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The Philadelphia Eagles have become a Super Bowl contender, and Lincoln Financial Field is the facility they call home. Opened in 2003, the 70,000-seat stadium replaced the Eagles’ long-time home, Veterans Field, which they shared with the Phillies, giving them a football-only stadium. Along with being the scene of some epic football matchups, the new facility is a prime location for many top concerts and other major events throughout the year.

The “Linc,” as fans refer to the stadium, shares the Philadelphia Sports Complex with the state-of-the-art NovaCare Training facility. Like other NFL venues, both feature the latest amenities fans and players appreciate.

The recent facility renovation prompted the complex’s management to rethink the faucets used by the fans and the team. They were seeking to replace their standard faucets that must withstand the usage typical in other sports facilities — use and abuse by fans, water use issues, water temperature control, and not knowing when the batteries in automatic faucets are about to go out. Plus, with the tremendous number of faucets in the complex, sending the maintenance crew on a route to inspect faucets can consume considerable time.

The Eagles’ complex is constantly improving

The management and support staff provide guests, participating teams, and support personnel with the highest quality experience in a safe, clean, and friendly environment. Lincoln Financial Field has 117 luxury suites, 9,000 club seats, a 100,000-square-foot fan-oriented plaza, an Eagles team store, and bowl seating.

Both facilities are constantly upgrading. These improvements include the hundreds of washrooms and locker room fixtures within the complex, which are the focus of the stadium’s Plumbing Foreman, Ray Murphy.

The new front line for washrooms and the locker rooms

For these faucet upgrades, Murphy works with Darren Sharp, the local Chicago Faucets representative with Vernon Bitzer Associates, who has kept Murphy aware of the latest innovations from VBA’s supplier Chicago Faucets. Their relationship started when the Eagles installed the Chicago Faucets 3500 Series metering faucet.

The faucet turned out to be as rugged as the team playing on the field. The 3500 Series offers a metered cycle with a timed automatic shut-off, adjustable anytime between two to 15 seconds after turning on to conserve water. Additionally, this feature eliminates the risk of fans, players, or staff leaving the water running after the walk away to save money and reduce the chance of water damage.

The Eagles also added the E-Tronic 40 touchless faucet, which features a durable, vandal-proof design. This faucet is programmable with a 6V lithium CRP2 battery.

This fixture enables hygienic handwashing instead of standard faucets operated with handles, which require repeated personal contact. When ready to wash hands, the intuitive faucet sensor detects motion and releases warm, tempered water.

Adding to the team, Murphy installed the HyTronic Series touchless faucet in the NovaCare training center. The Hydronic Series enables sanitary hand washing as with the E-Tronic touchless faucet.

The Hydronic design combines functionality with style, having a curved spout with user temperature control. It has the Econo-Flo non-aerating laminar spray that releases a clear, non-splashing 0.5 gpm water flow.

Remote control saves maintenance steps

For Murphy, managing performance for the massive number of faucets in the stadium can be challenging. Batteries, for example, could go out at any time. Additionally, the faucets must withstand tremendous wear with all the usage during games and other events. Chicago Faucets solved these issues.

Sharp introduced Murphy to another great Chicago Faucets innovation — the Commander Handheld Programming Unit — to help make overseeing the hundreds of faucets at the complex more manageable. Currently, the Eagles have about 90 HyTronic battery-powered, sensor-operated faucets on site that they monitor using the Commander.

The handheld device lets Murphy’s team quickly change settings to accommodate their needs without touching the faucet. For example, in the NovaCare training facility, the players might want the faucets to run for a metered cycle after activation. The Commander enables the maintenance crew to respond to that request efficiently.

In contrast, the on-demand setting is more desirable in public areas to save water. With this design, the faucet turns on and off as the hands are presented or removed, unlike metered faucets, when the faucet runs for a timed cycle, even when users remove their hands.

The Commander provides easy-to-read diagnostics, battery life readout, and step-by-step adjustment procedures. In addition, the device allows Murphy and his team to take advantage of the unique modes included with their electronic faucets — the Hygiene flush Mode, Pipe Clean Mode, Metering Mode, Scrub Mode, Smart Power Mode — and sensor distance adjustment help to match the faucet to its application.

With the Commander, the Eagles maintenance crew can query the faucet if it needs service, how long it’s been in operation, and the number of uses over time. “As we use the Commander, we become more aware of its capabilities,” Murphy says.

Murphy and his team appreciate the Commander’s ability to check the faucet’s power level, especially when demand is high.

“Right before a big event, you go in and check your battery life to make sure a faucet doesn’t die out,” he says.

The Commander brings something to faucet management that wasn’t available previously — the ability to collect data and build a performance profile for improved maintenance. By feeding this data from the Commander into their PC, they can track which faucets fans use the most often, when the faucets are cycling and how many times they are cycling. With that information, Murphy believes that eventually, they will be able to determine their water usage and set a strategy for saving money for the complex.