Top Trends in Commercial Plumbing Systems
Key Highlights
- Sloan offers integrated sink systems and services like seaming and on-site startup to simplify installation and reduce compatibility issues
- Connected products such as SC Argus Pro and Sloan Track-On enable remote monitoring, proactive maintenance, and water waste reduction
- Sloan’s fixtures focus on water efficiency, with low GPF options that support evolving hydration legislation and environmental sustainability
Sloan has been in business since 1906. Today, the family-led company is in its fourth generation and has made a name for itself around the world as the leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems.
Sloan has been an industry innovator since its founder, William Elvis Sloan, invented the Royal Flushometer. Today, the company uses its technical expertise and more than a century of experience to deliver on its promise of efficiency, sustainability and wellness.
We asked the experts at Sloan to discuss what they see as the most important trends in commercial plumbing today.
Ease of Installation
Emerson Vogel: Product Line Manager – Sink Systems and Hand Dryers
Sloan has moved beyond selling individual sink components to designing complete, integrated sink systems: the faucet, soap dispenser, hand dryer, sink, frame, and enclosure are engineered as a package meant to work together, rather than sourced and specified piece by piece. That integration is a big part of what makes installation faster: fewer compatibility issues, less field coordination between trades, and less guesswork for installers.
To further ease the burden on installation crews, Sloan also offers a seaming service to handle the finish work on solid surface joints, and a start-up service where Sloan personnel assist on-site during commissioning to make sure everything is set up and running correctly before handoff.
Rolando Zambrano: Product Line Manager – Flushometers and Fixtures
The CX conceal flushometer streamlines the installation process. Instead of bringing the valve to the plumbing, the CX features an integrated control stop and adjustable flush connection, with an all-vertical, in-line rough-in that allows the installer to bring the plumbing to the valve. Once installed, all the servicing of repair parts can be done single-handedly in front of the wall, through the wall plate using half the labor.
In addition, Sloan’s popular fixture combination units integrate water efficient flushometers with water closets or urinals to help save time and labor costs. The combo units ensure that contractors are ordering compatible fixture and flushometer pairings and the products ship in the same package to ensure the flushometer and fixture stay together for ease of installation.
Adam Myers: Product Line Manager – Restroom Accessories, Hand Dryers, Bottle Fillers
The DropSpot Bottle Filler and Water Coolers match most manufacturers’ rough-ins, simplifying installation and making upgrading easier. The portfolio includes unrefrigerated configurations that help balance performance, cost, and application needs. The unrefrigerated versions of the DRS110 and DRS120 bottle filler and water cooler combo units address concerns regarding cost, installation, and operational simplicity.
By removing the chiller, these models cost less, and unrefrigerated models require no electrical connection, which reduces installation complexity and opens the door to applications where power is limited or unavailable. These units are manually operated, so they continue to provide access to drinking water during power outages and emergency situations.
Practical Connectivity
Lynn Walldorf: Senior Product Manager – IoT, PWT & Parts
Commercial plumbers are increasingly expected to deliver solutions that not only perform reliably on day one but also simplify maintenance throughout the life of the building. Connected plumbing products help shift maintenance from a reactive process to a proactive one by providing facility teams with actionable information before minor issues become service calls.
Through SC Argus Pro, maintenance professionals can remotely monitor connected Sloan flushometers, faucets, and bottle fillers from a single dashboard. They can view device status, battery levels, water usage, and activation history, as well as receive alerts when attention is needed. This visibility helps teams prioritize maintenance, troubleshoot more efficiently, and often arrive on-site with a better understanding of the issue.
Connected devices also provide operational insights that support preventive maintenance. Features such as line flush documentation, water usage reporting, and remote configuration help simplify routine tasks while giving facility managers greater confidence in system performance. New connected products like Sloan Track-On extend these benefits even further by providing immediate notification of flushometer run-on conditions, allowing maintenance personnel to respond quickly before excessive water waste or larger facility issues occur.
For contractors, connected plumbing solutions offer an opportunity to deliver lasting value well beyond the initial installation.
Water Quality and Efficiency
Adam Myers
Hydration-related legislation is expanding rapidly across the country. What began with Michigan’s Filter First initiative has since spread to states such as Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland, with additional requirements emerging in Illinois, Washington, and Maine. These regulations may apply to new construction, renovation projects, or existing facilities, and they vary by location.
Because of this complexity, Sloan introduced a state regulations and compliance landing page that helps educate plumbing contractors about current and pending state requirements so they can make more informed decisions.
Rolando Zambrano
Sloan’s fixture combination units integrate water-efficient flushometers with water closets or urinals for significant water savings. Water closet combos like WETS-2451-1401 use as little as 1.1 GPF, and urinal combos like WEUS-7000.1201 use as little as 0.125 GPF. These combo units not only save water but help save time and labor costs since they are paired for ease of ordering and ship together.
Beauty, Durability, Sustainability
Emerson Vogel
One trend worth highlighting: sinks are increasingly expected to be both aesthetically flexible and vandal-resistant, where historically manufacturers made you choose one or the other. Sloan addresses that through its AER-DEC and FLITE-DEC systems, which are built to withstand heavy commercial and public use while still offering full customization in finish and design.
There's also a broader shift in how restrooms themselves are being designed—they're being treated less as purely functional spaces and more as true "restrooms" in the fuller sense of the word, with amenities like baby changing stations, makeup counters, and extra countertop space becoming standard expectations rather than upgrades.
Rolando Zambrano
Aesthetic designs are becoming more popular (i.e. CX), but there is also a continuous industry-wide focus on health, hygiene, sustainability, and achieving net-zero carbon goals. Building owners, architects, and engineers are increasingly looking for products that not only perform well and look great but also help support broader environmental objectives.
At Sloan, we're seeing growing demand for solutions that help reduce both water consumption and embodied carbon. That's one of the reasons we've expanded our Carbon Neutral program, which gives customers access to carbon neutral restroom products supported by Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and verified carbon reduction initiatives. As green building programs such as LEED continue to place greater emphasis on decarbonization, transparency, and sustainability, manufacturers have an important role to play in helping customers achieve those goals.
Looking ahead, I expect sustainability, wellness, and connectivity to become even more interconnected. The most successful products will be those that help facilities conserve resources, support occupant well-being, and contribute to long-term environmental performance without sacrificing reliability, aesthetics, or ease of maintenance.
To learn more, visit www.sloan.com.
About the Author
Steve Spaulding
Editor-in-Chief - CONTRACTOR
Steve Spaulding is Editor-in-Chief for CONTRACTOR Magazine. He has been with the magazine since 1996, and has contributed to Radiant Living, NATE Magazine, and other Endeavor Media properties. You can find him on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/stevespaulding.