Featured Product

Gerber Avalanche

Gerber Plumbing Fixtures LLC was founded in 1932 and ever since has been on the cutting edge of innovation and performance in the plumbing industry.  With greater and greater water restrictions being implemented every day, Gerber maintain’s their belief that with low flow should come high performance.  As you may remember we installed a Gerber Avalanche in the Delta Chi fraternity house at Eastern Illinois University to test how much use and abuse this toilet could take while maintaining its high level of performance.  The following is the results from this two month testing.

Month One:

Installation of the fixture was a breeze and many of the fraternity men seemed skeptical of the Avalanche’s ability to withstand the hardships that it certainly had in store for itself.  After the excitement of the installation died down the unit went into regular use.  The men that live in the house noted that the Avalanche never once clogged or required “extra-curricular activity” in order to get a complete flush from the unit.  The Avalanche withstood everything that was thrown its way in the first month of testing.  Delta Chi was also able to reduce their water bill by 7% in the first month using the Avalanche.

Month Two:

The second month of testing went as smooth as the first month.  Despite being a residential unit and facing a commercial like use, the Avalanche was able to withstand the abuse and perform at its same high level.  In the second month of use the Delta Chi water bill savings remained consistent with the first month.  A sense of true excitement regarding the Avalanche was felt throughout the fraternity.  Men who did not live at the house would make their way to the residence simply to use the facilities.  As one member stated, “I know we’re not used to having nice things in a college town, but that (toilet) is just awesome.”

If the Avalanche is able to make a group of fraternity men have so much excitement for a plumbing fixture, imagine what one could do in your own rest room.  The Gerber Avalanche is a true testament to the ability of engineering to allow us to have conservation mixed with high performance in a level that is not just acceptable, but also exciting.  Don’t let the men of Delta Chi be only ones to recognize and enjoy the value of a truly excellent fixture, get your Gerber Avalanche today and maybe even get one for a friend!

T&S Brass

Founded in 1947  T & S has worked hard to keep its reputation as a plumbing industry leader.  Through constant innovation and a never ending desire for growth, T & S has become a true American success story.  T & S employs over 200 American jobs at their company headquarters in  Travelers Rest, South Carolina.  It is with this never ending innovation and improvement to their products that we are able to name the T & S Premium Stainless Steel Modular Waste Valves  Chicago Plumbing Central’s featured Product of the Week.

The new  Stainless Steel Modular Waste Valves by T & S are available in 18 different models, available to fit almost any sink specification around.  It is with their rugged design and stainless steel construction that these valves are able to outshine and outperform any other valve on the market.  While a standard rotary ball valves may fail under intense use and abuse, the Stainless Steel Modular Waste Valves by T & S are sure to withstand in even the toughest environments.

The modular design of the valves allows for easy installation and maintenance.  While other valves require costly hours of labor for simple repairs the T & S waste valves allow the end users to breathe a sigh of relief when their valve needs to be maintained.  With easy to use push-pull valve activation through a rugged handle that is sure to endure even the most extreme abuse, you can be sure that your valve will work any time and every time.  T & S is so sure of the ruggedness of their valves that these stainless steel valves come with a limited lifetime warranty to ensure the satisfaction of every T & S customer.

Chicago Plumbing Central is proud to be able to feature the T & S Stainless Steel Modular Waste Valve series as our featured Product of the Week.  T & S holds great pride in their reputation for manufacturing quality products.  It is with that same pride that we feature them in our Featured Product section.  For more information about T & S please visit their website http://www.tsbrass.com

Jay R. Smith

The Jay R. Smith company has a long and storied tradition in the plumbing industry. After its founding in 1926, Jay R. Smith has been a leading innovator in the industry ever since. That is why we are proud to announce this week’s featured product to be the Smith 7140-Flood-Gate Automatic Backwater Valve.

The Flood-Gate Automatic Backwater Valve functions as a normal backwater valve would, with a few exceptions that make this product stand out from the competition. The Flood-Gate is a full port valve (with no restrictions or enlargements). This feature is what helps the Flood-Gate to be completely automatic and require no opening or closing action from the end user. The is automatically closed when the unit detects a positive seal, both under low and high head conditions. The energy used to open and close the valve comes from the forces that back up the sewer, no electricity or other outside force is needed for proper function.

