The water company hiding in plain sight

In Milwaukee, the warning arrived as a parts problem. A replacement filter cartridge was going away. The school district had already added filtration after water testing in 2016 found unacceptable lead levels. Now its assortment of drinking fountains, bottle fillers and aftermarket filters presented another difficulty: keeping everything supplied. A cartridge being discontinued in 2023 helped turn separate maintenance jobs into a district-wide decision.

This is a revealing entrance to Zurn Elkay Water Solutions. The company sells things you can photograph: stainless-steel sinks, touchless faucets, drinking fountains. Much of its value sits in the less photogenic work surrounding them. Somebody must control pressure, prevent backflow, drain wastewater and replace the filter. Across a school district, those small obligations become a sizeable business.

01 / The cartridge that forced a rethink

Milwaukee Public Schools and Zurn Elkay evaluated 2,498 existing drinking fixtures and planned replacements, retrofits and conversions during a 13-week summer break. They also planned 709 additional bottle filling stations. The resulting 3,207 units used the same 3,000-gallon cartridge model. The project spanned 156 locations, so eliminating a little confusion at each fixture had room to matter.

The financial arrangement matters. In August 2023, Zurn Elkay announced $2.2 million in donated filters and connectors, with support running through the 2027-28 school year. Federal ESSER money helped purchase the additional stations. The donation figure describes filter support; treating it as the entire installed project budget would distort the story.

“just one filter model for the entire district”

Michelle Lenski, MPS manager of design and construction

That phrase contains the practical insight. The district could retain existing infrastructure while reducing the assortment of replacement parts. For another facilities team, the copyable move is an inventory: count the fixtures, identify cartridges and replacement deadlines, then plan the conversion around the buildings that already exist.

02 / Two old companies, one water route

Zurn’s history begins in 1900, when John A. Zurn acquired backwater-valve patterns and started working in an Erie, Pennsylvania, barn. Elkay began in Chicago in 1920, founded by Leopold Katz, Louis Katz and Ellef Robarth. One business approached water through valves; the other through sinks. Elkay added water coolers in 1969 and introduced its ezH2O bottle filler in 2010.

Their combination closed in July 2022. At announcement, the all-stock transaction implied approximately $1.56 billion in equity value for Elkay’s shareholders, using Zurn’s February 11 share price. The deal joined complementary products serving overlapping buildings. A school specifying drainage and water controls could also need drinking fountains, kitchen sinks and restroom fixtures. The portfolio followed the customer’s building.

03 / The business behind the refill

Today, Zurn Elkay occupies the building-water equipment market. It manufactures and markets hardware; a utility’s job of supplying municipal water is a different business. Its routes to buyers include independent representatives, plumbing wholesalers and specialist distributors. Architects, engineers and contractors influence what gets specified. Building owners and maintenance teams live with those decisions after construction ends.

The range includes Wilkins water controls, Zurn drainage and grease management, Elkay and Just sinks, Hadrian partitions and World Dryer hand dryers. Breadth is part of the proposition. Buyers can source several related requirements from the same group. Category rivals remain: Watts offers backflow preventers, while Sloan competes in restroom fixtures. A broad catalogue still has to win individual specifications.

Replacement filters and parts add continuing purchases to equipment sales. That helps explain why service access belongs in the product discussion. The company reported $1.6959 billion in 2025 net sales. Second-quarter 2026 sales reached $491 million, compared with $444.5 million a year earlier. In July 2026, its completed acquisition of Intellihot added commercial tankless water heating, extending the same building-water logic into another category.

04 / Thirty seconds, multiplied

Elkay’s Pro Filtration line, introduced in 2025, puts filter access at the top of the station. The manufacturer says a change can take under 30 seconds. That is a modest-sounding feature until you imagine servicing units across multiple buildings. Its 2025 FAQ put initial cost 10-15% above standard models. The buyer’s question is whether reduced servicing effort justifies that premium at their particular site.

Capacity needs careful reading. The 10,000-gallon FL10 and 4,000-gallon FLP4 serve different filtration requirements; the larger number does not imply the broader contaminant claim. Pro Filtration cartridges also do not interchange with older Elkay units. A district standardizing replacements must therefore check compatibility before assuming its next purchase will fit the existing fleet.

Compatible connected products can send filter status and water-use information to plumbSMART, Zurn’s cloud platform. Its product ecosystem also supports maintenance alerts and scheduled flushing. That gives a facilities team another way to find work that needs doing. The benefit depends on installing the required connected hardware and having staff act on the information. A dashboard still needs a person with a replacement cartridge.

05 / A practical way to buy water hardware

Zurn Elkay describes its operating culture through continuous improvement and its Business System, which trains employees in repeatable processes. The customer-facing version is more tangible: fewer cartridge types, accessible service points and equipment matched to the building. For a buyer, that suggests comparing the maintenance plan alongside the equipment quote.

Start with the water problem, check the relevant certified reduction claims, count the fixtures and price the installation, replacements and labour. Standardization helps when compatible products meet those requirements. It becomes a poor bargain when convenience takes precedence over the treatment needed at a particular outlet. The interesting unit of progress here is a working refill station, with the right cartridge, on an ordinary school day.