SEPTEMBER | 2021
SEPTEMBER | 2021
The City of Champlin has selected Mueller to replace close to 8,000 residential, commercial and irrigation water meters with solid-state ultrasonic water meters and advanced metering infrastructure. The new system will provide two-way radio communication giving staff access to real time and historical data when responding to concerns of high consumption, water loss, freezing temperatures or customer account inquiries.
David Stifter, Utilities Superintendent for the City of Champlin said, “The Mueller advanced metering infrastructure is another step in our digital transformation that will save us time and money by giving us accurate, reliable data to act on.”
The Mueller solid state meters and two-way transmitters will eliminate the need for a worker to perform monthly drive-by collection of data, providing the city with significant personnel time savings that can be better spent elsewhere. Using the Sentryx™ Water Intelligence Platform, the system can automatically flag accounts with unusual readings that could be an indication of a leak or meter malfunction. The meters also take temperature readings, so the city can now inform customers in areas where pipes are buried at lower depths to take action to reduce the risk of water freezing in pipelines.
The City has selected bronze bodied meters to replace the old plastic bodied meters that were prone to splitting and cross threading. This decision has also eliminated the need for continuity straps that were required to ground the old meters in homes built prior to the year 2000. Milbank Winwater Works is managing the installation of the projects that is expected to be completed in October of 2021.
Click here for more information on the Mueller AMI Solutions
The Diamond Valley Water District (DVWD) in Arizona had an asbestos water main that was originally installed over 55 years ago and needed an isolation valve installed to connect PVC 900 piping to infrastructure within a new subdivision. To make the connection, however, involved adding in several angled connections of varying degrees, requiring many hours to install.
DVWD chose the HYMAX SwivelJoint as it connects and restrains any two pipes at any angle between 0 degrees and 90 degrees. This meant that crews could adjust the fitting to the exact angle needed and simply tighten it into the desired position.
The SwivelJoint comes ready to use with its stab-fit design and unique radial gripping system that prevents pipe motion. With only three bolts to tighten, there is no need to tighten multiple mega-lugs as the universal gripping teeth fit metal and plastic pipes. The DVWD crew removed the grip chain on the end connecting to the asbestos pipe to prevent the coupling from crushing the pipe, and the grip chain remained in place to connect to the C900 PVC pipe. The coupling also allowed up to 4 degrees dynamic deflection per end to help reduce future pipe damage caused by ground shifts. Without the SwivelJoint, DVWD estimated that they would have had to experiment with several fittings of different angles to make a proper connection.
Don Bohiler, Manager & Water Operator for Diamond Valley Water District said, “Using the SwivelJoint helped us save a ton of time. If I had to install multiple fittings, it could have easily taken my crew an additional four hours. By installing the SwivelJoint, I just had to move the joint to the angle of the connecting pipes, stab-fit it to the pipes, close it up, and go home.”
It took the DVWD service crew less than an hour to install the HYMAX Grip SwivelJoint and return water service to customers.
Click here for more information on the HYMAX SwivelJoint
The Hydro-Guard® Automatic and S.M.A.R.T. Flushing products have new names - the 50 Series, 100 Series, 200 Series, 300 Series, 600 Series, and 1200 Series Automated Flushing Systems. Formerly the HG-1 Basic/S, HG-1, HG-2, HG-3, HG-4, HG-6, and HG-8, the updated Hydro-Guard flushing portfolio is now arranged in a good, better, best format to help you understand the incremental value that each model delivers. From a mechanical and functional standpoint, the devices will remain the same great Hydro-Guard products you have come to know and expect.
Selecting the correct Automatic or Smart Flushing product, or combination of products, has never been easier. Hydro-Guard products have you covered with semi-permanent, temporary, and S.M.A.R.T. designs. Mix and match your automatic flushing fleet to meet your utility’s needs and community concerns.
Take the next step to find the right flushing device for you.
Click here for more information on Hydro-Guard Automatic Flushing Systems
We are excited to announce that Mueller has expanded the capabilities of the Sentryx™ software enabled Super Centurion® smart hydrant and retrofit kits. We feel confident that these expanded capabilities will enable even more customers to experience the smarter, faster business decisions that the smart hydrant and retrofit kits offer.
New capabilities include:
Click here for more information on the Sentryx software enabled Super Centurion hydrant
Located in Southern California, Fountain Valley has endured its fair share of droughts and consequently, water conservation is at the heart of the City’s operations. In 2017, the City contracted our Echologics® team to help with rolling out a five-year comprehensive condition assessment program. Approximately 43.4 miles of cement mortar-lined and coated steel, and asbestos cement pipes were tested in the first four phases of the program. The team has just completed phase five with 10.7 miles of 6” to 10” diameter asbestos cement distribution mains within residential neighborhoods.
