Pipe Cleaning Product Profile: Bucher RECycler
The environment is one of 2019’s biggest concerns, deliberated by everyone across borders. The responsibility and future lays in the hands of governments, companies, customers and consumers.
Re-utilization and recycling are methods to prevent further adverse impact on the environment; small initiatives being instrumental for a sustainable environment.
Bucher Municipal are front runners, with fully-continuous water recycling systems, automatic fuel-saving technology and efficient and easy to maintain sewer cleaning units, developed for more than 30 years. Its innovation is the RECycler – automatically and continuously separating water from sludge, to subsequently use the cleaned water to clean the sewers, averagely recycling 96 percent of the water used. But how well does the RECycler perform through external testing?
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Wessuc Inc., a Canadian company providing a wide range of services for the public sector, having extensive experience managing organic waste and providing clean-out and inspection services for municipalities. Wessuc tested two Bucher RECycler units from June 18– Nov. 14, 2018. The units were operational for 100 days, averagely 11 hours per day. With the higher pressure in the LDS and the lower pressure used in the re-inspection, the RECycler trucks ran at an average of 95 US gallons/min. With two trucks pumping 190 U.S. gpm.
The RECycler units were instrumental in not only production, but also savings to the City. By Wessuc using the Bucher recycling technology, the City of Winnipeg saved a total of $211,134 in water costs and disposal of the water into the sewers. Wessuc only added 1,800 m3 of water to the City of Winnipeg’s wastewater system, recycling 45,700 m3, water that was already in the system, headed for the Wastewater treatment plant.
A report done by University of Akron in cooperation with Ohio Department of Transportation, endorsed the testing results accomplished by Wessuc. Among others, the report compared the Bucher RECycler with vacuum jet trucks (VJT), also referred to as combination trucks.
While the VJT truck is a versatile machine, its inability to reuse water limits its efficiency due to numerous trips to refill water. Comparing this to a RECycler unit, no refill is needed. The report concluded that the RECycler unit contributed to a production rate increase of 55 percent compared to a traditional VJT truck, measuring the work force efficiency.
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Looking at the Capital Costs, the Bucher RECycler comes at a price of $595,000 where the VJT has a price of $360,000 – a cost difference of $235,000. While those costs are higher, the strength of the RECycler unit is its savings in operational costs, also based on the increased productivity, allowing more sewers to be cleaned in an eight-hour shift.
It basically means that the RECycler unit is able to do the same work as a VJT but in 51 fewer days, ensuring large savings in labor costs. Looking at the annual operational costs, the average per year for a RECycler is $144,330, which is nearly $85,000 in savings compared to a traditional VJT truck. These cost savings make up for the higher annual capital and maintenance costs.
These tests supports the fact that the Bucher RECycler units are one of the most powerful on the market, equipped with a number of technologies that increase efficiency significantly, bringing profit to the bottom-line. Though the cost price is higher, the annual operational costs are much lower, making the RECycler units by far the most profitable compared to similar units.
Staying on top of sewer maintenance isn’t only about products, though. The service and back-office support that manufacturers of these products provide their customers is just as vital, as these high-tech sewer cleaning units require specialized assistance.
To that end, Bucher Municipal started building a service center in 2018 in Ontario, California, in order to offer its American business partners a great customer experience. Dubbed the Bucher Municipal Center of Excellence, it is the first of its kind for the company in North America. And the goal is to go beyond the concept of a traditional service center.
In May 2019, Bucher further strengthen its operations in California by opening its first Bucher Municipal Center of Excellence. The Center of Excellence offers business partners a solid customer experience concept based on the experience of Bucher Industries — a 200-year-old global technology group with a leading market position within cleaning and clearing equipment.
Where service outlets previously were seen as a location for sales and repairs, the Bucher Municipal Center of Excellence is a brand-new concept; a full-service location with a range of upscale amenities ready to service all Bucher Municipal products as well as other brands. Here we offer our business partners traditional service products, but also training, demonstration and showroom facilities, as well as spare parts and accessories shop-in-shop, just to mention a few. The Center of Excellence opened May 8, 2019, located in Ontario, California.
With these uncompromising, environment-friendly and high efficiency units ensuring a strong bottom line supported by the worlds’ best service, we believe to create the worlds’ best customer experience in the industry.
