Have you ever tried refilling a water bottle at a water fountain? It is a pain. Water spills out before the bottle is full, not to mention trying to keep the top of the bottle from touching where other mouths have been… All while holding the button at the same time…

Is it worth it?

Yes, because we are saving money and the environment by not purchasing a new bottle of water.

Yes, when it means you are reaching the recommended 8 glasses of water per day.

Elkay has devised a solution to allow us to fill our bottles without all the hassles of a traditional water fountain with the launch of its new design, the EZH2O! It is a bottle filling station that adapts to or can replace the standard water fountain.

The EZH2O has 3 features that eliminate the hassles of filling your bottles:

It’s Cleaner!

• All the water is filtered through the unit
• Electronic sensors mean touch-less operation
• Silver Ion Anti-Microbial protection against mold and mildew growth

It’s Green!

• It saves consumer spending on water bottles
• It saves the environment from plastic bottle waste (over 1,000 bottles saved so far at our showroom)
• It saves the energy and oil used to produce plastic bottles

It’s Quick!

• It fills a bottle 3 times faster than a standard water fountain
• You can fill the bottle easily with one hand

Wouldn’t this be a great addition to your workplace, fitness center or school?

We have been using the EZH2O for the last month here at Wilkinson Supply and we love it. People are drinking more water and less coffee and we have a lot less trash!

Come in and try it for yourself! You won’t be disappointed.

Check out all the info here.

Most of us think of a wet bathroom floor as an indication of a major problem like a flood or an overflowing bathtub.  But for years our European friends have espoused a clean, minimalist bathroom design, called a “wet room”, that American travelers appreciate when abroad. If you are willing to have your bathroom “tanked”, then the wet room is a design which can open up a wide range of showering features which anyone can appreciate.

“Tanking” refers to a layer of waterproofing membrane, which is applied to some or all of a bathroom’s walls and floors beneath the finished flooring, be it tile or vinyl. This is the key technology which allows for a wet room to be truly enjoyable and safe for your home.  A drain is placed directly in the floor of your shower with a slight grade installed to contain the water in the showering area.  The whole area has now been opened up and feels more inviting. That aggravating tub/shower combo is replaced and updated with a beautiful, tile shower that will wow your friends.

Advantages of a Wet Room:

• The design can be customizable to your tastes,  integrated with the rest of your decor
• It maximizes the space in a small bathroom or accentuates the luxury of a spacious bathroom
• Easier to clean & therefore more hygenic
• Safer for a broad spectrum of users because all barriers have been removed

Perhaps the most excited news,  for those of us on this side of the pond, is that this new technology now allows  us to easily convert an existing bathroom into a wet room.  So updating that old guest bathroom that you’ve wanted to change for years can now easily get Tanked!

For a little more information on wetrooms, view the following short presentation: https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddvgxj29_28f3jmcwdm&loop=true

We are excited to announce that we will soon begin an expansion of our Raleigh showroom. The focus of this new area will be stylish products that showcase accessibility for those customers who are interested in living in their current home. A common term for this is “Aging in Place”.

We will be displaying up-and-coming products and concepts that will be anything but “institutional” such as beautiful, curbless showers and wall-hung toilets that would be pleasing to any designer or homeowner. Safety bars, fold-down seats, shower partitions, faucets and the latest technology in accessible tubs will also be on display.

Another great feature is that our staff members have been recently trained in the areas of accessibility and universal design to handle any questions you may have about the process.

Construction is already underway and we should be ready to open this new section by the Fall.

We all know that a weekly trip to the grocery store can cost a lot of money. At our house, we try to operate on a weekly budget for a family of 5 but, more often than not, we blow our budget by $20-$40. Some of this is caused by items spoiling faster than expected in the fridge! Other times I blame Ben & Jerry’s…

When the items go rotten prior to the date they were supposed to, it impacts our weekly menu and negatively impacts the budget again when we have to order takeout! I think an investment in a fresh storage unit is something I should be looking more actively into… Think of the money I could save with something like this!

From Liebherr’s website: “Freshness, High Vitamin Content and Variety are the best resipes for modern heath-conscious cuisine. The fresher the products are, the greater their value for a healthy diet. BioFresh drawers provide the perfect climate for keeping your food fresh longer. With the temperature maintained just above 0 °C and an ideal humidity level, fruit, vegetables, meat and fish retain their healthy vitamins, their delicate flavor and their attractive appearance for up to three times longer.

