Smith Valves - Any Good? 1

[toothless]

We've never used this brand of valve, and the quotes we have for them are considerably less than others (so this raised a red flag). But these also have a short delivery. Anybody out there with experience, either good or bad, with this brand of valve? They are sold by Newdell Company out of Houston.

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[IVNJ]

Toothless,
I think you already know the answer .......... Why would a valve company sell a product so far beneath the current market value ?? Every company I ever worked for wanted to maximize profit on every sale. I suspect the low cost is indication of the overall quality of the finished product.

The lowest purchase price is not always (if ever) the best cost.

If time allows, buy a few different brands and do a comparison - Bonney, Walworth, Vogt, SWI - are a few that should be readily available.

 

[TenPenny]

While I have no personal experience with them, they have been around for a LONG time, and were previously part of Tyco, so there must be something to them.

 

[ApC2Kp]

toothless,

The Smith valve brand has been around for a long time, as Tenpenny remembers. Both the Smith valves and the Vogt valves were forged steel body valves in the smaller sizes with threaded ends or socketweld ends. There were a few smaller flanged end valve products, too.

The forged body valves had significantly lower prices due to the faster manufacturing process, I think. Now, like many other valve manufacturers, off-shore foundries and shops provide most of the steel valve products. Quality can be an issue until a new source has production up to the same standards as domestic production. Yes, costs are low.

 

[NGiLuzzu]

For the full history, see:

http://www.newdellco.com/catalogs/smith/1default.asp

Regards, 'NGL

 

[Chill5]

Toothless,

I have been working with the SMITH VALVE going on five years. I am not trying to sell, I am actully the production manager, but you asked for information from somebody with experiance, so I thought I would try to get you facts instead of speculation.

Smith Valve, as everyone has already said, has been around along time and still maintains the same original design. The entire manufacturing process is done in Houston Texas under an ISO Cert and PED. The forging shop in use is the same shop used by the previous owners of Smith Valve, namely FEAT in Italy. We have added additional capacity from forge shops in Korea.

Smith Valve as you have mentioned is opereated by Newdell, and becuase Newdell is a smaller company, means smaller overhead, means less expensive product. As a smaller company trying to grow the only way to gain market value against a bonney or a vogt is to have a price point allowing us to get our product into doors. True, newdell may not be maximizing profit margins, but what Newdell is trying to do is to provide value to the customer, a high quality domestic product at a fair price. And obviously compared to the bonney and velan all valves are considerably cheaper. I beleive our market price point to be in the middle, not the most expensive and not the cheapest.

I encourage anyone that has questions to come and see the faciltity first hand and make there own judgement regarding our production and quality.

I hope this helps.