Sometimes we think of maintenance as either a hassle, or useless. It is much easier to assume everything is working just fine and move on with our daily lives. We sometimes take for granted that everything in our lives simply work. We get up in the morning and are simply accustomed to the refrigerator keeping our milk cold as we pour our morning bowl of cereal. If it was a chilly night and our bare feet are getting cold on the tile floor and there is a chill in the air of our kitchen we walk to the thermostat and turn the dial a few notches and take for granted that the heat kicks on a chases the chill away. As we head to the garage to fire up our car we push the garage door opener and just assume the garage door will open just as it has the previous 1,263 times. We sit in our car and turn the key and expect that little sport coup to fire up and get us to work.

Most things in our technological world simply work, most of the time. It's when it doesn't work that things come screeching to a halt.
"Snap! the car doesn't start!" "Now what," we quietly yell in our minds. "How am I going to get to that 8:00 AM meeting now." What could have gone wrong. Hmm, maybe the oil wasn't changed in several years, or the battery terminals are all corroded and getting no contact, or the fuel filter is plugged. What is the terrible sound as we push the garage door opener and the next thing we see is the garage door somehow became derailed and just landed on our little sport coup! "What in the name of Mike just happened!! Argh!"

Many things in our lives rely on things working smoothly. Many of those things rely on moving parts, compressors, engines, motors, gears, circuit boards, and batteries. Things that need to be changed, maintained, and attention paid to them, if they are going to give us as much trouble free service as possible. This is where regular maintenance and comes in. Paying attention to the details.

Furnaces and air conditioners need regular maintenance. If filters aren't changed the dirt can clog up the air flow and can also deposit tons of debris on the cooling core and make it inoperable, and that just may happen when it is 105 degrees outside, a bad time to lose your air conditioner. If your refrigerator isn't serviced and the dust cleaned and inspected, that 1/4" poly line that feeds your ice maker, may be leaning against the compressor which gets hot, and burns a hole in the line. Now every time it makes water 50% of it is going on the floor and running backwards towards the wall and squeezes between the wall and the floor and seeps unnoticed for months below your hardwood floors until one day you notice the floors curling up. Bad time financially now. Or you're driving along the freeway and haven't checked your coolant in forever and it's leaked out and the engine overheats and cracks the block and now, not only are you stranded 200 miles from home, in the middle of nowhere, but it now is a $6000 new engine bill.

Sound far fetched? Nope. They all happened to me! Hard lesson to learn to simply put regular maintenance on the calendar and then just get it done. Which is what I did. I learned the importance, eventually, of putting effort into maintaining what I have. Not only will it help prevent inconvenient headaches and time delays, but saves money in the long run. If you're constantly ruining things, not taking care of them, and are constantly rebuying everything,  you're flushing a lot of money right down the old water closet. Maintaining is a fraction of the cost.

So here is the plan of action, write a list of all the things you own that has internal parts that move. Furnaces, garage doors, dishwashers, refrigerators, automobiles, lawnmowers, water softeners, boats, motorcycles, table saws etc. Even such things as smoke alarms, water alarms, emergency waters storage tanks, and food storage. Take out your calendar, ether digital or paper, and write up a schedule as to when you will have it done. Set an alarm to remind you to look at it. Then be proactive and call the provider or company who services and maintains such things. If they are things you can do on your own, then make a plan, set aside a day, and hold yourself accountable to complete the task.

The benefit . . .  you will sleep better at night knowing there isn't a hidden monster inside your water system waiting to explode and flood out your kitchen at 2 am in the morning.

When it comes to your water treatment equipment, we have written blogs on this site why it is important to service them. Please read them. Hopefully the information may motivate you to do it. But here is the #1 benefit to having a yearly service done on your system, aside from the fact that it makes your systems work more efficiently, last longer, and operate better, it could prevent a massively expensive clean up. That is to check your PRV. When we come to service the system we always, always, always, check your PRV. What is that? PRV stand for Pressure Regulating Valve.

It is one of those little devises that stays hidden and out of sight, so out of mind. It is plumbed into our homes and we assume it will always work. In fact, most people do not even think they are replaceable or should be replaced. it's just a cone shaped brass object that sits quietly in the plumbing. Your water enters your house from the city, passes by your shut off valve for your house, and then flows through this inert looking thing. Well, that inert looking thing has internals in it which absorb the pressure and help reduce it to within specifications for the appliances and fixtures in your home. It has a range setting of 25 psi to 75 psi. It comes factory set at 55 psi. When your city produces pressure either from pumps, or elevated water tanks, they need to increase the pressure so that the water can get to the last house on the line with more than a drip. That way the last guy on the line can take a shower that blows enough water through that he can spray off the soap he just lathered himself with.

