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Day one was hectic with a huge crowd, inquisitive visitors mobbed booths, if you were lucky, you were able to hold a conversation with someone knowledgeable about the product whose voice carried above the hubbub of the crowd. Savvy visitors to AHR on day one know to head straight to the far back of the trade show floor and work towar5ds the front because the thundering hordes of attendees tend to swamp the front-of-house booths and you, a veteran of AHR, get to visit with booths the crowds haven’t yet worked their way to, which allows you to see and hear about new products you’re most interested in learning about.

Day two is a bit calmer but still brings large crowds. You notice the noise level, an indicator of crowd size and enthusiasm, is somewhat lower in volume yet there is still a definite buzz throughout the convention hall. With the crowd a bit thinner, you find it easier to get some undivided attention from folks working in the booths. It’s still crowded and navigating the aisles can be frustrating at times.

Day three is often my favorite day during trade shows and AHR is no exception. For the most part, the crowds are gone, and with noise levels diminished, you can easily hold conversations. As the morning passed, crowds thinned and by midmorning, you have unfettered access to folks working booths who are happy to see you and eager to show off their wares. This is by far the best time to establish inside contacts and create bonds with manufacturers. Now that you can actually see down the aisles, it’s a great time to discover great products you might otherwise miss.

Although I had visited the Uponor booth on day one and muscled my way through the crowded mobile learning center that will be coming to a town near you over the coming months, I had seen some things that grabbed my attention and hoped to revisit to learn more. I was pleasantly surprised to find just a few visitors present and arranged to have Steph Radel with Uponor provide a guided tour of the new mobile education and training center. The first thing that caught my eye was that Uponor will soon debut their own in-house production of ChlorFIT schedule-80 Corzan® CPVC along with a full compliment of fittings, true-union ball valves, and adapters that augments their mantra “A Complete Solution from Main to Fixture”.

I was unaware that installing a threaded fitting into plastic reduces the pressure rating by 50%, but Uponor’s new solvent-weld to ProPEX adaptor ensures you maintain the full pressure rating. (pics 902 & 904). A full mockup of PEX-to-fixture display clearly illustrates the differences between manifold and flow-through potable water distribution systems (pic 906). If you have a job with repetitive potable piping configurations, Uponor will work with you to prepackage all the components that are clearly identified and labeled to eliminate time otherwise spent by employees picking, assembling, loading and distributing on the job site. Instead, you’ve got each individual bath, kitchen, or mechanical room bagged and tagged for that area.

A full compliment of adapters, transition fittings, and ball valves are included on display to showcase innovation. Radel going over the advantages of the press x ProPEX ball valve (pic 908). As part of Uponor’s visual training, there is an interactive display where visitors can select a wide variety of video courses on plumbing, hydronic piping, snow & ice melt systems, and case studies. Most contractors are visual learners, myself included, so this is a huge benefit for our ongoing education.

Outside the new mobile training lab, another Uponor exhibit caught my eye: the kitting and fabrication services available and attached to its side was a prefab riser available to speed up installations – saving time = money in the bank!

I’m always on the lookout for products that will do three things: provide innovations that will be of a benefit to customers; make our jobs easier; and boost our profits. AHR provides fertile ground for revealing new and innovative goods, services, and just plain cool things. While walking the aisles on day three, I happened to spy a pipe-sealing product that was strikingly different: its yellow “eyes” staring back at me stopped me dead in my tracks.

Have you ever had a plumbing inspector demand to see you apply a torque wrench to verify you properly tightened a bolt or flare fitting? I have. Best have that on hand or pay for a revisit! American Polywater’s pipe-sealing links that wrap around and fill up the void between piping and concrete core-drilled hole do, in fact, require specific torque (as do other competitor’s products) to properly seal the void, but include a cool feature: when the correct torque is achieved, the “eye” opening turns bright yellow. You avoid having to perform a torque test for the plumbing or building inspector who can see, at a glance, your installation meets both code and manufacturer’s specifications!

What followed was one of the best booth visits I enjoyed at AHR while Brian Gunderson with American Polywater provided an education on the products displayed. I was particularly surprised to learn the traditional expanding foam, we used in the past, does not provide an adequate seal because it only properly cures at the far ends while the center zone ends up looking like a kids bubble bath! Zip Seal comes with end plugs that are fast and easy to install and then a quick injection of sealant provides a gas and watertight seal.

Looking for the ability to bond PVC to HDPE to steel to fiberglass conduits with a water and air tight seal instead of the high cost for specialized fittings or expensive dangerous heat fusion tools? I could immediately see the inherent value in both material cost and labor savings using BonDuit would provide.

Hanging air ducts and piping a time consuming PITA? Aside from being drawn to power tools (think Tim the Toolman grunts) at the DeWalt booth, having recently purchased a cordless demo hammer/hammer drill, the labor savings were immediately apparent via their easily adjustable Toughwire cable support system for HVAC ducts and plumbing piping in a hands-on display.

As DeWalt’s Bill McNamara demonstrated to me, you can even perform the adjustment with one hand! A well-organized kit ensures you have everything needed in a secure see-through kit. (pic 886) The emphasis in DeWalt’s booth was on reducing the time by 20%, 30%, or more when utilizing their innovative products. Time is money.

AHR 2025 showcased innovative new products with the central theme of saving labor while advancing top quality products to better serve your customers while, at the same time, boosting your bottom line. Taking the time to learn about what’s new and gain some additional insights regarding PHVAC products, trends, and education is a wise investment that will reap huge rewards.