The American water heater manufacturer, PVI Industries, has selected Outokumpu’s proprietary lean Duplex grade LDX 2101® to replace the carbon steel in its water heaters.
This metal replacement has significantly reduced PVI Industries’ waste stream and increased the life expectancy of its water heaters, which are used for large commercial end-users like hotels, restaurants, schools, universities and hospitals. In some cases, the water heaters can be as large as 11 meters by 2 meters and hold as much water as 17, 000 litres. Moving to duplex stainless steel also reduced PVI’s waste stream to nearly zero.
PVI Industries built a water heater prototype in 2009 using Outokumpu LDX 2101®. The prototype went through an accelerated life-testing equivalent of 30 years of normal life use at highly elevated temperatures. Five years after development, the prototype is still operational. The useful life expectancy of carbon steel water heater tanks was five to 15 years, depending on application. PVI now warranties standard duplex water heater tanks for up to 25 years.
Says Chris Bollas, President at PVI Industries, “Using LDX 2101® on our water heater tanks has achieved our goal of reducing our waste stream, because stainless steel does not require any coating or plating.”