Aside from the convenience and ease of mind that an automatic backwater valve can give the user, they can be sure to relax when hearing the other major benefit to the Flood-Gate Automatic Backwater Valve. While the standard backwater valve uses a flapper to stop the sewer back up from entering the structure, the Flood-Gate uses exacting what its name implies. With the use of a flapper it is easy for debris and other unwanted items to become lodge in the flapper and cause the backwater valve to fail when it is most needed. The Flood-Gate uses the flood gate technology to prevent debris from clogging the back water valve and assures consistent high performance throughout the life of the unit.

Sewer back ups are something that causes nothing but problems for any one that is involved. While it is often wondered who is responsible for the damages caused by these back ups, the courts have recently been ruling that it is in fact the municipal government that operates the sewer that is responsible for damages. Charlotte, North Carolina has been using the Flood-Gate for over five years in areas where sewer back ups were a constant problem to the government and the citizens. Before the introduction of the Flood-Gate technology they were forced to depend on the unreliable flapper to prevent sewer back ups from damaging a home. Since the installation of the new units, Charlotte is now a much cleaner and safer city for its residents.

As an engineer or contractor it can be quite difficult these days to find a product that can fill the various levels of need for Buy American Act projects. Not with a Jay R. Smith manufactured unit. Smith is able to provide products for both the 50 and 100 percent Buy American projects. With so many American jobs consistently being sent to other nations, it is nice to see a large manufacturer that can help to keep jobs in America. The Montgomery, Al. based Jay R. Smith Manufacturing Company has and looks to always be an American company that helps American citizens.

For more information on the Flood-Gate Backwater Valve check out http://www.jrsmith.com/products/backw/backwater_valves_7140.htm

Rockford Sanitary

Rockford Sanitary Systems Inc. has supplied quality separation systems to the plumbing industry for over thirty five years.  While so many manufacturers try to cover all ends of the plumbing industry, Rockford sticks with what they know best, separation systems.  Rockford’s separation systems come in over twenty six varieties and over two hundred sizes.  And of course, if needed for a special job, custom units can be created by the helpful engineering staff at Rockford.

While Rockford does have many different types of separation systems, the one that is being focused on for this week’s Featured Product is the Rockford G-Series Grease Separators.  Commonly referred to as a “grease trap”, grease separators play an important role in the protecting of drainage lines from the harmful grease and oils that can clog and ruin them.  If grease were allowed to freely pass through the drainage system, it would only be a matter of time before that system would experience blocking, stoppages and backups.  As you can imagine that would put quite the damper on any food service industry related business plan.  This link to an article by the Los Angeles Sanitation Department talks more about the problems of grease.

Many people may think that grease separators and interceptors are the same thing, they would be mistaken.  While interceptors are able to skim most of the free floating grease from the water that passes through the unit, less than fifty percent of grease floats.  What happens to the other half or more of the grease that goes in to an interceptor?  It goes right on through to the drainage system that the interceptor is designed to protect.  While interceptors by nature are unable to prevent this flow of grease from entering the drainage system, a separator is able to stop both floating and non-floating grease.  Various jobs demand different unit capacities, take a look at this ASPE link to learn more on separator sizing

The Rockford G-Series grease separator separates the grease and oils from the fluids by sending the incoming fluids through the unit and separating with the use of gravity, no external flow controls are needed.  It is through this system that a Rockford G-Series unit is able to retain all the grease that an interceptor would allow through in to the drainage system.  The food particles, which a lot of grease sticks to, are contained within the unit until cleaning can be performed, as opposed to flowing in to the drainage system and causing many different types of expensive problems.  Check out this drawing at the Rockford site to see how a separator works.

As it happens so often in the plumbing industry, many times the lead time on a needed product is greater than the time you may have to complete the job.  This is almost never the case with a Rockford unit.  While most manufacturers are forced to wait on that “slow boat” from China with their products on it, Rockford separators are assembled right here in Illinois.  With their headquarters conveniently located in Rockford, Il it is easy to cut down on the costs of a project by simply picking up an item out of their stock right from the Rockford location.  Rockford has certainly found a way to separate themselves from the competition and that has earned them the recognition of being in Chicago Plumbing Central’s Featured Products section.

For more information on Rockford products check out : http://www.rkfdseparators.com/