ABZ butterfly valves

[pianoman1]

Greetings. I have a client that needs to install two 24" and two 30" shutoff valves either side of a couple water filters. I'm looking at ABZ butterfly valves, mostly due to cost and delivery. There is a big difference in cost between their standard 397 series valve and the high-performance 402 series. I understand about Class VI shutoff and triple offset, truth is I can stand a little leakage on these. Anyone have any experience with the ABZ 397 valves? The vendor is, of course, encouraging the better valve based on the idea that even an EPDM seat on the 397 will swell over time and it won't seat well down the road.

Also, are these valves still made in Kansas?

Thanks for any feedback,
Scott

 

[bcd]

From what I have worked with (their double offset, soft seated version) the workmanship and quality look like "Made in China". However, the country of origin is not marked anywhere on the valves we have. For general on/off for a few cycles, they work OK, but they appear pretty low grade.