You seem to know my business better than I do
. Why would I not sell Upflow? Of course I sell Upflow, I also train on the advantages of Upflow, or downflow, or whatever the companies I am working with prefer I train on. I started in this industry selling the Schurz valve, one of the original automatic softener valves which was an Upflow design. I then witched to the Erie 541 valve, also an Upflow design. My experience in Upflow started in the 80's and I can train either way but I also know the real advantages and disadvantages to both. As to selling through my dealers on this board, again you seem to know much more about me than I do. I know hundreds of companies all over the country, many of which don't buy from us. I recommend many companies that don't buy from me. If a company has a great staff, knowledge etc, and they don't sell junk then I have no problem recommending them. Most of the PM's I get are simply asking if XYZ company is a good company to buy from. If they buy from the companies you mentioned then I basically say yes since the companies you mentioned promote high end quality equipment for the most part, obviously not 100%. We are all beholden to certain limitations.
As to discussing it here, this is a DIY forum, not a political debate forum. While I enjoy debate, it is fairly boring for most people to read and serves little purpose on a forum with this type of format.
As to the "new products" do you really think I don't have every new component that they make in my test facility? Why do you think that I don't have access to all of their newest. latest, greatest? I have my friends in the industry that give me all the new stuff...
As to Pentair investing in salt free... this is internal politics that has been going on in this industry for decades. And when a multi-billion dollar company buys a tiny little company, looking at the numbers, it is insignificant. There is no new water technology that was acquired, it is much deeper than that. Just like when Kinetico bought Nimbus, or Culligan bought US carbon Block recently. No new technologies were acquired, it was far more complex than that.
As to you buying the systems you do, it is all good. Purchasing systems from C is your prerogative. If you feel their ultra low price provides you with higher profitability then kudos to you. We prefer to focus on product lines that are different as you will see in our catalog. We source items from all over the world but when possible we source from the USA, Italy, Canada, Germany, Israel, Australia, etc.. These obviously cost more as labor costs are much higher. Many of our items are manufactured in Mexico, Taiwan, China etc. Labor costs, environmental controls etc. are far more lax if they exist at all in these countries.
If you wish to continue this conversation, please feel free to email, PM or call me anytime.