ePIPE® Tackles 50,000 Feet of Pinholes

Built in 1982, the Seattle Sheraton Hotel and Towers is one of the largest and finest hotels in the city featuring 840 guestrooms.  After just 18 years of service, Engineering staff had started to face the difficult problem of recurrent pinhole leaks in their copper water system.  Cutting, patching and clamping leaks was the only line of defense for Engineering staff to keep the facility running, while owners (including Metropolitan Life and Starwood Hotels and Resorts) evaluated the problem.   Through his activity in the local hotel engineers association, Director of Engineering Scott Marshal learned of a non-intrusive technology that was being implemented by neighboring Seattle hotels to not only repair the damage from corrosion, but prevent the recurrence of future pinholes.  After extensive review, the patented ACE DuraFlo ePIPE   system was select ed to resolve the problem.  With hot and cold mains, risers, branches and a recirculating system serving 840 rooms, the challenge became how ®  to restore some 50 thousand feet of pipe without sacrificing substantial revenue loss to the hotel!

Summer tourism keeps the Sheraton operating near 100% capacity from April to September, and the neighboring Washington State Trade & Convention center helps push occupancy into the 80 to 90% range through most of their winter “low season”.  Accordingly, ACE DuraFlo management tailored a 3 phased project to complete the entire project over 3 winter seasons (’05 to ’07).   

“Not only has the ePIPE   process allowed our  original tower to operate at about 98% capacity during the project”, commented Marshall, “but the project has also been wel managed and self contained, alowing my engineering staff to focus on much more constructive work including our new tower addition.”