Getting pushback on quarterly PMs for PRVs, backflows, recirc pumps, and floor drain priming in a pair of 10-story offices - quiet for a bit, then we skip one cycle and it’s a 2am leak or no-hot-water ticket. What cadence are you using that FMs will sign off on without surprise callouts - quarterly exercise with annual rebuilds, or can you stretch to semiannual and still sleep at night?
On a pair of 10‑story offices, we got FMs to sign off on semiannual PMs by adding a BMS weekly 5‑min recirc pump exercise every Friday at noon. It keeps the seals wet and catches a dead lead pump before Monday, and it killed the 2am no‑hot‑water tickets.
Semiannual worked once we trended PRV outlet pressure and added a 60-second monthly strainer blowdown as the in-between touch. The 2am hits were mostly floor drain primers, so we slid a $25 leak puck under each backflow/primer so security gets pinged before it’s a flood. Kept annual rebuilds, dropped quarterly, and haven’t missed sleep.
Piggybacking on @hgreen87, we ended the 2am surprises by swapping the mechanical floor‑drain primers for electronic timers and sticking Monnit leak sensors under the PRV/backflow stations; FMs okayed semiannual once the weekly 10‑sec pulse and text alerts were in place… If budget’s tight, at least rotate the lead/lag PRVs monthly so the seats don’t weld.
We shifted two 12-story offices to semiannual full PMs by adding a weekly ‘vitals check’ — bleed the PRV sense line 10 seconds and snap BMS screenshots of PRV dP and recirc supply/return dT. That flags drift early and FMs bought in because it’s a 3-minute stop that beats the 2am fire drill. Caveat: on hard water, keep a quarterly strainer rinse on the backflows or the creep comes back.