Cla-Val USA

11/05/2026

Not every important valve is a large one. At the Olympic Park bobsled track in Utah, Tyler and Cody from Cla-Val’s Utah service team installed a new valve—a smaller installation with an important job to do. Cla-Val field service covers more than large-diameter valves and major projects. The team also handles quick installations like this one, bringing the same care and technical attention to valves of any size. Valve size doesn’t determine the importance of the job.

11/04/2026

In true Cla-Val tradition, last Friday was our annual Halloween Costume Contest. 🎃
The competition was fierce, the creativity was impressive, and at least one costume raised a serious question: who is the real Jake?
For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Jake is our National Sales Director. He’s known across the industry for his sales leadership, his customer relationships and, most recognizably, his beard. It turns out a good beard is surprisingly easy to imitate and very hard to live up to.
A couple of the entries are below. We’ll let you decide which Jake you’d trust with your next valve specification.
Thanks to everyone who dressed up, judged, heckled and brought snacks. Same time next year.

11/03/2026

This week the Cla-Val team is in Denver for the Xylem Reach Conference, and we’re proud to be a Gold Sponsor.
Reach brings together utility professionals from across the globe to work through the challenges they face every day. That’s familiar territory for us. Most of those challenges eventually come down to the same things: keeping pressure where it belongs, protecting infrastructure, and knowing what’s happening in the system before it becomes a problem.
If you’re at the conference, come and find us. We’d be glad to talk about control valves, remote monitoring, or whatever is keeping your distribution system interesting this year.
Thanks to Xylem for hosting, and to everyone making the trip.

10/29/2026

Every utility has one.
The PRV vault nobody’s opened since the operator who knew it retired. Its maintenance history lives in a binder, in a truck, somewhere.
Link2Valves puts that history where your crews can reach it. It’s Cla-Val’s data management platform, built specifically for water utilities. Log a site, log a valve, record the maintenance and pin it on the map, from the office or from the field on your phone.
What that gets you:
→ A clear view of which valves are due for preventive maintenance, before they let you know the hard way
→ Less downtime
→ Records that keep you compliant
→ Asset decisions based on data, not memory
The mobile app is free on iOS and Android, and short training videos walk your team through setup.
Your valves already have a history. Now your whole team can see it.

10/28/2026

Costa Mesa has a few new faces this week.
We’re hosting a group of new salespeople from across the country at our headquarters for training. They’re here to learn the company from the inside: the people, the culture, and what actually goes into the name on the valve.
The most valuable part is the hands-on time. Reading a product sheet is one thing. Taking a valve apart on the bench and seeing how it works is another, and customers can tell which one a salesperson has done.
Investing in new people early is how a company stays good at what it does. Experience eventually retires. The only real answer is to keep building it, and to give the next generation a proper start in this industry.
To our new colleagues: welcome. We’re glad you’re here.
And if you know someone who’d be a good fit at Cla-Val, we’re always looking for good people!

10/27/2026

A 2025 peer-reviewed study documented a 19% reduction in water losses after one municipality replaced a fixed 100 psi (70 m) inlet pressure setpoint with real-time modulating control at 64 psi (45 m). Network bursts dropped from 39 to 23 over the same period. The utility did not replace a single foot of pipe.

That is the operational case for moving beyond static PRV settings in aging distribution networks.

Fixed-setpoint PRVs were designed for systems with relatively stable demand patterns. Most networks built thirty or forty years ago no longer fit that description. Demand fluctuates with growth, seasonal use, and zone reconfiguration. A valve holding a single pressure setting around the clock delivers too much pressure at low demand and, in some configurations, too little during peak periods. The excess drives background leakage, accelerates joint fatigue, and shortens pipe life in ways that accumulate quietly until they surface as unplanned breaks.

Real-time modulating control adjusts outlet pressure continuously based on measured system conditions. Lower pressure during low-demand periods reduces the hydraulic load on every joint, fitting, and service connection downstream. Field trials in multiple countries have reported 15 to 20% reductions in unplanned maintenance when smart valves flag seal wear before failure rather than waiting for an operator to discover it during a scheduled inspection.

For utilities managing infrastructure that predates much of their current SCADA architecture, the question is not whether static setpoints are costing them. It is how much, and for how long, before the maintenance budget forces the conversation.

Download our Pressure Management brochure here: https://na2.hubs.ly/H08xxXR0

10/22/2026

Tualatin, Oregon, is putting excess water pressure to work, generating electricity from water already flowing through its drinking water system. Cla-Val was pleased to collaborate with InPipe Energy on this project, turning an opportunity for energy recovery into a working installation. Read the story and watch the video from KGW:

The new electricity project could save the city $26,000 a year, 'dozens of opportunities like this across the state' say project leaders

10/21/2026

A commenter on one of our recent altitude valve vault installations made an observation worth repeating: the previous installation had no isolation valves. To service that altitude valve, the operator would have had to drain the entire tank.

That commenter called it "way too common," and in our experience, they are right. Omitting isolation valves is one of the most persistent design shortcuts in tank vault piping, and the math behind it never works over the life of the asset.

Isolation valves on both sides of an altitude valve cost a fraction of the total vault installation. Skipping them saves a few hundred dollars on bid day. But the first time that altitude valve needs a diaphragm inspection, a pilot adjustment, or an O-ring replacement, the operator faces a choice: take the tank offline and drain it, or defer the maintenance. In practice, maintenance gets deferred. And deferred maintenance on an altitude valve compounds, because a valve that cannot modulate correctly affects fill rates, overflow protection, and system pressure across the zone it serves.

Over a 20-year service window, a properly configured vault with upstream and downstream isolation pays for itself many times over in avoided shutdowns, avoided water loss, and maintenance that actually gets done on schedule.

The fix is straightforward. Specify isolation valves on both sides of the altitude valve during design. If retrofitting, plan a single controlled shutdown to install them and avoid dozens of uncontrolled ones later. A properly configured vault should allow an operator to isolate, inspect, and return the altitude valve to service without affecting the tank or the customers it serves.

Infrastructure decisions that look minor on a bid sheet have a way of becoming permanent operating constraints. The vault your operator opens ten years from now should let them do their job without draining the system first.

10/20/2026

Forty years is a long time to do anything. Last week, two of our own reached that mark.
Tim Murphy, one of our Sales Specialists, and Mario Gutierrez Castaneda of our Soundcast Foundry Division each received their 40 Year Service Award. Between them, that’s eight decades of experience on the sales side and the foundry floor, the two ends of what makes a Cla-Val valve: the castings Mario’s team pours, and the customers Tim has helped put them to work.
Cla-Val recognizes employees at every five-year milestone. Most companies would be pleased to hand out a few 10-year pins. We get to celebrate people who have stayed through four decades of changing technology, markets, and probably more than a few coffee machines.
That kind of tenure isn’t an accident. It says something about the people, and we’d like to think it says something about the place too.
Congratulations, Tim and Mario, and thank you.

10/15/2026

Have an equipment upgrade on the list, but not enough hands to get it done?
Rob and Carlos, two of Cla-Val’s Eastern Region Service Technicians, have been busy helping utilities move those projects forward. Their work goes beyond taking valves apart: they’re also supporting clients as they update aging equipment.
Sometimes, a project needs a few extra hands and field experience to get across the finish line. That’s where the Cla-Val service team can help. If your crew is stretched and a project keeps getting pushed back, give us a call. Let’s talk about the support you need. https://na2.hubs.ly/H08nFH-0