Automated Animal Watering

I can't say enough about Edstrom Industries. Their products are reliable and I rarely need service. When I do, the technical service and sales departments are always available to help troubleshoot and quickly resolve problems. They understand financial constraints and are happy to help diagnose problems first by phone, to prevent unnecessary parts or service call related expenditures. Edstrom Industries has always provided quick turn around for parts and service. Edstrom designed a custom manifold for us that was built in record time. Most importantly, they have good products made and sold by good people, who make my life as a lab animal manager, a lot easier.

For more than 20 years I have been a laboratory animal veterinarian serving the biomedical research community. I have worked in nearly all facets of our industry including in academic institutions, large pharmaceutical industry, contract research companies, animal research support vendor companies, and in private research hospitals. I have first-hand experience with operation of numerous laboratory animal facilities, both new and old, in at least 10 different programs located in nearly all major geographic regions of the United States (directing a number of them). At all of those sites, over all of those years, Edstrom has been there as an unwavering provider of unbeatable products and unparalleled services. Because of the diverse nature of my professional background, I feel I have a somewhat unique perspective from which to comment on various aspects of the world of laboratory animal science and medicine. There is no question in my mind that Edstrom represents the "market standard" for the products and services they provide to the animal research community.

Edstrom's representatives have been available for me throughout the span of my career. Initially, during my early professional years, Edstrom staff supported me by providing valuable technical education and learning resources about water quality management and environmental monitoring. Since then, and continuing to this day, they seem to take a "personal interest" in my professional needs by serving as a consistent source for technical advice and hands-on support. I don’t think it is a secret that one of the most indispensible resources an animal research program director can have in the workplace is to be on a "first name basis" with the individuals who support key and critical systems and functions in a facility. Edstrom's representatives have always been a short, pleasant phone call away when I have needed them, and have never hesitated to be on my doorstep in very short order if needed to address unexpected challenges. While we all know that some technical challenges can be complex, and solutions sometimes seemingly elusive, Edstrom's dedicated and knowledgeable staff has always demonstrated the tenacity and commitment to see my issues through to a positive conclusion. In my experience, Edstrom has always provided, and continues to provide, customer service that "sets the bar" in our industry.

If asked, I would tell you that Edstrom's products are simply the best in the industry. The quality of materials and the details of design, workmanship, and installation of their products are, in my opinion, in a word, superb. If there is another company that can beat Edstrom "at their own game", I have yet to find it. Wherever I might go, and whatever I might end up doing during the remainder of my laboratory animal research career, I have no doubt that I will always embrace Edstrom as a valuable asset in my facility management tool box.

I have had the pleasure of visiting literally countless numbers of research facilities over the past 20 years. When I encounter a facility that has invested in Edstrom products and systems, I immediately know that I am dealing with an institution that seeks quality, and that has successfully endeavored to find it."

Dr. Hoskins is currently a Director for a major research hospital in the mid-south.

I have directed three major projects totaling close to 75,000 rodent cages in the past 10 years, each project featured Edstrom AWS equipped with inside the cage QD valves and rack flush which was monitored and controlled by a Watchdog System. Our Edstrom AWS has given us an ROI of 3 years and have reduced Workman’s Compensation claims by 60%. We have in place, as part of our Facility User Orientation Program, a training module for the Edstrom AWS, which minimizes the number of system valve leaks to below those we observed with water bottles."

The IRCM (Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal) has acquired an Automatic Water System (AWS) from Edstrom during the renovation of the SPF Animal Facility in 2004-2005. At the time, Edstrom contributed to designing and installing the entire system. The implementation and the start-up were performed by the Edstrom technicians as it was part of the contract and conditional for the system’s guarantee.

Since 2005 Edstrom’s AWS has functioned without interruption except for regular maintenance and mandatory revisions as required for maintaining the good working order of the system.

The IRCM’s SPF Animal Facility has a capacity of 7,000 mice cages. The occupation rate is currently about 90% of our maximum capacity. The animals are housed in ventilated racks, (Allentown and Tehcniplast) which are designed to fit with the actual AWS.

We have chosen Edstrom for many of the modern features it has to offer, but mostly for the benefit of using a fine point technology in supplying water to our animals.

The most important characteristic we were looking for was to find a reliable system able to provide clean and safe water for our animals, especially without interruption. We wanted also a system which included the features of self-cleaning and self diagnostic capabilities. The online flush process, the flow regulatory control as well as the chlorine injection subunit have been some of the characteristics that we were looking for when we were planning the acquisition of the AWS. All these features allow us to ascertain our commitment in maintaining a very high standard of water to the research animals at IRCM. Since our animals are very sensitive to external pathogens, we wanted to make sure that the water does not represent an infection hazard for them. The water provided by the AWS is continuously tested and monitored for sanitation indicators and other qualitative characteristics.

Another very important characteristic of the Edstrom AWS was the complete integration with a control and monitoring application such as the Watchdog Express. There is a real benefit from having a system capable to notify users of alarms, monitoring the flushes of the AWS as well as printing and displaying data-based reports.

The good quality and reliability of the Edstrom system led us, at the beginning of 2010, to request the actual system’s extension in a new animal facility which is currently in the process of being reconstructed.

We know already from experience that the automated watering system is both operational and cost effective. The AWS in the new animal facility which has a projected capacity of 3,000 ventilated cages will help us maintain the cost effectiveness of the animal facility operations.

In conclusion, we highly recommend the Edstrom Automatic Water System to any potential client on account of its high performance, fine point technology and multiple advantages."

We recently completed construction on a new research facility. Our goal when we were building this facility was to have state-of-the-art technologies to better serve our clients and staff. One of our decisions in this process was to install Edstrom systems for environmental monitoring and automated watering as well as water purification. We have used Edstrom products in the past and with their reputation, quality, and service – it was an easy decision when it was time to choose a partner for this project."

I have worked with three different automated watering systems including Edstrom spanning 22 years in the field. At the Salk Institute we have determined that the water bottles were 10x more likely to flood than Edstrom A160 water valves. For this reason I would never run a mouse facility without an Edstrom automated watering system.

Below you will find data to support these statements: The fatality rate for 12,000 cage mouse facility during our assessment period:
Bottles: 19/970 avg. bottles = .02%
Valves: 36/11,263 avg. valves = .0031%"

At our Facility we have been using EDSTROM Automated Watering System since 2006, our facility has a capacity of 900 cages and we were able to cut 10 hours per week dedicated to the washing of water bottles by using the AWS. Also, the water quality provided to the animals is excellent because we use the R/O system and we had since then no water contamination.  We have found that Edstrom provides solid products with great value backed by excellent customer service."