Specialized Replacement Fill Valves And Electronic Flow And Metering Improve Pressure, Stop Leakage And Prevent Valve Failures For The City Of Modesto

The City of Modesto, California is situated 90 miles east of San Francisco and has approximately 200,000 residents relying on 200,000 of gallons of water a day. The City needed to upgrade three water storage tanks that hold approximately 750,000 gallons each.

After years of using motor operated valves to fill water storage tanks, the city recognized that there were just too many problems. Firstly, they had leakage of the stem seals after just a few years of operation. The cause of this problem was due to turbulence in the flow stream that would make the butterfly valve rock back and forth causing premature wear.

Secondly, there was leakage due to high flow turbulence. When you’re flowing wide open on a 16” valve at about 10,000 GPM, there is quite a bit of turbulence, which wears on the stem and seals. If you close the valve slightly to reduce the flow the wear is even worse. If you attempt to regulate flow with a magnetic flowmeter and controller, the valve cycles constantly causing even more wear.