Want to make your workday a whole lot easier? Stop using manual balancing valves in domestic hot water recirculation systems and upgrade to CircuitSolver® thermostatic balancing valves!
The Problems with Manual Balancing
Manual balancing is time-consuming, laborious, expensive, and frustrating, ultimately resulting in callbacks for what should be a one-and-done balancing process.
Traditional manual balancing valves are an antiquated technology that cannot effectively meet the dynamic needs of a domestic hot water system (DHWS).
“Typically, balancing requires the combined efforts of multiple contractors balancing and rebalancing a system to achieve the required flow to deliver hot water to fixtures on system startup, portraying manual valve’s inherent weakness,” explains Tom Ruggierio, Director of Sales, Commercial Plumbing, CircuitSolver, “When balancing is done once in a static environment, that balancing will be rendered inadequate when normal operation and day-to-day conditions put varying demands on the system if it cannot adjust accordingly.” This process inevitably results in callbacks, inflated labour costs, and upset building occupants.
To address the dynamic conditions of hot water systems, ThermOmegaTech® developed the market’s first innovative line of thermostatic balancing valves – CircuitSolver®.
How CircuitSolver® is Changing the Plumbing Game
CircuitSolver® is a thermostatic balancing valve that has been changing the game since 2012 by eliminating the need to manually balance a DHWS. This self-actuating valve automatically and continuously adjusts flow through a DHWS to maintain a specified temperature at the end of each branch or riser, guaranteeing hot water on demand at the fixtures.
Installed at the end of each branch or riser before the return, CircuitSolver® monitors water temperatures using a patented Thermoloid® paraffin wax actuator. The valve will modulate between open and closed to control flow based on water temperature instead of relying on pressure or flow calculations.
During initial start-up, the valve is wide open and will begin to close once the water temperature reaches the valve’s set point.
The valve will remain in its “closed” position to keep hot water in the line and only modulate open to establish flow when the water temperature drops below its set point, allowing flow from the water heater to quickly reach the branches in need. Once the temperature rises to the valve’s set point again, it automatically modulates back toward the “closed” position. After initial startup, each valve will operate independently, establishing and restricting flow as needed to meet the system’s variable hot water demands.
This continuous response to temperature variation allows a system to be initially balanced in hours, not days, and to stay balanced even as conditions change.
To avoid deadheading the recirculation pump, the valve never fully closes, always allowing a small bypass of flow through. The limited flow to your return line will reduce system wear, electricity, and water usage and improve overall system operation.
Eliminate Headaches and Simplify Balancing
“CircuitSolver® keeps everyone from plumbing engineers and contractors to building residents and managers happy by maintaining a consistently balanced system that delivers hot water quickly and makes callbacks a thing of the past,” Ruggierio says.
The accuracy and precision of CircuitSolver® puts this valve ahead of manual balancing options, eliminating the struggle of balancing and rebalancing a domestic hot water system. With millions of happy customers, the results are in what you don’t see – callbacks, cold water complaints, and endless rebalancing are all problems of the past.
These balancing valves are offered in a variety of sizes from 1/2” to 2” with fixed temperature set-points ranging from 100°F (37.7°C) to 140°F (60°C), and a variety of configurations including integrated unions and check valves, ball valves, strainers, thermometers, and with ProPress® or ProPEX connections. A thermal disinfection dual balancing valve is also available for systems that exercise thermal disinfection processes to prevent Legionella and other bacterial growth.
Whether you are working on new building construction or a retrofit, CircuitSolver® thermostatic balancing valves can be installed into any DHWS in hospitals, schools, hotels, high-rise buildings, or multi-family residential buildings to ensure that hot water is always available at the turn of a tap.
Eliminate wasted time, energy, and money by leaving manual balancing behind and entering the future of balancing with CircuitSolver’s “Install it and Forget it” Solution.
Want to learn more about how CircuitSolver® can improve performance, savings, and durability for your building’s domestic hot water system? Visit CircuitSolver.com!