Message from LeDuc & Dexter

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New Water Heater Coming To Market	RESIDENTIAL

A few months ago we linked to an article from Plumbing & Mechanical magazine,
A New Design For Gas Water Heaters. Now we have product information from the Bradford White Corporation.

To go to a printable product brochure, click on the photo below.

You must have a copy of the Adobe Acrobat® Reader installed on your computer in order to open the brochure. If you do not, you may download a FREE copy of the software from Adobe's web site by clicking the graphic.

Boilers – Hot Water for Wine Making	COMMERCIAL

Sonoma-Cutrer Boiler Systems

Two Industrial Water Boilers (Click photo to enlarge.)

Domestic Water Boiler (Click photo to enlarge.)

Hydronic Heating Boiler (Click photo to enlarge.)

Hot Water Storage Tank (Click photo to enlarge.)

No one ever said it takes a great boiler to make a great wine, but hot water is an important ingredient in the wine making process. "Wineries use an incredible amount of water and they use a lot of hot water for cleaning," says Bill Zeeb, Commercial Dept. Manager at LeDuc & Dexter Inc., "Typically they need water at around 180 degrees at a pressure of 90 p.s.i." Hot water is especially important for making white wine, where cleanliness and sterilization are essential to stop bacteria that can ruin a high-priced Chardonnay with the greatest of ease at any stage from the tank to the bottle. Hot water is used to clean barrels, tanks, pumps, filters, bottling lines and equipment and floors.

Boilers are essential to making hot water for a winery. Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards has 4 boilers. Two large boilers are used to produce industrial hot water, another boiler heats domestic water and a small-sized boiler is used for Hydronic heating. The sterilization process of the bottling line equipment prior to bottling requires industrial water at 170 degrees, "We use 190 degree water to sterilize before bottling, water at that temperature dries really fast," explains Tom Toedter , Construction Manager at Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards. The Hydronic boiler, which is a low-pressure boiler, heats the water, which is pumped through pipes in cement floors for radiant heating and through fan-coil units for space heating.

Hot water storage is another factor to consider when so much industrial hot water is used and needed on demand at a winery. Most wineries have tanks with 500 to 3,000 gallon capacities. Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards uses a 650-gallon hot water storage tank with a foam-insulated jacket to hold heated water circulated from the industrial boilers. Many of the smaller wineries use a 199-gallon hot water storage tank. "Tanks that are 200 gallons or more are much more expensive to operate because at that point they have to be ASME rated," says Zeeb, "You see a lot of 199 gallon hot water storage tanks in wine country."

LeDuc & Dexter's commercial department determines a winery's needs by, in most cases, interviewing the winemaker. Bottling needs, number of employees, and how many hose stations are to be used concurrently are all factors. From this information LeDuc & Dexter designs and installs a hot water supply system consisting of a boiler, hot water storage tank, circulating pumps, piping and related equipment for a complete system. LeDuc & Dexter also upsize many hot water systems to meet production increases with larger, more efficient boilers or the installation of an additional boiler for added capacity.
 

Super Service Plumbing	THE COMPANY

Super Service Plumbing, a division of LeDuc & Dexter Inc. since 1991, is a plumbing service and repair company that is located in Santa Rosa and serves Sonoma County. Super Service provides 24-hour emergency service to residential and commercial customers. "Our business is about 50% residential, 50% commercial," says Jon Schutz , Manager of Super Service Plumbing, "We get calls from restaurants for drain line stoppages, we also work with some large property management companies, we've done work out at Infineon Raceway and we've done work at wineries." Schutz oversees 9 employees including 5 field technicians.

Super Service Plumbing Trucks are easy to spot; they're big, red and shiny. (Click photo to enlarge.)

Some of the Super Service's work comes from residential and commercial clients of LeDuc & Dexter under warranty and through LeDuc & Dexter's Residential Customer Service Department . When LeDuc & Dexter's residential department completes work for subdivisions or custom homes a red decal sticker with the Super Service Plumbing logo and phone numbers is attached to the water heater or garbage disposal for the customers' convenience. "When we make a service call we also give the customer some logo magnets. We get a lot of calls from people who keep them on their refrigerators," says Schutz.

Super Service has been involved in a highly successful water conservation program with the city of Santa Rosa that has saved millions of gallons of water. The Go Low Flow program, set up by the city, originally provided homeowners a rebate for purchasing a 1.6-gallon replacement toilet. Later, a direct install program was introduced with Santa Rosa paying for the toilets. Super Service contracted with Santa Rosa to install, what turned out to be, over 2,000 toilets. In 1999 Schutz was presented with a Water Conservation Planning Team Award from the mayor for his contribution to the project.