ABOUT THE OWNER

Hi, my name is Gary Springwater, CEO of Backflow Tools and creator of the new generation backflow tool called the ‘Seatdriver’.  This new backflow tool came about while I was working part-time performing backflow testing and repairs as a side job to my high school teaching position as a CAD engineering and STEM educator. I had two goals in mind as I began the backflow testing service, one to make some side money to help pay for my son’s college and secondly, to get some much-needed physical exercise outdoors, being a change from thirty-two years inside the classroom.  

After acquiring my state license to perform backflow testing and repairs, I began taking on customers.  The backflow testing gave me some light to medium exercise, almost like doing yoga (my wife might disagree) but with tools and gauges in my hands and the sun at my back.  My new backflow testing job was meaningful as it was helping to keep our city’s drinking water safe. By testing these backflow prevention meters, I was ensuring that they weren’t allowing yard chemicals or other possible poisons to backflow into our city’s drinking water.   I would like to say thank you to all my fellow backflow testers across the USA who work diligently to do the same.   

I had no idea that so many of the meters I went to test would be needing repairs due to worn parts, which can cause these backflow meters to allow nasty chemicals back into our drinking water.  As testers know that is when our thinking hat goes on and we begin to analyze the cause of the malfunction and to implement the repairs, in order to keep our drinking water safe. 

When you are a sole proprietor doing a new business venture, you're not operating within the old “that's the way we have always done it” approach.  You see the frustrations or needs or “problems” that arise during the repair process.  I tolerated some of them for over a year, then I heard in my head the very words I told my students over and over, “If you see a problem, then find a solution”.  Opportunities are really just our frustrations which need a solution.   

And here we are introducing Seatdriver!  It is a backflow tool solution to the frustration of doing repairs on the #2 check valve seat which is found in one of the most widely used RPZ meters in the business, the Wilkins 975xl backflow meter. 

My frustration was fighting the alignment of the #2 check valve seats due to its position underneath the backflow meter.  It was difficult to get a good alignment because many times I was working upside down in a Maiden grass bush, sweating in the southern heat, and reaching up using two index fingers in a position that my body wasn’t meant to be in.  Maybe I wasn’t that good at yoga after all.  As most repair technicians can find a gadget to loosen and tighten the #2 check valve seats, the misery and frustration is in aligning them correctly.  I kept looking for a tool that would help align these seat valves easily.  After being unable to find one, I had enough of the frustration.  My CAD, engineering, and manufacturing background enabled me to begin work on a product that could loosen, align, and replace both the relief valve seats and the check valves seats using one tool. It had to be light in weight and easy to carry, but also strong enough even to handle the pipe wrenches.  This new generation backflow tool will save you time, frustration, and money.  It is not the first screwdriver, but it is the first ‘seatdriver’.  With patented design, this is revolutionizing the alignment process in our industry.

By the way, my son has since graduated with an engineering degree and our backflow tool company is growing day by day since the sale of our first product back in the fall of 2022.

My passion has always been God, family, and designing/creating. Now there's a fourth passion, to help my fellow backflow repair technicians make more money with less frustration, getting those tough alignments finished quicker, out in the heat, working in those hard to reach positions.       

Cheers to everyone in the industry dedicated to keeping America’s drinking water safe for everyone we love.