Product Knowledge

Drip Free Performance

Our ceramic disc valves are made from a high-tech ceramic that is hard and long lasting, helping to ensure a lifetime of drip free performance. Our ceramic disc valves are extremely smooth. The smooth surfaces cling tightly together and not affected by supply line debris, such as sand or solder. There is simply no room for anything to come between those two discs. A perfect quarter turn of the handle starts and stops the water flow, and the handles won’t stiffen, leak, or loosen with repeated use. The fired-hardened discs do not absorb water or soften over time.

Making Ceramic Disc Valves

Using technology pioneered in our own laboratories, American Standard produces disc valves from a high-tech ceramic that is almost as hard as a diamond.

1. Start with alumina oxide powder, which is oxidized aluminum.
2. Mold under extreme pressure into the three-dimensional shape of each disc.
3. Fire in a 2750º F/1510° C kiln for nearly two days.
4. Polish the mating surfaces of the discs with diamond paste to achieve a near perfect flatness (approximately 1/100,000 inch). How flat is it? Flat enough that the ceramic discs cling to each other just like metal magnets. That’s flat.
5. Test to survive over one million on/off cycles without failure.