Patrick Linhardt is the heating guru at Habegger Corp.-Carrier Division in Ohio. He’s built a great reputation as the guy in the area to call if you’re having steam-heating problems because he has a wonderful way of explaining things in plain English. He tackles all the steam problems he comes across with these three basic operations in mind:

Steam Up
Air Out
Water Back

Pat’s a good friend, and a few years ago, he called to tell me that he was working on a hardcover book that field-troubleshooting contractors were going to love. It would contain 27 steam-troubleshooting flowcharts, six pages of service tips, 10 pages of reference material, dozens of simple drawings to illustrate the basics of steam heating, the Top-15 tips for peak performance (I like that!), and a complete glossary of common steam-heating terms. In other words, a field guide that gives you quick answers when you need just that.

Then he told me that, since this was a book to be used in boiler rooms, he was going to make it hardcover tough. It was also going to have a metal-spiral binding and heavy-duty, plastic-laminated pages (all 173 of them) so it would be water-, dirt-, oil-, and even pipe-dope resistant . It would be in color so that the Steam Up, Air Out, and Water Back elements would be easy to follow.

What we have here is a book that spits on its hands and goes to work.

He asked me if I would like to offer it here in the Books section when it was ready, and I told him I sure would, so here you have it – Linhardt’s Field Guide to Steam Heating, a book that goes to work. Every day.

And isn’t that a neat title? There’s a story behind it, but I’ll let him delight you with that one. It’s right up front in the book.

I really like what Patrick has come up with here. I recommend it to you, and I’m proud to offer it here at HeatingHelp.com. Put this tough guy to work for you.

Dan Holohan