BENEFITS OF ZERODOR
Why use Waterless Urinals? I do not have to pay for the water bill, why should I invest in a waterless system?
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Accounting changes. In order to avoid raising taxes, communities are shifting the costs of supplying and maintaining water systems from property taxes to utility bills.
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Demographics. The areas of the country that are now growing the fastest are the same ones facing the greatest water challenges.
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Reduced access to clean water. The number of rivers, streams, lakes, and other water sources that can be accessed has been reduced in the past few years due to pollution and related issues.
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Climate change. Increased reduction of fresh water table to support human health, food, and energy needs.
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Supply and demand. Basic economic is playing a role. As supplies dwindle, costs go up. This applies to water as well.
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Waterless urinals can save between 15,000 and 45,000 US gallons (57,000 and 170,000 l) of water per urinal per year, depending on the amount of water used in the water-flushed urinal for comparison purposes, and the number of uses per day.
Why Zerodor
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Saves water
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No power required
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No consumable cartridge
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Low in maintenance
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No flushing required
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Easy to clean
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Fresh and odor-free
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Cost effective
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No chemical
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No recurring cost
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Retrofit into most existing urinals
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Reduces load on your sewer
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Helps reducing BOD and COD on your sewage treatment
How much water can be saved by using Waterless Urinals?
Waterless urinals can save anything between 57,000 and 170,000 liters (15,000 and 45,000 US gallons) of water per urinal per year, depending on the amount of water used in the water-flushed urinal for comparison purposes, and the number of uses per day.
HOW DOES ZERODOR WATERLESS URINAL WORK?
What is the chemistry behind odor and Zerodor waterless urinals?
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Hydrolysis of urea present in human urine generates odor in urinals. The enzyme urease hydrolyses urea into ammonia and carbamate. The latter compound decomposes spontaneously to carbonic acid and a second molecule of ammonia. The overall reaction can be represented as
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NH2(CO)NH2 + 2H20 → NH3 + NH4+ + HCO3-
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Ammonia (NH3) is a colorless gas with a pungent odor. Ammonia exists naturally in the air at levels between one part and five parts per billion (ppb) of air (OSHA, 2003). The normal human detection level of ammonia is approximately 50 ppm, some people can detect ammonia gas concentrations as low as 20 ppm (Source: UCLA and BioContractors, 2000).
Once the urine passes through the drain and the odour evolves the float valve will have enough weight to block the odour from refluxing back in the water closet. As the float is hand moulded out of polymeric material it does not have aging.
What happens to the odor?
Odour = Ammonia (NH3) and odorous gases like hydrogen sulphide generated by dissolution of organic waste into flushed water and decay thereof. The gases tend to leak in the closet and hence accumulate there causing the odor. Zerodor traps that gases from coming into the closet and make them drain out to gas release pipes or get dissolved back in the sludge. Thus reducing the amount accumulated in the closet and hence reduces bad smell.
Is Zerodor Efficient?
The efficiency of Zerodor is measured in ammonia level concentration ( ppm). Zerodor decreases the ammonia concentration to an distinct level to reduce the odour significantly. Our research data shows it goes down upto 0.22 ppm.
Is Zerodor Durable?
We have tested it for 7 years now at various places and it is running efficaciously without any replacement. The only failure that may happen is because of the continuous usage of highly alkaline cleaning agents or physical damage to the valve.
INSTALLING & MAINTENANCE
How do I install Zerodor Waterless Urinals?
Zerodor retrofits into the existing urinal by removing the valve in the plumbing line just below the opening. Any plumber can easily install this. Please refer to the link below for detailed installation process.
How much time does it take to install Zerodor Waterless Urinal?
It depends on the type of the urinal pan and the plumbing fittings required retrofitting. Typically if all materials are available, it takes one to two hours to install Zerodor.
How is Zerodor Waterless Urinal maintained?
Cleaning and Maintenance of Zerodor Waterless Urinals are very easy and can be done without any expertise. Please refer to the video for detailed maintenance process and frequency.
Does Ekam provide maintenance service
Yes, to further improve the experience, we have introduced Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) for Zerodor-Waterless Urinals. The contract is valid for ONE YEAR from the date of signing of AMC contract
The AMC may be renewed from year to year subject to rendering of satisfactory services and fulfilling the terms and conditions.
Which cleaners can I safely use with Zerodor Waterless Urinals?
One should use live bacteria and Enzyme based cleaners to clean any sort of sanitation areas. The cleaners advertised heavily by most of the consumer products companies have heavy amount of acid or alkali. This acid or alkali will kill waste decaying bacteria and also increase Biological oxygen on demand / Chemical Oxygen Demand of sewer. You tend to spend more with higher cost or sewage treatments with high acid and alkali based chemicals.
For Zerodor, it is made out of CPVC and ABS plastics. No commercially available chemicals will harm it in short period of contacts.
TROUBLESHOOTING
How to Troubleshoot if there is a problem with the trap?
In the past three years, over 10000 installations have indicated that there is zero failure in the mechanism. In a couple of cases, due to miss-handling of the ball valve while cleaning has lead to a puncture of the ball. This was replaced immediately within an hour. At an affordable cost, replacement unit of 3 pieces per unit can also be stocked to tackle emergencies.
Is there a warranty on the product?