This means that if your particular municipality pressurizes the lines to 225 psi so that "Mr. Last Guy on the Line" can get the soap off his body, it may be passing your house at 225 psi. Enough to start blowing more sensitive components apart. Things like diaphragms in the fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine, O-rings on the reverse osmosis system (RO) or in your faucets, bladders in your expansion tank or Ro. Poly tubing going to your swamp cooler or humidifier. Not to mention the floats in your toilet, or the line to your dishwasher. 

The PRV is like your heart. It sits in your chest and simply beats giving you life. Many times we hardly think about the work it does day in day out for years and years. As it is quietly doing its thing, it eventually builds up high pressure. When that pressure is high enough for a long enough period of time, it fails. You now have a heart attack, stroke, or aneurysm. But, if you had done some routine maintenance like a check up, blood pressure tests, the problem could have been identified and corrective measures taken,  like medications, a change of eating plan, and exercise. 

This PRV in your home is similar. It takes all that pressure for years and then at some point gives up and fails. Then, when everyone in the valley goes to sleep at night, meaning not many people are using the water, the pressure in the system builds, and the weak link breaks and now water is flooding into your home at 2:00 am the morning.

Here is a real world example. We do service work for a dental office and maintain all their water treatment equipment. We also do the work for their home. In their home, they had an older 3 stage RO system. We had told them for years they should replace the RO system. They didn't want to at that point. They left for 5 days on a trip to the southern part of the state. When they leave they always turn off the water to heir home. Years earlier, a plumber had taken the main water line and ran it to a nearby utility closet and put a new shut off valve in and a new PRV. They told them not to use the old one as it came into the house in galvanized piping and might break and then it would cost a fortune to dig up outside and replace part of the line and the valve and PRV.

So when they left they shut off that new valve thinking they were safe. Well unbeknownst to them and evidently to the plumber, there was a line between the old valve/PRV and the new one. So an unobserved line fed the kitchen sink, where the RO was fed from, as well as an outside hose bib. As it happened, while they were gone, the 210 PSI that had been feeding the RO split the line wide open. They had water pouring into their upstairs kitchen unabated. When they came home on Sunday night they found the main floor flooded, the finished basement  flooded, with the sheet rock falling off the ceiling and crashing onto the furniture with an inch or more of standing water in the basement. The repairs were over $50,000! Not to mention the hassle, inconvenience, and stress.

They called us that Sunday night in a panic and we went over. They felt it was our fault for the flood. But upon testing the water we found that the PSI was at 210 pounds, well over the warranty limit. This was a very unusual circumstance, as no one thought to check the PSI at the Ro or kitchen faucet. It was assumed the plumber had brought the entire line over, but the 1/2" line to the kitchen sink wasn't accounted for.

When a service company comes to maintain the water system they check the pressure in the house. They can then notify you if the PRV has failed and if the pressure exceeds the limit of the PRV. So once a year you are checking the pressure and hopefully catching it when it fails and getting it changed out before it causes a catasrophic mess. That a lone, in my book, is worth the price of a yearly service if they did nothing else but check the pressure. It can save thousands of dollars and a load of stress, and no one even thinks about it. It is a time bomb waiting to go off.

If you do not have any water treatment equipment, and no need to do regular service have a plumber come anyways and to a thorough check on your plumbing system and make recommendations. Or at a minimum check it yourself. Go to Home Depot and buy a gauge with a lazy arm indicator and leave it on overnight and check it in the morning to see where your pressure spiked at, If its over 75 psi, change it.

     Many of our customers have an RO (reverse osmosis) system in their home. Most of them are installed under their kitchen sink. Please see our previous blog articles about reverse osmosis systems and why they are worthwhile and why it is important to maintain them. If you already have one you know how wonderful the water is. The taste, the purity, and the clarity. It tends to turn us into water snobs. When we go to our relatives home or to a restaurant we can certainly tell the difference in the quality we are drinking. However, there are certain inherent dangers in an RO unit that we would like to make you aware of and present some solutions to those issues.

     Several months ago, one of our customers returned from a four day trip out of town to find there house seriously flooded. They returned on a Sunday evening to find the main floor with water all over it. The carpets were soaked, the furniture was water damaged, the sheetrock on the ceiling in the basement was falling off, as well as on the walls, and it was just shy of a swimming pool. She called us immediately and I went over there with serious trepidation anticipating massive liability as we had changed their filters six months prior. 

