Valve Selection – Why the Cheapest Valve Can Become the Most Expensive One

In many process industry projects, valve selection is still primarily based on purchase price, delivery time and product availability. While these are important considerations, they represent only a small part of a valve’s true cost.

In reality, the purchase price accounts for only a fraction of the valve’s total life cycle cost. Maintenance, unplanned downtime, leakage, spare parts and service life ultimately determine which valve solution is the most cost-effective over its entire lifetime. For this reason, valve selection should be based on the process requirements rather than on purchase price alone.

In this article, we use the KLINGER KHA ball valve as an example to demonstrate how valve design, sealing performance and serviceability affect life cycle costs. The same valve selection principles, however, apply to many other industrial valves and applications.

Valve Selection Begins with Understanding the Process

Selecting the right valve does not begin with choosing a valve type—it begins with understanding the requirements of the process.

Before selecting a suitable valve solution, the valve’s function within the process must be clearly defined. Is the valve intended for shut-off service, flow control or preventing pressure surges? The intended application largely determines which valve design is best suited for the process.

What Information Should Be Defined Before Selecting a Valve?

To ensure the correct valve solution is selected, the following process information should be identified at a minimum.

The more accurate the process data available during the design phase, the easier it is to select a valve solution that operates reliably while keeping life cycle costs as low as possible.

The right valve solution is neither undersized nor unnecessarily over-engineered. A lightweight valve may wear prematurely, require more maintenance and cause unplanned downtime. Conversely, an oversized solution can increase investment costs without providing additional value to the process. The optimum solution is achieved when the valve design, materials and performance characteristics match the application’s actual requirements.

”The price of a valve should be the result of selecting the right valve—not the starting point.”
–  Jukka von Hertzen, Sales Manager, KLINGER Finland

Typical Selection Criteria vs. the Right Selection Criteria

Primary Selection Criteria	Secondary Selection Criteria
Valve function	Purchase price
Process requirements and operating conditions	Delivery time
Process medium and nominal size	Stock availability
Reliability and valve life cycle costs	Previous purchasing habits

What Makes Up a Valve’s Life Cycle Costs?

One of the most significant factors affecting a valve’s life cycle costs is its design. Structural design influences durability, sealing performance, serviceability and overall service life.

Why Does Valve Design Affect Service Life?

Valves used in process industries are continuously exposed to mechanical pipeline loads, temperature fluctuations, pressure surges and vibration.

If the valve body is unable to withstand these loads, deformation may occur, compromising sealing performance and accelerating wear.

Adequate mechanical rigidity contributes not only to the strength of the valve body but also to sealing performance and service life. The KHA ball valve features a preloaded, metal-reinforced sealing design that maintains tightness under mechanical loading and pressure surges without losing its sealing performance. As a result, the valve continues to operate reliably even under demanding process conditions.

Sealing Performance Determines Valve Reliability

A valve’s primary function is to prevent leakage, and its performance depends on the combined effectiveness of several sealing interfaces.

KHA ball valves are available with a range of certified sealing solutions, including Fire Safe, TA Luft, and Fugitive Emissions approvals, supporting safe and environmentally responsible operation in demanding process applications.

A Serviceable Valve Pays for Itself

One of the biggest differences between a high-quality valve and a lower-cost alternative often becomes apparent only after years of operation.

In many lower-cost valves, wear parts cannot be replaced, or maintenance becomes so expensive that replacing the entire valve is often the more economical option.

Serviceability is particularly important in applications where replacing a valve requires production to be shut down. When a valve can be serviced instead of replaced, unnecessary investments can be avoided while keeping life cycle costs to a minimum.

Where Does the KHA Ball Valve Deliver the Greatest Benefits?

Not every process requires the same type of valve solution.

The strengths of the KLINGER KHA ball valve become particularly evident in demanding operating conditions, such as:

• high-cycle applications
• applications with high differential pressure
• applications exposed to pressure surges
• fibre-containing media
• abrasive processes
• crystallising media
• high-consistency stock
• demanding chemical applications

In these applications, valve design, sealing performance and serviceability play a particularly important role in ensuring operational reliability, long service life and low life cycle costs.

KLINGER Finland Helps You Select the Right Valve Solution

Valve selection is more than simply choosing a product—it begins with understanding the process.

For decades, KLINGER Finland has helped customers across the process industries identify the right valve solutions for their applications. Extensive experience in the pulp and paper, chemical and energy industries, as well as many other industrial sectors, enables us to identify the factors that have the greatest impact on valve performance, service life and life cycle costs.

”When selecting a valve, the entire application must be considered—including the process medium, pressure, temperature, the presence of solids or fibres, safety requirements and maintenance considerations. The objective is not to offer the cheapest or the most expensive valve, but the solution that provides the highest operational reliability and the lowest life cycle costs. When the process is fully understood, the right valve can be selected.”
– Jukka von Hertzen, Sales Manager, KLINGER Finland

With a comprehensive valve portfolio, extensive technical expertise and professional maintenance services, KLINGER Finland helps customers select the valve solution best suited to their specific process requirements.