Bacteria Prevention & Anti-Scalding From One TMV

Legionnaire’s disease is responsible for approximately 2-9% of pneumonia cases. The disease is spread via the breathing in of aerosolized water contaminated with the legionella bacteria, which can be created in environments such as hot and cold water outlets, atomisers, wet air conditioning plants, and whirlpool or hydrotherapy baths. Those who frequent, or live in, communal spaces such as hospitals, care homes and schools, where these kinds of outlets are used, are more likely to be vulnerable, such as the elderly. This, therefore, means there is an increased risk of them developing the disease from any contaminated sources. There are several ways in which Legionella bacteria can form in these spaces, and one of these includes the dead leg of thermostatic mixing valves (TMV) becoming a breeding ground for the bacteria.

What’s the solution to legionella prevention?

As thermostatic mixing valves serve to reduce the risk of scalding and burns, combining hot and cold water to produce a temperature-controlled flow of water prior to it reaching taps, showers and other hot water outlets, they are a favoured solution by those who run care homes, hospitals, and schools.

The valves also offer a ‘fail safe’ function, whereby if either the hot or cold supplies fail the valve will shut down, therefore protecting the user from either thermal shock or scalding, which can cause life changing consequences.

However useful regular TMVs are, they don’t completely eradicate the risk of legionella growing in the dead leg of the outlet. This has serious consequences for people in healthcare settings.

The many benefits of installing a TMV mean that many companies are willing to hope for the best in order to provide comfortable, temperature-controlled water for the best possible experience for end users.

We’re here to help

Here at Altecnic, we’re constantly ensuring our products break the mould when it comes to innovation, safety and practicality. Our Mixcal Careflo Plus® certainly fits this description.

The Mixcal Careflo Plus® is a thermostatic mixing valve with thermal disinfection that contains a unique manual override function to allow thermal disinfection against legionella to be performed using the special tool.

The Mixcal Careflo Plus® TMV removes the need to take off the TMV to ‘flush’ out the system, making the process quicker and more efficient.

To prevent the growth of legionella bacteria, water should be stored below 20 degrees or above 60 degrees. As TMVs allow for high temperature water storage, the risk of bacterial growth is reduced but not eliminated.

With Altecnic’s new TMV, using a special tool and the manual override function, allows thermal disinfection to be performed through to the outlets, enabling a complete rather than a partial flush. This full thermal disinfection further helps prevent the growth of harmful bacteria.

 

Need more information?
New Product Development Manager, Stephanie Allchurch, joins us on Life at the Tap End to discuss TMVs.