     Upon detailed examination we found that the 1/4" plastic tubing that lead from the cold supply beneath the kitchen sink, that fed the kitchen faucet with water, had a tee on it  that supplied the RO with water. It had split open leaving a 3/8" gap. That hole could feasibly spurt out 1 - 4 gallons per minute (GPM) of water. If it had done just 1 gpm of water that would be 1,440 gallons of water in a 24-hour period. In four days, if it had split the night they left, it would have poured out 5,760 gallons of water. Now, we don't know when it split, so it could have been fewer than four days, but we also don't know exactly how many gallons per minute of water the split was allowed out. Surmise it to say, it was a lot more water than they wanted pouring into their home when no one was home.

     Sadly for them it caused a lot of damage, close to $50K, serious inconvenience, a large claim on their homeowners insurance and possible cancellation of their policy. Luckily for us, we were not liable for the damages, because we were not culpable for what happened. When I saw the split in the tubing, I knew that it would not have split under normal water pressure in the home. I put a pressure gauge with a lazy arm indicator on their hose bib and left it on over night. When I first connected the gauge it read 80 psi. I already knew at that point that their PRV (pressure reducing valve) had failed. PRV's are designed to be set between 25 psi and max of 75 psi, I was reading 80 psi during the evening.

     I returned the next morning and discovered that the indicator showed 210 psi! That is 4 times the average psi that should have been going into their home. As a matter of practice we always check the psi in the home when we do our service work specifically for such a reason. A PRV can fail at any time and with out any warning. Most people simply view the increased pressure in their home as a bonus and get use to it not realizing the potential damage the high pressure is causing.

    So danger one , is high pressure to your RO unit from a failed PRV, or no PRV in your home. You should make it a regular practice to check the pressure in your home. You can go to your local hardware store and purchase a simple pressure gauge with a lazy arm indicator for $12-$18. Then attach it to a hose bib or water heater and get a pressure reading. Your pressure should be between 50 and 65 psi. Since a PRV can fail at anytime, even potentially between readings, unless your dutiful enough to check it consistently and frequently. What you can do to ensure your RO is safe is install a 1/4" inline PRV just to the RO unit. This will limit the pressure to your RO unit to 60 psi. An Ro only needs 20 psi to produce water, however the more pressure the more water production. However it doesn't need to be higher than 60psi on a residential application. An installation of this simple devise will give you peace of mind not to mention potentially saving you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

     Recently we were at a customers house changing the filters in the Ro system. Their system was not producing much water and their membrane was not rejecting any TDS (total dissolved solids) which is the method of knowing whether or not your RO unit is producing purified water. Upon removing the canisters in which the sediment filter and pre-carbon filter were we found some serious slime build up. It was a gelatinous mass that had built up in the filters as well as within the RO manifold blocking the ability of the water to flow freely throughout the ports. The membrane had also been contaminated with this gelatinous mass. What was the gelatinous mass? Bacteria. We thoroughly sanitized their RO system killing the bacteria and restoring their water production as well as water quality.

     Studies have shown that your RO system should be sanitized every 6 months in order to be as free of bacteria as possible. However, most customers do not want to pay a service company every  six months to come out when they're already balking at having to shell out money every year. Truth be told, if you compare the cost of unlimited purified water via a reverse osmosis system, with the cost of regular filter changes and maintenance, with buying bottled water, it is actually less expensive to service your system properly. The bacteria has the potential to make you sick. So sanitizing your system regularly is key to maintaining a microbiologically free water source.

     When we examined this customer's system, we found that the company who had installed the reverse osmosis system installed a non airgap faucet. This means that there is a cross connect, between where the drainline is connected and the RO unit itself, increasing the potential for contamination. Plumbing code states that an airgap must be installed 1" above the flood plane. This means that there is a physical separation between the drain system and the fresh water system. 

     So danger two there is no airgap installed on your RO system. The solution is to either replace your current non airgap faucet with an airgap faucet or install an aftermarket airgap beneath your sink. This 1/4" devise easily fits in between the reverse osmosis' drainline as it comes off the RO unit and prior to it being attached to the drain tubing below your sink. It mounts easily to the wall of the sink cabinet. This is a less expensive option and it is easily adapted to your RO system. We also recommend when you install this airgap to also place a water alarm beneath the sink as well since most people are not careful with what they put down the drain and the drainline connection from the RO can get plugged up.