“We were looking for hard evidence on our pipe condition in four key areas so that we could integrate the condition assessment data into our existing asset management program to increase confidence of the decision-making matrix. We also wanted to have a baseline for all other mains to better plan for maintenance and ensure we maximize the life of our assets,” said Joseph Macias, Water Distribution Supervisor for the City of Fountain Valley.
Using the ePulse® condition assessment technology, Echologics field technicians tested 123 pipe segments during phase five to determine the average remaining structural wall thickness. The technology combines acoustic data with pipe material information to calculate its current hoop thickness.
In 6% of the segments that were in good condition, there was less than a 10% loss in original average wall thickness. Most pipes were in moderate condition, with a 10% to 30% loss in original average wall thickness. Unfortunately, 24% were in poor condition with over 30% loss in original average wall thickness.
Once the remaining pipe wall thickness is known, another Echologics technology, EchoLife®, is used to determine the remaining life of service. These calculations consider water pressure and external loading conditions.
The utilization of evidence-based condition assessment data is a proactive approach to asset management. It can extend the lives of water mains by distinguishing those that are merely old from those that are truly impaired and allow asset managers to prioritize limited renewal budgets to the assets that require it the most. The City may also consider pipe rehabilitation as an option to reduce costs associated with water main replacement.
Click here for more information on ePulse
With Mueller’s recent acquisition of i2O® , the company now offers data loggers to cost-effectively monitor flow and pressure throughout water distribution networks. The pressure loggers are accurate, reliable, and robust, with highly configurable data transmission and a full set of alarm functions on all data channels. They offer a wide range of interval and dial-up configurations and can detect transients and monitor PRV conditions. The pressure logger can also be used as a controller meaning there is a minimal upgrade path to advanced pressure management.
i2O’s intelligent network solutions are complementary to both Sentryx™, Mueller’s digital services platform, and existing Mueller technology-enabled products used for metering, leak detection, pipe condition assessment and water quality.
Come and see our new line-up of products at WEFTEC, booth 2034.
Click here for more information on the i2O data logger
Acoustic leak detection using IoT sensors is a cost-effective solution to detect emerging leaks in water distribution networks. The acoustic system identifies and pin-points leakage events with high sensitivity, but it also detects non-leakage events which may overload the utility with data.
In collaboration with the University of Waterloo, and supported by the Southern Ontario Water Consortium, an Echologics team used machine learning techniques to narrow reported events to only the most relevant data visible to the water utility.
To learn more, you can sign up for a 1-hour live webinar with Water Online on Thursday, September 23 at 1pm ET, we will share:
Click here to register for the event
If you are unable to make the webinar, click here to read the latest white paper on Ensemble-Based Machine Learning Approach for Improved Leak Detection in Water Mains.
As part of Mueller’s commitment to serving the needs of the utility, we have been busy improving the Remote Pressure Monitoring (RPM) products to meet industry needs and customer expectations.
Our goal is to exceed two specific industry needs (1) a single, integrated, smart water software platform to monitor various water distribution system characteristics and (2) robust hardware designs to meet the increased installation density demands of utilities. In pursuit of these goals, significant investments have been made to improve the reliability of the devices and integrate with Sentryx Water Intelligence Platform with pressure monitoring services. The Sentryx pressure monitoring service provides all the popular features of MIWT.net plus improved visualizations and reports along with Mueller Network Operations Center (NOC) technical support services.
The current MIWT.net pressure monitoring website will be decommissioned on January 4, 2022. Access to the MIWT.net portal will be discontinued after migration to Sentryx. However, all historical device data and user information will be retained and assessable through Sentryx post migration.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Mueller sales representative.
Click here or more information on the Sentryx Water Intelligence Platform
Brandon Sprouse - Metrology Territory Manager | Georgia, South Carolina
Chris Varney - Infrastructure Territory Manager | Central Florida - West
Daniel Van Overbeke - Metrology Territory Manager | Minnesota, North & South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska
Glen Lohman - TSM Territory Sales Manager | Texas
Jacob Ferriera - Regional Manager - Water Management Solutions | Western Region
Lennie Teng - Area Sales Manager | Southeast Asia
Mohammad Bazargan - Metrology Territory Manager | Ohio, Indiana, Michigan
Matt Brocato – Metrology Territory Manager | Kansas, Missouri
Nick Laing - Infrastructure Territory Manager | North Georgia
Sondra Combs - Infrastructure Territory Manager | Kansas, Missouri
Copyright © 2021 Mueller Water Products, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mueller refers to one or more of Mueller Water Products, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“MWP”), and its subsidiaries. MWP and each of subsidiaries are legally separate and independent entities when providing products and services. MWP does not provide products or services to third parties. MWP and each of its subsidiaries are liable only for their own acts and omissions and not those of each other. MWP brands include Mueller ® Echologics®, Hydro Gate®, Hydro-Guard®, Jones®, Krausz®, i2O®, Mi.Net®, Milliken®, Pratt®, Pratt Industrial®, Singer®, and U.S. Pipe Valve & Hydrant®. Please see www.muellerwp.com/brandsto learn more.