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Zerodor comes with standard one year repair or replacement warranty. We will provide you any spares required in this one year apart from keys and brush which has to be maintained as accessory. This is a static product and has the float as only moving part. We have tested its life for last 3 years with all harsh cleaning chemicals. Unless physically damaged while handling or cleaning there is nothing that gets damaged just like our regular CPVC piping for drainage. We recommend to check sealing joints every 2 years as it may leak due to end of life of sealants used.
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Spares are available at very minimal cost of product and handling charges after the warranty periods.
How is Zerodor different from other technologies?
The other technologies have a recurring and maintenance expenditure attached to them whereas zerodor works on the principle of a non-return valve mechanism. This valve allows urine to pass and blocks the odour to enter the restrooms. It does not require any consumables, has very low maintenance and zero recurring cost.
Is Zerodor Waterless Urinal Durable?
We have tested it for 7 years now at various places and it is running efficaciously without any replacement. The only failure that may happen is because of the continuous usage of highly alkaline cleaning agents or physical damage to the valve.
KITCHEN KOMPOST
What is Aerobic Composting?
The Aerobic composting is carried out with the help of Oxygen that is why shuffling or mixing is necessary.
Is shredder essential to make compost?
No, if the Brown waste is not to be included and Vegetable waste is cut manually then shredder is not required (Food waste is always cut before cooking ),In that case cocopeat can be added as a moderator.
Why is brown waste added?
It acts like a moderator ,does not allows the process to stink
Why is cutting important?
The fibrous part of the vegetable waste is slow degrading material .The protein part of vegetables get decomposed fast but fibers remain as such for long time .These fibers hinders the mixing and there is a possibility of becoming anaerobic and so smelling .so to get homogenous mass food must be cut in small pieces .
How to decide the size of the cage?
Considering 15 Kg or Lt waste per day, about 325 Lt is the total volume of 15 days .In addition to that, brown waste will be added So the cage is expected to get filled in about 15 – 20days .Then the second cage will be started so at the end of 40 days the first cage will be emptied. Considering evaporation of water because of heat, this period will be extended to 60 days also .
What can be done if waste is generated more than our calculation?
If we want to escalate ,simply increase one more cage. The size of the cage is decided considering its easy operation
MISCELLANEOUS
How do I maintain hygiene in the restroom?
More the moisture more is bacteria formation, keeping it dry is the best option. Hence we say don’t add water. Hygiene is not flushing water but is to maintain a regular cleaning schedule and wipe dirt off. Use enzyme based cleaners instead of strong fragrance based chemical cleaners having strong alkali or acids. Fragrance based cleaners are harming the ozone layer and alkali and acids are killing bacteria’s that decay the waste. This is unhygienic. So to maintain hygiene is reduce water dilution thereby reducing load on your sewer and accelerating decay process. Wiping with enzyme based cleaners add good bacteria to decay waste and also reduce odor in addition to The Zerodor’s mechanism.
Why is it important to maintain restrooms and urinals?
Urine is mainly composed of Water, Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). Most blockages in urinal waste pipes are caused by the combination of uric acid salts (contained in urine) with the limescale contained in water. Washrooms with naturally “soft” or artificially softened water (i.e. little limescale content) are likely to experience less problems with blockages than those with hard water. When static in the waste pipes, urine and limescale combine to coat the pipework with a hard scale. Over time, layer upon layer is added until the pipe blocks. The coating also provides an ideal medium for the development of odour causing bacteria.
A major advantage of Zerodor Waterless Urinals is that, to state the obvious, they do not use any water. If urinals are not flushed with water, there is no limescale entering the waste pipes and therefore nothing for the urine to combine with. Instead of hard scale, untreated and static urine eventually forms a soft sludge. In addition, hair and other debris inevitably enters the wastepipes and attract fats in urine, forming the sludge. This can also cause blockages and stinks, but is considerably easier to combat than the combination of urine and limescale.
Zerodor Waterless Urinal systems seek to avoid the problems of sludge build-up by trying to ensure the urine flows quickly through the urinal waste pipes to the main drain, often referred to as “the stack”. In order to ensure ‘free flow’, the trap or u-bend usually found under the urinal is replaced with a right angled pipe so that urine and debris cannot collect. For this method to work well, waste pipework should be near to perfect in terms of the gradient (fall) towards the stack. Moreover, it is important to have clean pipes connected together without any ridges behind which urine and debris can collect. Having numerous right-angled connectors to reach the stack is not recommended.
So even in waterless systems, some form of manual flushing is often recommended. It is essential that the simple action of cleaning is performed regularly, with a mixture of water and cleaning chemical solution.
Why is Zerodor Waterless Urinal recommended for Hospitals?
It is absolutely safe and hygienic to install this system in places like hospitals because of two reasons. Firstly, urine is mostly water and usually does not contain pathogens. Secondly, this system is a touch free mechanism where there is no contact with either the infected surface or the infected person. Everyday cleaning of the urinal can be recommended as an additional safety precaution in such places.
What are the best places to install Zerodor Waterless Urinals?
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Public places such as parks, shopping complexes, offices of various companies, etc
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Educational institutions , schools and colleges
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New residential projects involving multi-towers of houses
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Hospitals
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Government offices
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Tourist spots all over the world
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Airports , railway stations, bus terminals, auto stands
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Villages in the rural area
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Army, Navy and air-force stations
What are the CSR benefits for installing Zerodor Waterless Urinals?
It can be included in the CSR budget in the areas of environment and sanitation. Zerodor can help you collect up to 11 points from LEED Green Building Certification too.