.  With the recent events in the economy I’m interested to see how the market is responding.  We have seen a slight slowdown but business continues to be brisk. 

We have some new products to talk about and product enhancements to our TM Water meter line we will be showing.  We also have some new product ideas for next year that we’ll be keeping under our hat, except for a select few.  We would like to visit with people about these ideas to get some feed back and maybe some ideas of how we could improve them.  I hope everyone stops by the GPI booth.  Look us up at booth number 1926. 

Marque