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Something in the world of floating have you stumped?

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Show Highlights

When Graham and Ashkahn get to definitively answer a question, it’s like Christmas. Birds sing and the guys bust out their “Answering a question definitively” dance, which has the added side effect of better crop yields during the coming harvest. It’s an exciting time.

There’s a very straightforward mathematical equation for measuring the weight of salt water based on specific gravity, which is excellent. And useful!

Also, whoever wrote this question needs to contact Graham and Ashkahn ASAP!

Listen to Just the Audio

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

Graham: Today’s question is, “how much does one gallon of Epsom salt saturated water weight? And, can I ever speak to you about an idea that I think would revolutionize the industry if you could help me to dream it possible?”

Ashkahn: That was part of the question?

Graham: Yeah. You wanna just do the first part first or-

Ashkahn: I guess so. Is that where the question ends or do they go into what the idea is?

Graham: No, they just want to know if they can speak to us about their idea.

Ashkahn: Oh, man, okay.

Graham: So, I guess the answer to that is yeah.

Ashkahn: Totally, yeah.

Graham: Definitely, yes. We love hearing ideas.

Ashkahn: I’m excited now. I wish they’d have written the whole thing in there.

Graham: I mean, it could revolutionize the industry.

Ashkahn: I can see how they don’t want us just broadcasting that out there.

Graham: Which I would have because obviously I’ll just read whatever’s in front of me.

Ashkahn: So, yeah, whoever this is, reach out. Get in touch.

Graham: Yeah man. Shoot us another question.

Ashkahn: Yeah, we’ll say it on the podcast. We’ll tell everybody your idea.

Graham: Unless you don’t want us to. In that case, we definitely won’t share it. So, the first part though, how much does one gallon of Epsom salt saturated water weigh? It’s not too hard to figure out.

Ashkahn: Yeah. It’s more than a gallon of water weighs.

Graham: And there you have it. You heard it from us.

Ashkahn: Okay. So, if you guys have other questions, you want to-

Graham: So, fortunately, the conversion with specific gravity of figuring out the weight of something is not the hardest thing in the world. It’s actually pretty simple. Just multiplication problem of you take the specific gravity and multiply it by, say the weight of water, which is 8.344 pounds.

Ashkahn: Per gallon.

Graham: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Per gallon. So, at 1.25 specific gravity, that’s gonna end up being 10.43 pounds per gallon, and around 1.3 specific gravity it’s gonna be about 10.85 pounds per gallon. And keep in mind, this is gonna vary a little bit. Not only on the specific gravity but on the actual temperature of the solution and on the pressure. But that shouldn’t change it too much.

Ashkahn: Those are marginal.

Graham: Yeah. So, just like the specific gravity is 1.25-1.3 it means that the weight of the gallon of salt water is going to be about 25%-30% heavier than a gallon of regular water.

Ashkahn: Okay. Yeah, that’s-

Graham: And send in that idea!

Ashkahn: Back to the important part of your question.

Graham: And pretty clear cut.

Ashkahn: Right.

Graham: Definitely feel free to run a little science experiment yourselves and prove us right or wrong on that.

Ashkahn: This is one of those rare times we actually know-

Graham: We actually know the answer and it’s concrete.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: We’re just gonna make this a really short episode. So, if you have any other questions for us, send them to floattanksolutions.com/podcast.

Recent Podcast Episodes

How Many Managers Does it Take to Run a Float Center? – DSP 200

Not every float center owner wants to be tethered to working their shop for the rest of their lives. In fact, even some that enjoy that work immensely can be doing their business a disservice by focusing on day-to-day operations as opposed to dedicating their time to marketing or expansion. 

So how do float center owners get out of the shop? How many managers (Or Taco Supremes as they’re called at Float On) does it take to effectively replace the shop owner at a business.  Ashkahn and Graham have successfully implemented a system at Float On that allows them to be much more hands off on the business than when they first opened and they share how got to that point and how their business structure has evolved.  

Float Centers in Hip Neighborhoods – DSP 199

Do float centers in the hip part of town do better than ones on the outskirts? Graham and Ashkahn are well versed on this in that Float On is in a fairly hip part of Portland.

The guys break down some of the benefits of being one of the “cool” businesses in town as well as some of the serious drawbacks. Naturally, things like foot traffic aren’t as important. Almost no one walks into a float center and hops in a tank off the street. So there are fringe benefits to it, like awareness, but if you decide on going to a different part of town, then you’re not automatically doing a disservice to your brand. 

Can You Clean a Float Tank with Vinegar? – DSP 198

You have to change out your float tank water eventually. Is it a good idea to give your float tank a vinegar cleanse when you do? is that effective? Is it too much work for the results? Are there better solutions to keep your tank clean and fresh?

Graham and Ashkahn discuss while providing assurances like “either you’re not crazy or we’re all crazy”, so that’s nice.

Have you Experienced Challenging Floats? – DSP 197

Graham and Ashkahn share stories about their most challenging floats. Everything from extreme physical discomfort to literally staying in too long. 

They also share stories of floats from friends and customers that they’ve accumulated over the years and discuss the value of experiencing these difficult moments in the tank and how you might approach them when one occurs at your center. 

What’s the Best Representation of Float Tanks in TV or Movies? – DSP 196

It happens every once in a while, a tv show or a movie will feature a float tank and the entire industry gets a jolt as if to say “we made it to the big time!” 

But not all float tank cameos are created equal, so which one does it the best? What is the best representation of floating in media? Graham and Ashkahn go through the list of everything from Altered States to Stranger Things to find out what it is.

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