Tom Cucinotta of Cucinotta’s Pool Service Talks About the Value of the IntelliFlo Pool Pump (interview by David Brake).

http://www.cucinottapoolservice.com

Topics include:

• The value of the IntelliFlo Pool Pump
• New law affecting Florida pool owners
• Energy-savings testimonials

- -  Please see below for a text version of this audio file. - - 

David Brake:        

We’re visiting today with Tom Cucinotta of Cucinotta’s Pool Service in West Palm Beach, Florida. Tom is passionate about saving his customers money. He does it by selling them and installing and servicing the IntelliFlo Pool Pump. Now you might not think that a pool pump can save you money, and Tom himself wondered about that, until Florida passed House Bill 7135, which frankly is going to change life for a lot of pool owners in Florida. Tom, welcome to the Innovation Lab and can you tell us a little bit about HB 7135 and what it means to people in Florida?

Tom Cucinotta:    

Yes, House Bill number 7135 was put into the law in 2008 and what it simply says is that come July one, 2011 all pool pumps, filtering pumps from that day forward, of one horsepower or greater, can no longer be rebuilt. They have to be switched to the minimum of a two speed pump, and in my case preferably the variable speed pump, which is approved. The variable speed offers just a tremendous amount of different speeds. The two speed pump is not as efficient as the variable speed pump.

David Brake:        

So, Tom, what does this mean for the homeowner? You apparently are installing quite a lot of these. From what I’ve heard, it’s not unusual for you to do three or four of these in a given week. What is the draw for the consumer? If it’s saving them money, how much money first of all?

Tom Cucinotta:    

Well typically my customers save an average of $70 to $75 a month; depending on the pool, every pool is different, as well as the horsepower. I can save – I am saving customers over $100 a month. People who have waterfalls, we’re turning those waterfalls off and running the pool instead of a two horsepower pump we’re running it at basically a three-quarter horsepower. The variable speed offers you so many options so when they want to use their waterfall, then we’ll ramp the speed up to a higher speed. And typically I will not have to go to a two horsepower. I can get the same flow out of an IntelliFlo pump with closer to, like, a horse and a half; maybe a little less. I can still make that waterfall flow just as beautifully as it did before. So they’ll use that waterfall just on the weekends or when they’re having a barbecue. And then when they’re done, they put it back to the slower speed and continue to save even more money.

David Brake:        

So, Tom, with these kinds of savings I would imagine that they are recouping their investment a little bit quicker. On average how long is it taking them to recoup their investment?

Tom Cucinotta:    

The average time is anywhere from 12 months to 18 months. And as I tell my customers, you let me put this pump in I’ll prove to you it saves this money. And when it’s paid for, then it’ll pay for my pool service. So it’s like getting free pool service in your backyard 18 months down the road.

David Brake:        

So, Tom, in the state of Florida I would imagine that House Bill 7135 is motivated in an effort to be greener and to save energy. Tell me, however, about some of the people who you’ve actually installed these pumps. I know that you’ve got some quotes from some of them. Can you just share some thoughts and actual quotes from some of your customers who are using the IntelliFlo pool pump now?

Tom Cucinotta:    

Absolutely. I’ll just read a couple of them here. The first gentleman is John Izzo. In the four months prior to installing the variable speed pump, John Izzo’s electric bills were an average of $495 per month. Since installing the pump in 2009 he’s not had an electric bill of more than $357. The savings from the investment inspired Izzo to investigate further efficiency improvements this winter, including a new air conditioner. As a result, this March 2010 the electric bill was $305 less than the prior year. And that’s huge. But it’s true.

Mechanical engineer Howard Goldberg was so skeptical of the savings Cucinotta promised that he looked up the patent on the equipment to verify its technical claims. Since installing the variable speed pump and LED pool lights in July 2009, Goldberg’s electric bills have been reduced by an average of $75 per month. This will pay for itself in 12 to 18 months. I even talked my neighbor into getting a new pump.

David Brake:        

So, Tom, just to interrupt, so this fellow was an engineer, brought a little skepticism to the story here, looked it up, researched it and has determined that not only is the product what it says it is but in actual experience now he’s seen it working to the point that he’s even recommending it to neighbors.