Different kinds of foods need to be stored in different conditions to keep their freshness. BioFresh technology from Liebherr offers made-to-measure storage life. A slide regulates the humidity in the two lower drawers to create the appropriate climate conditions for each type of food. Fruit and vegetables are best stored unwrapped in the HydroSafe with the slide in a closed position while meat, fish and dairy products are best stored wrapped or packed in the DrySafe with the slide in the open position.”

For a wonderful chart highlighting the prolonged storage life Liebherr offers, check out the .pdf below:

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You may or may not have heard the term “LEAN” before (If the second word that came into your mind was “Cuisine”, you’re actually on the right track). Lean, in a business sense, refers to “reducing the number of steps in an action” or “reducing waste”. The focus is to reduce any and all possible steps that do not add “value” to the customer, such as travel time and reworking an item. So what does Lean mean to us here at WSC? To all of our team members, it means everything!

To ensure that our Lean Thinking is in constant motion, we continually establish “Lean Teams” to carry out projects to eliminate waste wherever possible. Our most recent project was “Order Entry of Stock Items for Delivery”. This project incorporated efforts to perfect our order entry accuracy, directions, contact information, etc. for every individual delivery ticket. We discovered that by refining the process of writing up the delivery ticket and being more precise with inputting the initial information, delivery lead times were subsequently reduced and deliveries became much more accurate.

We are always looking for new projects and would love to hear your suggestions and feedback on our progress. If you have an idea for a new strategy, whether it be for an internal process here at WSC, or within your business, or even how to help Phil Mickelson take Tiger’s #1 spot, we want to hear from you.

InSinkErator's Evolution Pro Excel

Every year, 19 million tons of food waste is dumped into landfills in the United States. 19 Million Tons! As this food waste decomposes it releases methane gas into the atmosphere, which is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

While composting food waste seems like a good idea, it is not conducive to the busy lifestyle of the average American. The simplest solution to the food-waste problem is a garbage disposal.

InSinkErator has now been officially named a green building product by the NAHB Research Center. Installing one of these units saves on the fuel used to transport the waste to the landfills via trucks, as well as reducing methane gas production. In addition, many waste-water treatment plants have the capacity to take the food waste and convert it into fertilizer and energy. Let’s also not forget how convenient disposers are. Who wants food rotting away in their kitchen trash can when they can scrape it into the sink and whisk it and its odors away?

The InSinkErator disposers come in a wide array of models with features to fit everyone’s individual needs. Personally, I have a top-of-the-line Evolution Excel model. It has a stylish stainless steel casing, which looks nice under my sink. Most importantly is its performance. I have dropped everything from your everyday miniscule dinner scraps to whole potatoes and chicken breasts. They get disposed of without a hitch!

The Excel is also extremely quiet. It really does only make a gentle hum when it’s running. I can use my disposal and at the same time carry on a conversation with someone in the kitchen. Another fabulous feature is that there are no blades to worry about. We’ve all seen horror movies where someone drops something in the disposer drain and gets mauled when they stick there fingers in to retrieve it. Well fear not! This disposer uses grinding plates, so when you drop something in there you can reach in and get it without the danger of getting cut on sharp blades.

Many studies have been done on the benefits of garbage disposals, both in the U.S. and internationally. All of them come to the same conclusion: garbage disposals are both convenient and good for the environment. It’s just one more little way to go green!

You can go to www.insinkerator.com for more information about the benefits of InSinkErator disposals or call us anytime.

I have worked for Wilkinson Supply for six-and-a-half years.  I must say, it has been an experience.   I started stocking shelves and sweeping floors in the warehouse in my early days and have gradually worked my way up to inside sales.

Sometimes the work days can be hard, stressful and never ending but what is great about working for Wilkinson is the people.  From the owner of the company to the lowest man on the totem pole, we have nothing but great, humble people here.  I have grown close to all my co-workers and consider them an extended family.  The upper management has always guided me in the right direction and shared knowledge without hesitation and I can feel comfortable going to them with whatever, whenever.

Within my own department, we can push each other to the limit without ever hurting anyone’s feelings or fear they will take it personally, so we all strive for the best.   We are all a close nit bunch of people here and it shows through our customer experience.  The most important thing is that we all genuinely care about one another and especially our customer needs.  So remember, when you walk inside the doors at Wilkinson Supply, we will welcome you with open arms to our extended family and will do everything we can to satisfy your needs.

