Restaurant Water Conservation Techniques:
Low-flow pre-rinse spray valves will save you money on your water, sewer, and water heating bills. See the following web site for the pre-rinse spray valve savings calculator:
What is a pre-rinse spray valve?
A pre-rinse spray valve is a handheld device that uses a spray of water to remove food and grease from dishware, utensils, and pans before placing then in the dishwasher. Low-flow pre-rinse valves are inexpensive and easily interchangeable with different manufacturers’ assemblies.
Why use a low-flow pre-rinse spray valve?
Dishwashing in a typical restaurant consumes more than two-thirds of all of the water used in the restaurant. Nearly on-half of that water can be used to rinse the dishes before actually washing. A great deal of energy is used to heat this water.
A typical pre-rinse spray valve uses 3 gallons per minute (gpm); however, older spray valves still use up to 7 gpm. A low-flow pre-rinse spray-valve uses only 1.6 gpm. Increased water efficiency correlates to direct savings in energy by reducing the amount of water that needs to be heated.
Low-Flow Pre-Rinse Spray Valve Performance
The Food Service Technology Center in California tested many low-flow pre-rinse spray valves and concluded that efficient valves with the knife-like spray pattern performed as well as or better than conventional models. The following low-flow spray valves meet the performance criteria of the Food Service Technology Center as of September 20, 2006.