Situation Analysis
As the largest casino resort in Canada, Caesars Windsor Casino in Windsor, Ontario is the first of its kind outside the U.S. to be branded with this world-renowned name. As it underwent a $430 million major expansion and upgrade, the new hotel tower upped the ante by adding a 5,000 seat entertainment venue and a convention center and also sought to address building operating and maintenance issues.
Application Insight
Caesars Windsor Casino realized just how corrosive carbonic acid from high volumes of carbonated soft drinks could be to traditional copper drainage pipes. With nearly six million visitors annually, soda from drink stands and bars throughout the casino began to eat away at the copper drain lines.
In plenum spaces, drain, waste and vent (DWV) systems typically run alongside other services, including cables that carry power and critical low-voltage signals throughout the casino for gaming applications, point of sale systems, video surveillance and more. Leaks from copper pipes in this environment could create an extremely critical situation for Caesars Windsor, potentially damaging other systems and adversely impacting casino operations and security. “In the casino environment, people tend to not finish their drinks and a lot gets dumped down the sink,” says John Ferguson, M.A.Sc., P.Eng., Principal with Hidi-Rae Consulting Engineers in Toronto. “These environments are also operating 24 hours per day, and a high concentration of carbonic acid sitting in copper pipes overnight can ultimately eat away at the copper.”
Vinyl Benefits
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), the owner of Caesars Windsor, decided that the IPEX System XFR®PVC pipe would be a better alternative to copper. Consequently, all existing copper drain pipes from bars and drink stands were replaced with System XFR.
System XFR from IPEX eliminates corrosion concerns while offering improved system reliability, easier installation, and better aesthetics—all adding up to substantial savings now and in the future. In addition, System XFR has a lower roughness factor and larger inside diameter thus providing increased flow capacity compared to metallic piping systems. PVC also offers excellent insulating properties and unlike metal pipes, System XFR has low potential to form condensation, which can ultimately reduce or eliminate the cost of adding insulation.
Information for this study prepared through interviews and research conducted by Interline Creative Group, Inc. on behalf of The Vinyl Institute©
