Apollo Valves: products and EPD coverage snapshot

What Apollo Valves makes

Apollo Valves, the longtime Conbraco brand under Aalberts integrated piping systems, supplies flow‑control hardware used across commercial, industrial, and institutional jobs. Core families include ball valves, butterfly valves, check valves, control valves, thermostatic mixing valves, pressure‑reducing valves, and a full backflow line. They also sell press systems in carbon steel and stainless under Press, PowerPress, and SmartPress.

Across these lines they serve well over a dozen product categories and offer hundreds of SKUs. Think compact bronze backflow assemblies for potable water, ductile‑iron large‑diameter backflow for fire protection, PICVs for hydronics, and stainless‑steel press fittings for fast installs.

EPDs today at Apollo

Aalberts states that EPDs have been published for select Apollo SmartPress stainless steel products and that coverage is expanding, signaling an early but active program (Aalberts IPS US, 2025). Their newsroom has reiterated the commitment to broaden EPD availability across high‑demand lines (Aalberts IPS US, 2025).

In practical terms, that means stainless press fittings and related components are the first to show up with declarations. Traditional workhorses in many mechanical rooms, like bronze backflow preventers and residential‑scale PRVs, appear earlier in the queue.

The gap that matters commercially

Backflow preventers are often the gatekeepers to the spec. Apollo’s 4A and 4ALF series are common submittals, yet we could not locate widely published, product‑specific EPDs for these assemblies as of December 25, 2025. Meanwhile, rivals list current, third‑party EPDs for comparable assemblies and water‑control devices. Watts, for example, has product‑specific Type III EPDs current into 2029 and 2030 for backflow models and PRVs (Smart EPD, 2029) (Smart EPD, 2030).

When a project team must tally products toward LEED’s materials transparency goals, a product‑specific, externally verified EPD counts more in the credit math. LEED v5 continues that emphasis on verified transparency and expands carbon accountability across the rating system (USGBC, 2025). Without an EPD, specifiers often default to conservative assumptions that quietly penalize selection. That can tip competitive parity on institutional or healthcare work where material documentation is table‑stakes.

Where Apollo is strong already

The SmartPress stainless platform is broad and engineered for quick, flame‑free installs, which makes it a natural home for early EPDs. The stainless portfolio also maps cleanly to a focused bill of materials, which simplifies data collection for cradle‑to‑gate modeling. That momentum can be leveraged to cover the adjacent stainless valves within the same system family next.

Priority EPD targets to win more specs

If we were prioritizing, we would start with three lines that see high bid frequency across commercial plumbing and hydronics:

1. Backflow preventers in the 1⁄2 to 4 inch sizes used on domestic water and fire service bypass. These are often the deciding line item against competitors with current declarations (Smart EPD, 2030).
2. Water pressure‑reducing valves sized for multi‑unit and light commercial. These appear on nearly every core plumbing riser and show up in EPD catalogs from competing brands (Smart EPD, 2029).
3. Thermostatic master mixing valves for point‑of‑source tempering in domestic hot water plants. A single EPD covering a configurable series can unlock broad schedule coverage without modeling every minor variant.

Each of these categories fits cleanly under established PCRs and program operators, which keeps verification predictable while Apollo scales into broader ranges. Pick the PCR common to competitor EPDs to ensure apples‑to‑apples comparisons during submittal reviews.

Competitive set you meet most often

On domestic water control and backflow, Apollo most often competes with Watts and Zurn Wilkins in North America. On butterfly valves and general line valves, NIBCO shows up frequently, while on grooved‑mechanical and fittings, Victaulic is a common alternative in fire protection and large HVAC piping. Several of these brands already publish EPDs for select assemblies, fittings, or couplings via recognized program operators such as Smart EPD or SCS Global Services (Smart EPD, 2030) (SCS Global Services, 2024).

Why EPDs here are a fast ROI

Publishing product‑specific EPDs for the top‑moving assemblies reduces friction in submittals and helps avoid being value‑engineered out late in the process. It also gives sales teams permission to proactively chase projects that require declarations, rather than quietly skipping them. The price of a single EPD is typically dwarfed by one mid‑size project win, and teams rarely see the hidden losses from jobs they never bid.

A practical starting plan

Begin with a single reference year and the SKUs listed above. Align the bill of materials in your ERP with factory data on melts, casting alloys, elastomers, and packaging. Map one facility first to lock in utility and waste factors. Then replicate the model across sibling sizes with parametric scaling. Publish with a program operator familiar to your specifiers in the target region. Keep the renewal clock visible so older declarations do not lurk too close to expiry.

What to watch next

LEED v5’s market launch in 2025 raises the floor on transparency and performance. Teams will keep preferring product‑specific, externally verified EPDs when they are available because they simplify credit math and documentation time (USGBC, 2025). If Apollo extends coverage from stainless press into backflow, PRVs, and mixing valves, they will close the most material spec gaps quickly. That is how catalogs go from considered to chosen. Dont wait until a must‑win project asks for it.