You walk into the bathroom of a busy, public establishment. We’ll call it Establishment #1. “Germaphobe” or not, you feel the need to use your shoe on the toilet handles. Although this particular one may not be dirty, making contact with the fixtures is disturbing enough. Damage be done, the last thing you’re doing is touching anything if possible.

Establishment #2: Your next experience with a commercial bathroom begins with a door-mounted sanitizer that continuously keeps the door handles clean. You arrive at the water closet to see a sight for sore eyes:

TOTO CT705ELN

“Now we’re cooking with Crisco! Not only is this a comfortable convenience; it’s saving water – even better! Life is good.”

As the toilet flushes itself – you wash your hands under a stylish faucet with perfectly tempered, 110 degree water without ever having to touch a thing.  Walking out, you use the XLerator automatic hand dryer to finish the deal.

Which establishment do you feel better at, #1 or #2?  The one with old, manual faucets & flush valves that can spread disease or the bathroom of the future with state-of-the-art, automatic everything!?

It’s a no-brainer that business owners are benefiting from sensor operated plumbing technology.

Below are some popular models that we offer:

TOTO EcoPower Flush Valves

TOTO EcoPower Flush Valve Cutaway

Now in stock – check out the high efficiency flush valves including the 1.28gpf (gallons per flush) model, TET1LN32.

This series uses hydro-kinetic energy from every single flush to power the operation and can earn LEED credits.  This is easily among our top-sellers of sensor flush valves.

Sloan Optima Dual Flushometers

Sloan ECOS 8111

The ECOS series utilizes sensor-operated dual-flush technology for toilets. If the user is present for one minute or less, the valve flushes 1.1gpf. Any time longer than one minute in the sensor zone will allow the full 1.6gpf. It also has manual override buttons indicating liquids and solids if the user so chooses.

Zurn “The Pint” EcoVantage Urinal System

The standard flush for the past few decades on urinals has been 1.0gpf. Zurn led the way on water-saving urinals with their introduction of The Pint. The Z5798 is a common spec among many commercial fixture schedules and can be hard wired or battery powered. It flushes 1/8 of a gallon (aka 0.125gpf). That’s 87% of water-saved with every single flush! Who needs all that water in urinals anyways?

Sensor-operated faucets have become even more popular than electronic flushometers. There are even models ranging <$200. To be sure, touch-free faucet control serves the greater sanitary good and is here to stay.

Moen’s Commercial Series

The model 8305 provides a sleek, single-hole faucet body with a .5gpm vandal resistant aerator. Not only is the faucet competitively priced, it’s backed with Moen’s Five Year Warranty and outstanding customer support team.

TOTO Axiom EcoPower Faucets

such as the TEL5GK combine a European style design with their “smart-sensor” to provide one of the top selling, high efficiency faucets. It’s available in a 10-second or 60-second discharge, with or without a thermostatic mixing valve. Like the flush valves, these faucets recharge with every single operation using hydrokinetic energy.

TOTO Axiom

The Sloan Lumino Faucet

is sure to enthrall people of all ages with the temperature indicator light.  Although it is sensor-operated, the temperate can be controlled with a side mounted lever and the light color changes from dark red being the hottest to dark blue the coldest.

Contact the sales department at Wilkinson for more information on any and all products listed here.

We would love to hear from you!

Jermyn Street in London is known for its exceptional, high quality goods.  It is no surprise then, that Czech & Speake chose Jermyn Street for its flagship showroom.  From a luxury standpoint, Czech & Speake is a designers dream.  With 3 styles to fit in any décor, it is the epitome of opulence, blending the best of English design with the quality of German engineering.

Czech & Speake captures the Lost Golden Age with its Edwardian series.  This comprehensive range of fittings offers the old-style, pillar tap with chain and plug waste; to the throwback 12” rainhead; to King Edward VII inspired furniture. Finishes are available in Polished Chrome, Matte Platinum, or Durabrass.

The Czech & Speake Cubist series encompasses luxury Art Deco fittings with black crystal accessories and high gloss, black lacquer furniture. Influenced by the 1930’s Cubist movement, these fittings convey a modern, geometric  feel.  Available in Polished Chrome and Platinum.

The newest addition to the Czech & Speake line is the DCA series, designed by Stirling Prize-winning architect David Chipperfield. This line combines straight lines with gently curved forms to appeal to a wide range of contemporary bath designs. Available in Polished Chrome and Platinum.

Come on in to our showroom to see these magnificent design pieces on display.