W.D. Manor Mechanical Contractors Inc. recently partnered with Whitehall Manufacturing to leverage Whitehall’s precision manufacturing power for the already highly regarded W.D. Manor Dialysis Box (WDMDB). 

In addition to its manufacturing prowess, Whitehall also contributes product sales and marketing expertise needed to get the all-inclusive, labor-saving, cost-effective dialysis box into the hands of more engineers and facility owners. 

For a contractor, the choice between the WDMDB and a traditional box is an obvious one. W.D. Manor’s dialysis box saves on labor and scheduling. But to be able to make that choice, specifiers have to know the WDMDB exists.

Pete DeWitt, vice president of purchasing for W.D. Manor explained, “We need to get the message out to engineers because our product has to be incorporated into the design. This is a specification and design-driven dialysis box. It’s an entire system in a box—piping, valves, backflow, trap primer—making it a more cost-effective choice.”

The WDMDB offers several significant advantages over the traditional dialysis system:

• It eliminates the need for excess dedicated cold water distribution piping.
• It eliminates the cost and space requirements for additional wall space intended for remote backflow preventers, trap primers, and supplementary access doors.
• It consolidates all the required components into one user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and completely functional cabinet.
• It increases patients’ safety by protecting the water source at the point of connection.

As a contractor, W.D. Manor understands that the number one variable—and a contractor’s biggest risk when estimating a job—is labor. The WDMDB eliminates all the work required in a traditional system for the distribution piping, along with the hangers and supports, traveling back to a utility closet.

“The hanger supports can be 40 to 60 percent of your labor. The WDMDB is a plug-and-play unit. You take it out of the box, mount the unit to the framing, you make one connection on the supply and one connection on the drain, and you walk away,” said DeWitt.

The WDMDB is also a space saver. Hospitals have a lot going on in the ceilings as it is. Having to run extra copper distribution piping for every dialysis box takes up a foot or two of valuable ceiling space. Eliminating that piping reduces congestion in the cramped ceiling and eliminates unnecessary BIM coordination.

But even more importantly, having the point-of-use backflow preventer in every dialysis box eliminates the long dead leg of water sitting in the pipe, potentially hundreds of feet back to the utility closet. Certain jurisdictions allow the supply boxes to be linked downstream of one backflow preventer, but then you run the risk of cross-contamination.

“When you protect the source, you protect the patient,” said DeWitt.

Vice President of Whitehall Manufacturing Kristin Kahle said, “W.D. Manor dialysis boxes are the best dialysis units on the market. They are better because they were designed by mechanical contractors with a deep knowledge of their market. But in the end, it all comes down to patient safety and infection prevention, and these boxes are the best for that.”