True BLEU: Underdrain Concept And Design By Tonka Water

Rick Mann, VP of sales with Tonka Water, shares details on an underdrain system that can fit into any plant – and is built to last.

“BLEU is a blockless engineered underdrain,” Mann said, explaining the acronym. “It is a stainless steel lateral system to replace either existing sytsems or new systems as far as the underdrain design.”

So what makes BLEU different?

“The BLEU underdrain is the lowest-profile underdrain on the market. It’s only five and a half inches tall. For retrofits and new installations, we can reduce the underdrain height, allowing more media to be placed into the filter cell, giving you longer filter runs and better depth.

“The other distinguishing feature is [that] we take the air lateral out of that water lateral, and have a separate air-wash grid. It’s very easy to retrofit, whether you want to do a water-only backwash or an air and water backwash. It becomes universally acceptable, no matter what process of backwash you’re trying to perform.”

Rick also stressed the reliability of a stainless steel underdrain, as opposed to plastic.

“The cost to replace the media from a large filter disruption through an underdrain failure is huge. We [use] 304 stainless. It’s more expensive than the plastics, but it’s going to have a longer value as far as return on investment, and less chance of disruption and less chance of ripping out.”

Learn more BLEU features, and more about Tonka Water’s product line and capabilities, by tuning in below.