Visitor’s have never had it so good!

hower cubicles at the 100 pitch Thames side park have recently been completely upgraded and, as Andrew Townsend, a partner in the business explains, Bridge Villa aims to offer visitor’s a high quality caravanning or camping experience.

“Caravanner’s invest significant amounts of money in their ‘vans and towing vehicles and we were aware that visitors to our site expect on site facilities to reflect their investment. In our opinion, it is only right that the facilities at the sites they visit should be first rate and the washrooms always make the first impression,” he explains.

The owner’s took the decision to completely upgrade the two storey washroom and toilet block at the site and opted to install Rada Sense digitally controlled showers that provide no touch water flow and temperature control while also offering the maintenance team a range of easy to perform service functions.

In total there are 12 Rada Sense units in the shower block and as well as producing an aesthetically pleasing look, the user response has been very positive. The showers bring a very modern look to the washrooms with their chrome plated control panels which are supported by a range of high quality fittings.

As Roy Minett, Commercial Marketing Manager of Kohler Mira explains, with its T-logic digital intelligence, Rada Sense is smarter, safer and more hygienic than any other tap/shower control on the market and satisfies a range of issues addressed by The Health and Safety Commission’s ‘Approved Code of Practice L8’.

“Rada Sense is not an ordinary ‘no-touch’ tap because not only does it allow the user to initiate water flow, it also allows the selection of the water temperature without touching the panel,” he explains. “For safety, precise maximum and minimum water temperatures and flow times can be pre-set using a remote hand held computer and these settings are maintained even if there are water pressure or temperature fluctuations.

“The Rada Sense digital mixing valve also incorporates an intelligent ‘duty flush’ feature that monitors the time since the outlet was last used. If it has not been used for a pre-determined time (say 24 hours) the appliance is automatically flushed through at a safe temperature to clear water that may have been stagnant in the pipe work or, more importantly, in any dead legs,” he adds.

This feature is particularly relevant to site’s such as Bridge Villa where, in order to maintain best practice in the water supply system, regular flushing of the showers to prevent potential legionella and bacteria problems developing within the hot water system dead legs must be undertaken. This can be both time consuming and labour intensive if undertaken manually.

“The Health and Safety Commission’s ‘AcoP L8’ also recommends routine thermal disinfection as a means of preventing or controlling legionella," explains Roy Minett. “With Rada Sense this can be achieved by activating its thermal disinfection mode which – under supervision – allows hot water at a temperature of at least 60°C to be flushed through the electronic mixing valve and all outlet pipe-work. Of course this is simply not possible where conventional TMV’s are fitted,” he adds.

Other key features of the Rada Sense T-logic technology include a facility that performs 5 safety checks, 40 times a second, a ‘lock out’ facility that activates if a fault is detected and a second temperature sensor that will close down the system if for any reason the water temperature exceeds a safe level. The mixing unit is also supplied factory-set to comply with TMV3 safe temperature settings for hospitals.

“We are delighted with the new look washrooms and have even been recommended by a number of our visitors to put forward the complete installation for the ‘Loo of the year’ award,” concludes Bridge Villa’s Andrew Townsend. “We are sure the Rada Sense showers will give us a head start over many other caravan and camping sites.”

The washroom upgrade and Rada Sense installation was undertaken by Warburton Building Services of Farmoor, Oxfordshire.