Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Today brings a curious question about a float center owner who’s trying to deal with salt dust everywhere, including in their tool room. While salt does get everywhere, it can’t evaporate like water can and doesn’t travel through the air very well.
Graham and Ashkahn try their best to answer it and try to figure out what might be causing it, having not experienced something like that themselves at Float On. If any float centers out there have experienced this phenomenon and have any insights, send it our way!
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Today’s question is, “What about the phenomena of evaporation resulting in salt residue everywhere? Anyone else have this? Do you have to clean out the HVAC system? We found that some of the tools rust just from the salt in the air. Just from the salt in the air.”
Ashkahn: Just from the salt in the tools, like in their tool room?
Graham: Yeah, it seems like a long way for-
Ashkahn: This is-
Graham: … salt air to travel.
Ashkahn: So, like, this doesn’t really happen to us. Like, I don’t notice in our float rooms, like, salt building up on the ceilings or in the HVAC vents or-
Graham: No, except from people doing the Herbal Essences kind of hair flip when they get out of a float tank. We really don’t find salt just kind of coating things, as though it had been aerated or anything like that.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s not like a powder or salt or, yeah. Even on the ceilings of the float tanks, there’s not like a fine dusting of salt or anything.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: But I guess it is like, it can be very humid, too, in there.
Graham: Yeah, I mean. So I see, you know, when I’ve heard of people that experience rust problems or issues with HVAC vents and things like that, it almost always in talking to them and working through things, ends up being more related to the moisture in the air than actually having salts in the air that’s getting in there. And if the HVAC installers didn’t prepare for the sheer volume of humidity that your float tanks can crank out, then yeah, you can totally hit problems in those vents and in the system as a whole.
Ashkahn: That’s good. I would ask these people that question. Like, are you-
Graham: Are you sure it’s salt or could it be-
Ashkahn: Are you actually seeing salt. ‘Cause if it’s salt, you’d see salt building up on things.
Graham: They see the salt residue everywhere is a direct quote from the question.
Ashkahn: Salt residue everywhere, that’s so strange.
Graham: I mean, so, I can think of a couple things. And from our consulting, I’ve probably heard of things like this a couple times. But, I mean, much more I hear people who are surprised that they don’t see salt getting everywhere.
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: You know, they expect it to be like the ocean.
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: Where the ocean is so turbulent, and it’s just kicking up all of these waves and this water.
Ashkahn: Some mist, a sea mist.
Graham: If you drive a car anywhere near the ocean, you just know your car has to be coated or it’s going to rust out from the bottom, and every metal part is going … So, I think people picture that with a float tank center, and are surprised when they open to find that’s actually not the case, which again in Float On, for us, it certainly has not been. So, the couple things I can think of are, if you have something, even like a pinhole leak in your filtration system, there’s a chance that you can be kind of spraying a really fine salt spray around. It’s almost like installer error or something going wrong with the pump system.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Like, I feel like even without any noticeable leaks, I’ve never seen a filtration system that doesn’t just kind of end up getting kind of salty.
Graham: Sure. And most of the time it’s from leaks, but sometimes there is kind of like a fine …
Ashkahn: Like a fine, fine mist of-
Graham: And I guess the most I’ve seen for a fine dust, is a couple of our tanks have …
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: There is something about their filtration system… but only around the pump area leave this kind of residue. So, I wonder what could go wrong that would just sort of do that same vaporization.
Ashkahn: Get it everywhere?
Graham: Or really spread that to your work. All the way to where your tools are?
Ashkahn: Well, it’s so … Here’s the thing though. I feel like we have had the rusting issue, like our door hinges have … we’ve had to replace those with stainless steel door hinges.
Graham: Right, and yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Ashkahn: So, that’s … but there was no coating of salt on those things like there was or is in our pump areas, and under the pump boxes. So, it leads me to believe what you were saying, that it’s a moisture thing, not a salt thing, right?
Graham: Or that some … whenever you’re in a float room, there’s a chance again, someone’s just shaking out like a dog and getting salt everywhere. They put their salty hands on the-
Ashkahn: Or this is the door hinges of our front door I’m talking about.
Graham: Oh, I see. I thought you meant of the float room doors.
Ashkahn: So, that’s beyond like Herbal Essence range. We’re talking like lobby, front door door hinges, we needed to replace those things, too.
Graham: I was trying to picture situations where people go and shake off specifically near door hinges. I think I’ll concede this point. I think you win this one, yeah.
