The Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association and its SAFE GUARDS consumer awareness
campaign are now accessible via the Internet, thanks to an enterprising plumber in Washington state.
Internet pioneer Hill Daughtry of Hill's Plumbing in Vashon Island, Wash., claims to have created the
first plumbing oriented home page on the Net in the spring of 1995. More recently, he began including
a "GAMA Safety Tip" icon within his company's site on the World Wide Web (titled "theplumber.com").
Click on the GAMA icon, and you will be whisked to the home page of "The Safe Guardian," which
presents a safety message along with the familiar SAFE GUARDS' red and white logo and information
on how to contact GAMA. One recent safety tip stressed how quickly a baby's skin will severely burn in
scalding water: only a half second in 150° F water, in contrast to four minutes in water at 120°F.
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS: Besides touting its own services, the
Hill's Plumbing Home Page offers a variety of intriguing electronic links to other plumbing businesses
manufacturers, wholesalers and fellow plumbers. Offering information on products and other services,
Daughtry's roster of links is truly an international affair, featuring organizations based in England, Japan
and even New Zealand as well as in the United States.
Everyday plumbing problems are a routine part of Mr. Daughtry's electronic neighborhood. Consumers
can use the site to ask questions about product and technical problems.
Hill will either respond to these queries himself or forward them to other plumbers linked to
theplumber.com. He may also send them to one of two "newsgroup" discussion areas connected to his
home page: "alt.home.repair" and "misc.consumers.house." As an additional aid to consumers,
Daughtry has created a "Plumbing FAQ" that lists the most frequently asked questions and answers
about products and their applications.
Theplumber.com will also route you to the latest information on current industry affairs, such as the
ongoing controversy in polybutylene piping systems. But you need not confine your curiosity to the
present or even to plumbing. Daughtry's "Ever Changing Web Sites List" allows visitors tors to obtain
information on science, art, women's resources, worldwide travel, current events, movies, television
and even something called Kids Links. "It's just fun stuff," he explains, "something to make people
keep coming back to our site."
Then again, maybe you want to brush up on plumbing technology in ancient Babylonia or Crete. Or
perhaps you've always wondered what kind of fixtures and faucets Bill and Hillary are using in the
White House. Daughtry offers a baker's dozen of excerpts from the "History of Plumbing," an
occasional series originally published in Plumbing and Mechanical magazine, a Chicago based trade
publication for contractors.
"I get about 30 emails a day from all over the world," Daughtry told the editors of that magazine
recently. "Some of the questions are as basic as how to rough in a low boy toilet to 'I'm building a
brand new high end house, and I need radiant heat, so how do I size it?"'
EYE CATCHING: Daughtry became interested in GAMA's SAFE
GUARDS campaign last November after receiving our first newsletter in the mail. A short
article on the critical relationship between water heater tank size and water temperature caught his eye.
Daughtry hadn't realized that when dialing down the thermostat from 140°F. to the recommended 120°F,
a plumber must replace an existing 40 gallon heater with a 50 gallon model to generate the same
volume of hot water.
"I got excited about learning some thing new and figured other plumbers might feel the same way,"
he explains. "Also, l figured the newsletter's graphics would attract attention among consumers and
tradesmen on the Internet."
Launched last May, theplumber.com drew 20,000 electronic visitors through the end of December.
Daughtry estimates that he's logging four to five hours every morning on Internet related activities
before starting work on his everyday plumbing business.
To contact Daughtry, write to him at P.O. BOX 1532, Vashon Island, WA 98070;
telephone: 206/463 5872. Better yet, hail him on the on the internet at http://www.theplumber.com.
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