Manual flushing vs. automatic flushing

Manual flushing can take up the valuable time of cleaning personnel and staff, especially in larger public buildings. And too often, it’s overlooked or not done correctly. Here’s how automatically scheduled flushing intervals can help.

Oras touchless faucets with Bluetooth can be controlled via the Oras Connect App, which enables automatic flushing at set intervals.

In buildings with low occupancy rates and sparse vacancies, such as holiday homes or apartments, ensuring regular water circulation is key to avoiding stagnant waters and ensuring drinking water quality.

Providing regular flushing of pipes and installations is already a common practice in premises that follow strict hygiene requirements, such as hospitals and care homes. In our daily environments, however, it’s often overlooked.

It’s up to installers to educate customers on the important health aspects of flushing and start the conversation about automatically scheduled intervals.

Flushing the pipes helps prevent bacteria growth

Water temperature and long dwell times of water promote the multiplication of undesirable substances and bacteria in our pipes.

Legionellae, for example, are a widespread type of environmental bacteria. They are a natural component of surface and groundwater in low concentrations and can also be found in drinking water.

The main issue of manual flushing

The main issue of manual flushing is simple: It’s overlooked in our everyday environments.

Building operators and staff are often not aware or forget to arrange flushing installations in critical spaces of our everyday lives, spanning from office buildings to shopping malls and daycares. And even if borne in mind in more sensitive environments, such as hospitals, flushing the installations manually means opening each of the building’s faucets individually on a regular basis. This can be very time-consuming.

Water hygiene done correctly with automatic flushing

With automatic flushing schedules, installers, building managers or private end users can create weekly or daily automatic flushing intervals to replace the manual rinsing of pipes and installations.

Public buildings, such as daycares, for example, could schedule daily automatic flushing on Monday mornings before opening hours to ensure the water is safe for children to drink.

In larger buildings, automatic flushing features can further help users easily manage flushing intervals and flushing duration (e.g., by setting a fixed flushing interval and duration for all faucets of the building).

How to schedule automatic flushing correctly

HANSA touchless faucets with Bluetooth can be controlled via the Oras Connect App, which enables automatic flushing at set intervals.

Here’s how it works in 5 easy steps:

1. Download the Oras App in iOS version on the App Store or in Android version on the Google Play store
2. Turn on the Bluetooth® wireless connection in your smartphone or tablet settings
3. Open the App
4. All nearby Bluetooth® compatible Oras faucets will be listed automatically (to a radius of up to 10 metres). Select the desired faucet and connect your phone to it
5. You will get an instant overview of the product information and gain access to the settings of the faucet: Here’s what they mean:

• • Off: No automatic flush
  • On: Choose between various options
    1. Weekly schedule: You can define automatic flush times in a weekly calendar. You have the option to choose max. two times per day.
    2. Fixed interval: The faucet flushes automatically in a fixed interval.  You can define the Automatic flush interval (from 1 to 120 hours since the last usage) and the Automatic flush duration (from 1 to 180 seconds)
    3. Minimum flush volume: You can define the exact number of litres of water that flow through the faucet during the flushing interval (from 1 to 200 litres)

Optional: The App also allows users to create pre-sets according to individual settings. For example, by adjusting cleaning mode time, after flow time or other parameters, users can create and save their customised product settings. These settings can be copied and transferred to other installed faucets of the building. This becomes particularly handy in public buildings with several bathrooms.

A scheduled automatic flushing interval is easy to install and enables your customers to save valuable time to ensure the right level of hygiene in any environment. It also ensures greater flexibility as installers or private users can flexibly adjust settings and intervals. That means, they can themselves decide on the flushing interval and find the right settings for their specific needs.