Pre-Rinse Spray Valves

Notification of Intent

In typical commercial food operations, dishwashing consumes nearly two-thirds of all the water used—nearly half of which is hot water used by the pre-rinse spray valve to remove food waste from dishes prior to dishwashing. Up to 50 percent of the estimated 1.35 million pre-rinse spray valves currently in use have flow rates as high as 3.0 to 4.0 gallons per minute (gpm)—more than double the federal standard of 1.6 gpm. Considerable progress has been made, however, to develop pre-rinse spray valves that use significantly less water than the federal requirement, and, since pre-rinse spray valves use hot water, this reduced water use can also lead to significant energy savings.

EPA’s WaterSense and ENERGY STAR® programs are teaming up to develop a specification for high-efficiency pre-rinse spray valves. EPA wants to capitalize on the tremendous water and energy savings opportunity, improve and promote the use of more efficient pre-rinse spray valves, and help commercial and institutional kitchen, restaurant, and grocery managers make informed purchasing decisions to reduce their water and energy use, without sacrificing performance.

As a first step, EPA has issued a notification of intent (NOI) (PDF) (6 pp, 135K, About PDF) to develop a specification for high-efficiency pre-rinse spray valves. This NOI outlines EPA's approach to developing the draft specification, the efficiency and performance criteria EPA is working to define, and the technical issues that still need to be resolved related to these products.

EPA is interested in hearing your input! If you have comments or suggestions on the pre-rinse spray valves specification development process or can help answer our outstanding questions outlined in the research study scope, please contact us at watersense-products@erg.com.

Research Study Scope

Specifying pre-rinse spray valve performance is critical to ensuring long-term water and energy savings, but to date their field usage time and corresponding user satisfaction is largely undefined.  EPA is seeking to collaborate with industry, utilities, and water- and energy-efficiency experts to gather field research data prior to issuing a draft specification for this product category. EPA has developed a detailed research study scope (PDF) (4 pp, 113K, About PDF) to assist with this data collection and evaluation.

Please direct all questions or comments about the research study scope or the teleconference and webinar meeting to watersense-products@erg.com.

For general program information contact WaterSense or ENERGY STAR. We look forward to hearing from you!

Technical Information
Are you a manufacturer or retailer or distributor interested in finding out more about the development of a draft high-efficiency pre-rinse spray valves specification? Please review the pre-rinse spray valves NOI (PDF) (6 pp, 135K, About PDF) and the WaterSense data needs for more information, or e-mail us (watersense@erg.com) with questions or comments.