Most professionals in the water industry associate heated enclosures with protecting backflow preventers. While the majority of hot boxes cover above-ground backflow preventers, many municipalities now bring their meters and backflows together in an enclosure. Another common trend is to protect exposed control valves with heated enclosures.
Control valves, also referred to as ACVs (automatic control valves), perform a plethora of functions within plumbing and waterworks systems. Control valves do everything from regulating water pressure, protecting the system from surges, even filling the big water towers you see when you drive down the highway. Control valves function exactly how their name implies: they “control” the flow of water throughout the system.
As you might imagine, there are multitudes of ACVs throughout a municipal water system. Traditionally, they have been installed much like meters and backflow preventers – below ground in a utility vault. What’s more, in warmer climates, control valves are installed above-ground with no weather or freeze protection whatsoever. A growing trend in the industry is to install all control valves above-ground and to protect the valves with a heated enclosure.
Control valves installed below-grade in utility vaults are dangerous to maintain and operate because of confined space issues and the potential for flooding. Municipalities are moving to protect their employees and maintenance teams by installing these ACVs above-ground for safe, easy access. Control valves that are already installed above-ground in typically warmer weather climates have seen freeze conditions that ruin the piloting and render the valve useless. Any and all ACVs can fit easily inside a Safe-T-Cover enclosure, which drastically increases valve lifespan while making maintenance and operation hassle-free.
Contact Safe-T-Cover to discuss our flexible options to protect your ACVs. Our retrofit capabilities can accommodate virtually any existing application, and our design teams can help with new control valve applications.
Think worker safety, automatic control valve protection and ease of upkeep and maintenance. Think outside the vault with above-ground installation and Safe-T-Cover’s industry-leading enclosures for your next project.