Tom Cucinotta:    

He has sold three more for me that he’s referred. Well they are my customers, but he told them. He said, “Hey, come look at my pump. You need to get one of these.” And I’ve put them all in. And then the last one is a more interesting customer. I don’t service the pool, but it’s a friend of mine who I’ve known over the years in business. And he kept replacing his pool pump motor on an average of every once a year to a year and a half. And it was a horse and a half pump. The pipes on his pool underground we believe are a one inch pipe. The whole pool above ground was an inch and a half with a horse and a half pump on it. That’s pretty huge to have that big of a pump.

But here’s what happened to his pool. In March plumber Mike Pleasant received his lowest electric bill in ten years. In the three months since installing the IntelliFlo Pump his bills have fallen from $400 per month to $236, $228 and $212. “It’s opened my eyes and motivated me to do things differently in my business,” said Pleasant, principal of Papa’s Plumbing in West Palm Beach. “I used to tell my customers that green equipment such as tankless water heaters weren’t worth the money. Now I recommend them.”

And the reason his savings is so high, again I just want to repeat, because there’s a calculation that as builders, pool builders, we should look at the total dynamic head. The head pressure in these pipes, you can only pull so much water through a pipe and push so much water through a pipe. He put a very big pool pump on that pipe and so the pump was back surging. The pressure was building up. Because of that, it was working twice as hard, overheating, burning the pumps out and causing his electric bill to increase just because it was working so hard. And the variable speed pump, if he had a horse and a half, I’m running his pool now at a half a horsepower and it’s still just as blue and clear and just virtually quiet. You do not know that it’s running.

David Brake:        

We’re visiting with Tom Cucinotta with Cucinotta’s Pool Service in West Palm Beach, Florida. Tom has 465 accounts or somewhere there abouts. He handles repairs and remodeling. Tom, I know that with any small businessperson selling is part of it. You sound like you’re doing more than just selling here, though. You’re passionate about the IntelliFlo Pool Pump. There’s something about this particular product that you want to share with your customers. What is that extra something that is giving you this, I can only describe it as a zealousness for the product?

Tom Cucinotta:    

Just the simple fact of the savings. This is a down economy. Everyone’s hurting. People are trying to squeeze their wallets and just being able to save and change their power bills as drastically as I have, I’m committed to it. I believe in green products. I believe in being able to stop all the growth of all the power plants, because the population is growing and Pentair has come up with a way. They’ve come out with it. It’s working. Nobody can touch this product. All the competitors; nobody has anything like it. And it is such an easy sell. The fact that it’s so quiet, that it’s so energy efficient.

And then the other good thing about the Pentair is that they offer automation. And the automation I can control the pump even easier. So they don’t have to walk out there and manually turn valves or push buttons on the pump. With automation just like a remote control on their living room coffee table, they can sit there and speed that pump up and turn that waterfall on and never have to walk out to their pool equipment. And once they realize that they can do that as well and save more money, because people don’t want to get off that sofa and go turn that pump back down. But with automation they do it, they know the savings is there. And I’m able to offer them more products than just the IntelliFlo. But the IntelliFlo has driven my business to a whole new level.

David Brake:        

Well, Tom, if saving money is not good reason enough, there is House Bill 7135 in Florida. Now for our listeners who may be in California or Arizona or Texas, for them they may be saying, “Well that’s Florida. I don’t have to worry about that. And yes, the savings might be nice,” but my question for you; do you use this as a national trend? Is HB 7135 maybe something we’re going to see in other states?

Tom Cucinotta:    

I wouldn’t be surprised if it did happen. I know that there’s more pools here in Florida than most of the states in our country. However, I would think that Texas is following in our footsteps. Of the IntelliFlo Pump, I know this law has been in place in California for several years now. I don’t know exactly how many. And I believe Arizona is in the same situation as well. Florida seems to always follow those two states. And it’s time. And as far as the pool service companies that, such as myself, I believe at this point we’re only a year and one month away; maybe another week or two on top of that. It’s time to be at the goal. It’s time to tell our customers think about whether you want to do another single speed pump now because you only have a certain warranty and I don’t want to put them in that situation and the motor burns out in a year from now or a year and a half from now they have to reinvest at that point into a variable speed pump or a two speed pump. Let’s do it now. Let’s be right and start saving money now.

David Brake:        

Well, Tom, thank you. We have been visiting with Tom Cucinotta of Cucinatta’s Pool Service. He’s there to save his customers money. He’s saving them a lot of money, apparently, in the West Palm Beach, Florida area. Tom, it’s been great having you here as a guest at the Innovation Lab. Thank you so much.

Tom Cucinotta:    

Thank you. Appreciate the time.