What are UL Field Evaluations? – DSP 124

A UL Field evaluation is something that can be requested from your Health Department or regulator, often prior to opening. It’s designed to ensure a certain standard for electrical equipment in commercial businesses. Graham and Ashkahn break down the process of getting a UL Field evaluation, how much it’s likely to cost, and even some tips when discussing this with your health department.

UL Website with more information on Field Evaluation Resources

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Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: Today’s question is, “I am about to open a float center and my health department says that I need to have a UL field inspection on my electrical equipment. Is this bad news, is it going to stop me from opening?”

Ashkahn: Yeah, that does happen.

Graham: It’s kinda bad news in the sense that you’ll have to pay a little more money.

Ashkahn: It costs money.

Graham: It costs money.

Ashkahn: So this, yeah. Lets … Before we fully answer your question dear listener, let’s establish a few pieces of information. Like who … What is the UL?

Graham: What is the UL?

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: So.

Graham: So.

Ashkahn: UL is the Underwriters’ Laboratory, and it’s not a government organization. It’s a … I think it’s a non-profit, I think it’s specifically a not for profit. I think they lost their non-profit status at some point in the 50s or 60s or something like that. And, so anyway, it’s an organization that’s not a government body, that specifically certifies products for electrical safety. That’s their stick. So they take different products in all sorts of different categories, batteries, electrical components for lighting, for pool and spa equipment, for cars. It’s a bunch of, bunch of stuff. You’ve probably seen it. The little UL logo on varies different things around.

And they’re pretty big and they’re pretty widely known and have been around for a long time and decently respected. As people who can certify things to electrical safety. So, there’s a lot of different certifications for things out there. And they’ve even recently been working on the path towards actually having a float tank certification. There’s a float tank out there that has been UL certified, maybe more than one. And they have kind of a certain certification they think would be best suited for float tanks, they might adjust a little bit as you bring a float tank through that process. And this is not exactly that. What you’re being asked to do is not to get your entire float tank UL certified.

What you’re being asked is to have probably the actual electrical components in the brain on control system of the float tank, have some UL check that specific are of it and give you a little stamp that says it’s good to go.

Graham: Yeah, and that can be required for a couple of reasons, right. So there’s either the float tank you got was not actually UL certified by the manufacturer. So they didn’t have someone come in and at the manufacturing level say that everything that is produced, that has this configuration is UL certified. And if you do then you wouldn’t be asked for this. You’ve gotta give them your UL certificate from the manufacturer and the health department would be happy, right.

And then so a field evaluation, which is where like Ashkan said, they come out and actually just check your float tank in the field or maybe prior to actually being set up in your center.

Ashkahn: And it might not even be the UL coming themselves coming out. I think other organizations or even electricians can test things to certain protocol and that will like be a UL test.

Graham: Yep, so that and the field evaluation again, is required when either it wasn’t certified or it went through changes. So, even if you at one point or if you got a float tank that at one point was UL certified, but now they’ve changed out a bunch of the electrical components and they’re using new machinery, you might still be required to have a field evaluation.

Ashkahn: And that’s gonna cost money, but probably not an insane amount of money. This will probably cost you a few thousand dollars …

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: To have someone come out and go through this process with you.

Graham: My guess would be somewhere between two and five, is kind of the range that I’ve heard.

Ashkahn: And I’ve heard float centers going through this and most of the time they don’t really need to make adjustments. They can just … you know, the float tanks are already kind of built to a spec that passes those requirements. So really mostly it’s just the cost of having someone come in and validate all of that. Rather that having to change a bunch of stuff.

Graham: And it’s often per unit, which is kind of unfortunate, even for identical units. That several thousand dollars is likely going to be per float tank that you actually have on site. So it can add up for a larger center.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: Which is a little unfortunate. But the good news is they’re requiring this for a reason, right. Which is, they just wanna make sure … Like you have ton of saltwater sitting there, and they wanna make sure that people are safe in it. Around a bunch of electrical equipment, right. It’s almost a very understandable concern and logic behind requiring this field evaluation.

Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s just generally a wet environment. The shower and the filtration system, all that stuff can leak saltwater. It’s not a bad idea to have an eye towards electrical safety.

Graham: Yep, and this could happen on the state level or the county level, that your health department could be requiring this. So if you know for instance just that other float tanks in your state have not had to be field evaluated, you’ll still wanna check with your county. Just like everything for health department regulations.

Ashkahn: And, I guess maybe the other thing to say is, sometimes there may be flexibility in here. You might be able to talk to your health department and say, “Hey, would it be okay if I had an electrician come and just write off on this and do an inspection, and give it their stamp of approval?” And that might be something that they like, you know. They’re like, “Okay, yeah, if you get like an actual licensed electrician to come and evaluate the system and approve it, that will satisfy what we’re looking for.”

So there might be some flexibility if you talk to your health department.

Graham: Yep, or there might be no flexibility and they just put their foot down. But you never know until you ask.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: And I mean that is one of the fortunate parts about being in an industry that is a little more wild westy, is that you can sometimes negotiate like this. You know oftentimes there’s not actually a law in place that says, “Flat tanks have to be treated in this exact way.” So, talking to and finding out or talking to your health department officials, and finding out what makes them comfortable is sometimes an easier way than just going straight to spending thousands of dollars.

Ashkahn: And, I think that’s about it.

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: Short episode today.

Graham: Yeah.

Ashkahn: And I guess as a little side story, you know, this can even change from time to time within the same area. So, when we were just getting started up, we bought some used float tanks from down in Southern Oregon. Our two used Ocean Float Rooms that we started with, of which we still have one in our center that actually has a UL field evaluation metal sticker, metal plaque … What’s the word for that stamp or …?

Graham: Stamp.

Ashkahn: Yeah. Something, whatever. Anyway, you get the idea, it’s like a metal thing. It’s on the side there that say, “I’ve been field evaluated.” And now, if you’re opening up in Oregon, you would not have to have that done. But in order for the float center that we got those tanks from, to be open for business, they required them to be field evaluated and as a result one of the tanks in our center has a field evaluation stamp.

Graham: Cool, all right. If you guys have other questions, you can hop over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and send them our way.

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