Ashkahn: But it is, you know, at times unbelievably humid in our lobby.
Graham: Oh yeah, I mean, even with three different dehumidifiers in our lobby, it still gets up to 60%, 70% humidity during those transitions.
Ashkahn: And again, what I see when I saw those door hinges was not what I see when I lift up a pump cover and see like a fine coating of salt on some of the equipment.
Graham: Yeah, so we don’t know. We’re not sure what’s going on with your fine powder, but it is not a common phenomenon.
Ashkahn: No.
Graham: There may very well be other float centers out there. If you have this, definitely write in and let us know if you have theories about it or what tanks you’re using or what your setup is. But again, having talked to a lot of people that don’t have this problem, I would say it’s more the exception than something that you really need to be aware of going into this.
Ashkahn: Definitely.
Graham: So, thanks for the question, keeping us on our toes.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: And yeah, if you have more questions you want to try to stump us with, go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast
Recent Podcast Episodes
Does it matter how you order your filtration equipment on a float tank? – DSP 155
When setting up your float tank, it can be tempting to look at the spa pack and imagine how much more convenient it would be if the pieces were rearranged a little bit. So… is there a particular order to the filtration equipment? Why or why not?
Fortunately, Graham and Ashkahn have painfully researched this issue and know all the ins and outs of water treatment systems for float tanks and why they are the way they are.
Pairing Psychotherapy and Floats – DSP 154
It’s easy to look at some of the research that comes from floating or look at special programs for veterans with PTSD and think about how float tanks should be paired with psychotherapy.
Graham and Ashkahn have met several therapists who use float tanks in conjunction with their sessions, sometimes exclusively. They also know that it’s important to recognize that they are trained professionals who are providing a treatment for difficult to treat psychological issues in some cases. Knowing when to leave the work to the experts is a valuable part of providing a service like this one with so many broad uses.
What is too small for a 4-tank float center? – DSP 153
Real estate costs from building out a float center, especially in an urban area, can get costly really quick. Sometimes compromises need to be made. But how much of a compromise is too compromised?
As with the best float center mistakes, Graham and Ashkahn can speak to their personal experience on this issue. They talk about opening a four tank center with less than 1,000 square feet and how much of a mistake it is. They also provide helpful planning tips so you can find out how much space you need at an absolute minimum for your float center.
How Do You Find Time for Hobbies? (Rise) – DSP 152
This is the last episode we recorded at Rise and it seemed fitting to close out the recordings with the organizers again, Jake and Kevin. In this episode they talk with Graham and Ashkahn to answer a question from Greg Griffin about how to manage your time after opening a float center to dedicate to hobbies.
While the episode starts a little heavy, the conversation turns and begins discussing the value of work and how rewarding it is to be in this industry.
Thank you to everyone who came and talked to us at Rise and shared your experiences. If we don’t see you at the Float Conference, hopefully we’ll see you next year. As always, float on.
What’s the Weirdest Post Float Experience You’ve Seen (Rise) – DSP 151
Another conversation that was captured at Rise was this little sit down between Graham and Ashkahn and a float center owner by the name of Jeremy out in San Antonio. They talk about a subject that I think comes up whenever float people get together. “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen after someone got out of a float?”
Sometimes people have a hard time coming back to Earth after a really good session in the tank and seeing how they interact with the rest of the world afterwards can be heartwarming and enlightening. It’s part of the reason we do what we do.
Latest Blog Posts
Thou Shall Not Program
Floating is on the rise, and this means there are lots of new faces trying floating out for the first time. When someone comes to you for their first time, what should you say to explain floating? Just as importantly, is there anything you should avoid saying? Or...
How to Clean and Maintain Your Float Tank – An Owner’s Guide
This post is kept around for historical purposes, but doesn't reflect our current knowledge of float tank sanitation. Please see The Basics of Float Tank Sanitation and Testing and Maintaining Float Tank Water Quality instead. Ashkahn and I just got back from...
Meditations on Mediation
I just had to mediate a discussion between two of my employees, and I couldn’t be happier. Neither of them is going to lose their job: we’ve never fired an employee. Neither of them is going to be paid more or less than the other: we pay all of our employees the same....
From ‘I’m never doing this’ to ‘when can I sign up?’ in 30 seconds
When you show people the float tanks, inevitably some of your potential customers will be freaked out. That's fine, it's normal, it's how people reacted to Rock n' Roll. Now, you need to know upfront that there's a small group of people who will, in fact, never be...
