Can someone help me with compliance for a wet table.

[AMEdinburgh]

I made two of these wet tables for my vet surgery. They serve as a normal work surface with the lid down and when raised we have a grill and a shallow sink, with just a strainer, not a plug in the waste so at most the surface is wet, never full of water.

On each we have a thermostatic shower to rinse off local areas of pets, like a cut foot. The patients are sometimes asleep, so the thermostatic control prevents scalding.

There is a shower check valve at the hose outlet and double check valves in the H&C supply to the shower valve.

We had a water board inspection and the inspector was obviously looking for this item on clinical furniture as it is very common in surgeries. Although any water simply runs away, it is a category 5 waste and he wants the shower not to be able to go within 30mm of the rim of the steel. The check valves were not deemed sufficient

Others have used a pre rinse tap / spray from a commercial kitchen but they don't have the lifting bar top and even then, it reduces the functionality of the shower considerably.



I've had a few thoughts but none particularly easy/attractive.

We've no height for an alternative header tank.

I did wonder about

1) Altering the sink and cabinet to provide a lower spill over height and extending the lift off grill to prevent the shower head going through onto the base

2) Installing some sort of pumped shower from a low level tank with air gap, within the cupboard. We only need short bursts of water so it would only need to be very modest. Something from camping or caravanning perhaps.

Would anyone have any good ideas that I can put to the inspector as a possible solution?

 

[picasso]

Something like this perhaps ?

http://www.arrowvalves.co.uk/break-tank-pump-midi-1-ab-230v

 

[it's not that hard]

those garden sprayers, where you manually pump them up to get the pressure.

 

[Dan Robinson]

RPZ valves

 

[picasso]

I could be wrong but I thought prz valves were only allowed up to cat 4 .

 

[jeff the gasman]

I fitted RPZ valves in an undertakers for this reason and they satisfied our water inspectors.

 

[picasso]

4.1
An RPZ valve can be installed to provide
protection against backflow at the point of use
from a fluid category 4 risk. Fluid risk Categories
are defined in Schedule 1 of the Regulations.
4.2
The recommendations of the 'Report of the
Expert Group on the Risk of Contamination of
the Public Supply by Backflow' (IGN 9-04-05)
included the use, where necessary, of an RPZ
valve to provide protection against backflow
from the whole premises (whole-site
protection)
or from a part of it (zone protection). Zone or
whole-site protection does not replace the
Regulations’ requirement for adequate
point-of-use backflow protection.
4.3
It is acceptable to use an RPZ valve to protect
against backflow risks for fluids categories
of less than 4. However, where RPZ valves
are to be installed in these circumstances,
the Water Supplier's consent must still be
obtained in advance and the valve must still be
commissioned, maintained and tested according
to the requirements of this document.
4.4
RPZ valves intended for use other than with
cold water must be suitably approved.
4.5
In exceptional circumstances, at the discretion
of the Water Supplier, an RPZ valve may be
permitted as backflow protection for risks which
are greater than Fluid Category 4 for a limited
period, e.g. to allow a system to be upgraded.
4.6
The responsibility rests with the Water
Supplier’s customer to ensure the water quality
downstream of the RPZ valve is suitable for
the use to which it is put and to ensure the
backflow risk does not exceed fluid category 4

 

[Dan Robinson]

Been a while

 

[picasso]

Its like riding a bike......oh hang a mo

 

[polesapart]

Run a fixed pipe to the ceiling and a hose or pre rinse spray hanging down of a length that cannot get closer than 30mm? With some arrangement to hook it out of the way when not in use?

Of course it would be gravely irresponsible to restore the present set-up after the inspector has left the premises..

 

[Dan Robinson]

Its like riding a bike......oh hang a mo

Git

 

[AMEdinburgh]

Thank you to everyone so far.
Before I put this idea to the inspector who visited do folks here think it would be reasonable to fabricate a letterbox like slot through the end of the table and cabinet so that any build up of water would spill over at a depth of about 15mm meaning the grill would be well above the spillover height. I would extend the grill to prevent the shower head going past it and replace the head with a slimline one so it can stay above the grill when the lid is down.

 

[bernardgreen]

Ratehr than a letter box that discharges onto the floor why not cut a round hole above the plug hole with a over flow pipe into the drainage system. As in almost every sink and bath.

Though the inspector may be concerned about splashes onto the shower head rather than it being in direct contact with the water in the table.

 

[AMEdinburgh]

My understanding of the rules for sink, bath or basin spillover is that any connected overflows are disregarded and it is the height that water would spill over onto the floor that is the basis of the starting point for the air gap. However I do concede that I'm a vet and not a plumber!