Wafer butterfly valve is a common valve used in piping systems, especially in applications where you don’t need to be too picky about controlling the flow of fluids. They’re small, lightweight, and are primarily used to control or stop the flow of fluids. You’ll find them in industries like water treatment, HVAC, oil and gas, and chemicals.

Wafer butterfly valve has below advantages to be your first choice:
Small and Compact: The design of a wafer butterfly valve is smaller than other types of valves (like gate valves or ball valves), making it perfect for installations in tight spaces.

Lightweight: Wafer valves are lighter than their flanged counterparts, making them easier to handle, transport, and install, which saves you money on shipping and installation.

Cost-effective: Wafer butterfly valves are generally cheaper than flanged valves or ball valves, especially for applications with medium to low pressure and flow, making them more cost-effective.

Easy to Install: Wafer butterfly valves only need the valve to be sandwiched between two flanges, so you don’t need extra flanges, which makes them faster and easier to install.

Advantages of a Wafer Butterfly Valve (compared to other valves):
Compared to a Lug Butterfly Valve: Lug butterfly valves have threaded bolt holes that allow you to install them between two pipe ends without needing flanges on both sides, which is nice for maintenance. However, wafer butterfly valves are cheaper and take up less space, especially in systems where both ends of the pipe are flanged.

Compared to a Flanged Butterfly Valve: Flanged butterfly valves are typically used in high-pressure and high-temperature environments, but they’re more expensive and take up more space. Wafer butterfly valves are cheaper and take up less space, making them better for applications with moderate pressure and temperature.

Compared to a Gate Valve: Gate valves are typically used in high-pressure applications and work well when you need them to be all the way open or all the way closed, but they’re not good for controlling the flow. Wafer butterfly valves work better when you need to control the flow, especially in medium to low-pressure situations.

Compared to a Knife Gate Valve: Knife gate valves are designed to handle thicker, viscous, or slurry-type fluids and are often used in heavy-duty applications with a lot of solid content. Wafer butterfly valves are better for clean, flowing fluids and have a smaller design for general use. Knife gate valves are bulkier and used in more specialized applications.

Compared to a Ball Valve: Ball valves seal really well and are good for high-pressure situations, but they’re generally more expensive and larger, and they don’t control the flow well. Wafer butterfly valves, because of their simple design, control the flow well and are cheaper when you don’t need to be super precise.

In short, wafer butterfly valves are great for medium to low-pressure applications where space, cost, and ease of installation are important. Other valves, like gate valves, ball valves, and knife gate valves, work better in specific, high-pressure, or specialized environments but are more expensive and bigger.