Automatic Fixtures Go Mainstream

You've seen, used and probably installed them. They called automatic or "touchless" fixtures and use an infrared (IR) beam to activate the flow of water. It's now common to see automatic toilets, infrared faucets, dryers, and soap and towel dispensers in public lavatories. Their migration of automatic plumbing fixtures into the home seems a natural move. But is that future here?

Dave Viola, technical director for the Schaumburg, Ill.-based Plumbing Manufacturers Institute (PMI), says most of the Institute's members manufacture electronic plumbing fixtures for their commercial markets. "On the residential side, I think it's a wait-and-see attitude." Existing commercial lines of electronic plumbing products can be and are used in residential applications.

Gauging Residential Interest
Minimizing the spreading of germs, controlling water temperature, water conservation, and finding user- friendly products if physically impaired led to the development of commercial automatic fixtures. Do these issues transfer to the home? The question was asked by Steve Kleber, president of the Hackettstown, N.J.-based Center for Kitchen & Bath Education and Research.

Earlier this year, Kleber's Atlanta-based public relations firm, Kleber and Associates, conducted a survey directed to top designers, plumbing manufacturers and consumers. When asked about bringing ‘touchless' plumbing such as infrared faucets into the home, each target audience was enthusiastic, but for different reasons.

"For consumers, the enthusiasm for automatic fixtures in the home was one of trust," Kleber says. "Trust that cross-contamination of germs was being minimized, and the incidence of scalding or water left running, eliminated. Designers saw a freedom of designing without handles. Manufacturers saw a competitive advantage."

If aesthetics has ruled the day in faucets design, Kleber sees performance enhancements coming to the fore.

Adapting for the Home
A nagging problem for touchless IR technology has been its erratic performance. The fickleness of the beam is clear to anyone spending 10 seconds trying to activate a sink in a public restroom.

In 2001, Delta Faucets Company introduced the first hands-free electronic faucet for residential applications. Charlie McTargett, senior director of marketing for the company, said refining IR was important to the success of its e-Flow bath faucets. "We refined the IR to be self calibrating and less prone to misreads triggering unintended water flow." The product is powered by a control box under the sink using four AA batteries, or it can be hard-wired.

Still, McTargett considers touchless products an emerging technology for the home. "The consumer's interest will drive it. It will begin with early adopters who like to be the first with something," he says.

A Pending Revolution?
Vince McNeill, executive vice president for Technical Concepts in Mundelein, Ill., sees a home revolution right around the corner for automatic fixtures. His company has developed a different touchless solution.

"Instead of infrared triggering water flow, we've developed something we call ‘compacitance,'" McNeill says. "There's no electronic IR eye, but rather a low level energy field around the faucet we call ‘surround sensor technology.' A manufacturer or plumbing contractor can marry our electronic model to any faucet so a person does not have to change their faucet."

Like Delta, the automatic technology is powered by a box under the sink. Some high-end faucet companies have become early adopters of the Technical Concepts' technology. The company currently is meeting with major faucet manufacturers to explain its Radius touch-free automation. Radius also has adapted IR and radio frequency (RF) as a retrofit for toilets. Using a box placed within the toilet tank and a panel installed above it, flushing can be activated by a wave of a hand. Sensor technology also is being adapted into automatic soap dispensers for the home.

What does the future hold for touchless technology in the tub and shower, and the kitchen? "I think touchless is a real natural in the kitchen because you are multitasking with dirty hands," Viola says. McNeill and McTargett agree, and expect to see touchless kitchen faucets in the near future As for the shower, the rapid evolution of programmable mixing valves may be but the first revolutionary step for this component of the bathroom.