486 Meter Optimization: Air in the water with Anthony Giudice
Release Date: 07/24/2026
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Water meters register the volume passing through them, but what happens when that volume contains both water and entrained air? Anthony Giudice, president of AquaFlow, explains how turbulent flow can influence meter readings and how AquaFlow’s calibrated valve is designed to help meters reflect what he describes as true water consumption.
Why Flow Conditions Matter at the Meter
Anthony connects entrained air to the pressure required to move municipal water and the turbulence created as water travels through piping, changes direction, and encounters shifting demand. Because a conventional meter cannot distinguish between water and air within that volume, he says the resulting air-water mixture can contribute to overreading.
The valve addresses the condition from the customer’s side of the property. Installed immediately after the meter, it creates a slight backpressure intended to establish laminar flow upstream while compressing the entrained air rather than removing it from the system.
Calibration, Placement, and System Conditions
Each valve is calibrated for its specific meter and operating environment. Anthony explains why valves cannot simply be exchanged between meters of the same size and describes a dual-spring design that responds to changing pressure throughout the day.
Available sizes range from three-quarter inch to 32 inches, supporting applications from residential service to power plants, data centers, manufacturing facilities, and cooling tower systems. Trace and Anthony also examine an important secondary-metering question: where should a valve be installed when cooling tower makeup and bleed meters affect water and sewer billing credits?
The answer depends on the measurement objective. Teams must first identify which meter they want to optimize and how any downstream reading affects utility calculations or sewer credits.
Measuring Results Beyond the Utility Bill
A lower invoice alone does not prove that a valve is performing. Facility activity may change substantially from one billing period to another.
Anthony recommends a measurement and verification reconciliation using 12 clean pre-installation months, the installation month, and at least three clean post-installation months. Consumption should then be normalized against an operating unit such as cars washed, hotel guests, or stadium attendance.
A car wash example demonstrates the distinction. Recorded consumption changed from 16.03 gallons per car before installation to 13.13 gallons per car afterward. That per-unit comparison provided a clearer performance indicator than the total bill, which could rise or fall with the number of vehicles served.
Careful meter selection, operating data, and normalized analysis help water professionals evaluate this technology without confusing reduced recorded consumption with changes in production or occupancy.
Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Timestamps
02:20 — Trace Blackmore Shares: Reflections on Episode 485’s listener-submitted questions, ways to suggest future topics and guests, and learning resources available at ScalingUpH2O.com.
05:00 — Words of Water with James: James McDonald challenges listeners to identify the term for the distribution ratio of a volatile substance between the steam and liquid phases.
07:20 — Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals: Trace previews the 2026 AWT Convention and Expo, the American Chemical Society Expo, and August’s Legionella Awareness Month programming.
10:40 — Interview with Anthony Giudice, President of AquaFlow: Anthony introduces water-meter optimization and explains how entrained air can affect recorded water consumption.
12:50 — Anthony explains how municipal pressure, pipe length, changing demand, and directional changes contribute to turbulent flow and entrained air.
14:00 — Trace raises a practical question about secondary metering for cooling-tower makeup and bleed water.
16:00 — Anthony explains the valve’s placement on the customer’s side of the meter and connects its operation to Bernoulli’s principle, the Venturi effect, and Boyle’s law.
18:20 — Anthony distinguishes AquaFlow’s dynamic, meter-specific valve from conventional pressure-reducing and check valves.
20:00 — Anthony clarifies that the device compresses entrained air—not water—and describes what happens after the mixture passes through the valve.
21:00 — Anthony discusses reported payback periods, 316L stainless-steel construction, certifications, installation time, trial terms, valve sizes, and industrial applications.
23:50 — Anthony connects water-meter optimization with property value, water-hammer reduction, booster-pump protection, and possible carbon-credit opportunities.
28:30 — Anthony explains how visual demonstrations and measurement and verification reconciliation can document performance more reliably than invoice comparisons alone.
30:50 — A car-wash example demonstrates why gallons per vehicle provide a clearer performance measure than total monthly consumption.
32:50 — Trace and Anthony revisit cooling-tower submetering to determine valve placement when sewer credits are involved.
36:10 — Anthony outlines the site survey, meter-specific calibration, recommended valve location, and typical installation process.
38:50 — The conversation explores possible applications for creating laminar flow in blood, eggs, oil, gas, and other fluid-handling systems.
41:20 — Anthony directs listeners to AquaFlow’s website and homepage demonstration for more information.
42:20 — Trace explains AquaFlow’s 90-day trial offer for the Scaling Up Nation, including discount code H2O750 and the additional money-back guarantee.
Quotes
“Meters, unfortunately, people don’t like to hear this, but they’re designed to register volume. Volume is anything that passes underneath the meter.”
“Each one is specific to that meter. You can’t just start, even if they’re the same size, you can’t just start switching them around.”
“We’re not compressing water. We’re compressing the entrained air in the water.”
“It was 16.03 gallons of air and water. When the valve was installed, it forces a true water consumption reading of 13.13 gallons.”
Connect with Anthony Giudice 
Phone: 19544156973
Email: [email protected]
Website: AquaFlow – Reduce Water Bills with Smart Water Valves
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbe750/
Guest Resources Mentioned
AquaFlow – Reduce Water Bills with Smart Water Valves
International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol
NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 Testing and Certification
IAPMO R&T Water Systems Certification
Kiwa NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 Certification
Siemens Process Instrumentation
Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned
AWT (Association of Water Technologies)
Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses
Words of Water with James McDonald
Today's definition is a measure of the tendency of a volatile substance, such as a neutralizing amine, to remain in the steam phase. It is defined as the ratio of the concentration of the substance in the steam phase to its concentration in the liquid phase. Can you guess the word or phrase?
2026 Events for Water Professionals
Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we’ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.
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