     About a year ago we had gone to a home and changed the filters in their reverse osmosis system. As a company we recommended that the o-rings in their system and in the fittings surrounding their system are changed every 3 years. This is not a manufacturers requirement but one that we require as a company. It has been our experience that after about three years the o-rings become flat, they start to dry out, and they are a disaster waiting to happen. With the amount of "stuff" people cram under their sinks there is a high probability that some of the RO lines are being bumped, twisted, and moved about. If the o-ring is flattened or dry, movement of the tubing causes the tubing to move within the fitting where the o-ring is sealing off the water. This creates a gap between the tubing and the o-ring and the seal is broken and the result is a leak.

     We, of course, do not force our customers to do exactly what we say, so we always give them the options, explain the why, and let them decide if they want to spend the money or not. In this particular case, the customer chose not to change the o-rings. Several months later they developed a leak on a 3/8" John Guest tee. As luck would have it, that tee was right above a hole in their kitchen cabinet base where some piping came up through. The water leak followed the tubing till it made a bend and then dripped off there straight into the hole. By the time they discovered the leak it had been going on for months and the bedroom directly below the kitchen was flooded. The mattress was completely drenched as were the carpet and sheetrock. As luck would have it again, the bedroom was never used except when their flight attendant daughter had a day layover and used the bedroom. She walked in late one night and entered the room with her bare feet and surprise! Water.

     So danger three do not leave the old o-rings in forever. I can't stress enough how important it is to change the o-rings in the system periodically. It is so much easier to change a few o-rings than to deal with the damage as a result of a flood because of a $2 dried up o-ring. Again time, hassle, money, inconvenience. 
  
     This story is a more positive one. I had just left a customer and had changed their filters and serviced their RO unit. I asked them if they would like to purchase a water alarm. They were hesitant so I gave them the usual horror stories of floods and disasters and the expenses of a flood especially if they were not home or unaware. Reluctantly they purchased one and stuck it under their sink. I left the home and was about half a mile away when I get a call from the same customer saying the water alarm had gone off and water was shooting out under the cabinet. I raced back and was able to shut off the water, replaced a bad quick connect fitting where the metal retaining grippers no longer held the tubing as it should have and it blew off.

     The scary thing was the tubing could have blown of then, or in a couple days, or in a week, who knows. As luck would have it they decided to get the water alarm, were alerted right away as to a problem, and disaster was quickly averted with no damage at all. A more happy ending to a potentially disastrous story. In my own home, my water alarm has gone off 3 different times alerting me to a water issue which I was able to resolve before it became a bigger problem as it had done on two previous situations where I ended up replacing my entire kitchen cabinets and the wood floor and the other the entire wood floor. One was from a garbage disposal leak behind the cabinets where the drainline had been kinked by the installers and over time had split. The other from the 1/4" tubing on the refrigerators ice maker and water dispenser which leaked under the fridge, rolled to the back, and then under the flooring. Hence why we began offering water alarms.

     So danger four . Anything that contains water in it, has water running through it, over or around it, will leak. It is not a matter of if, but when. The question is, is it better to be prepared for the inevitable and to act swiftly when it happens, or just leave it all to luck and life? Spending a little extra money for an early warning system simply makes sense. You are six times more likely to experience home water damage then a burglary. So if it were me, I'd have one under my kitchen sink, next to my water heater, by my refrigerator, next to my toilet, and by the washing machine. 

     Having clean, clear, pure water is a vital aspect to your health and home. It makes life better. Taking some simple precautions to ensure that the dangers associated with such a system are minimized will make the experience much more enjoyable and will give peace of mind. You don't have to take my word for it... but I would, as I have 40 years of experience in the water treatment industry and have serviced literally tens of thousands of homes and have seen hundreds of preventable disasters. As the saying goes, "Its better to be penny wise than pound foolish."


     

     Currently we are living through a stressful and strange time. Each of us are impacted by the Covid-19 virus in one way or another. Whether directly through infection and fighting the invisible enemy first hand, or by being frontline workers trying to stem the tide of the infection and helping those with it survive. Or we are indirectly impacted through quarantine and isolation, or economically through layoffs, supply shortages, and plummeting financial markets.

     These are difficult times to be sure. As we look at our history as humankind, we find that these types of outbreaks are not new. They are actually fairly frequent, and have caused some serious damage to mankind throughout the centuries. From the small pox epidemics of Rome in the late 100 A.D.'s killing as many as 10 million people, to the plaque of 541 A.D. in Europe and Asia that killed possibly 100 million people, to the Black Death in the 1300's that killed up to 200 million people by some estimates, to the influenza outbreak (Spanish Flu) in 1918 where 52+ million people died, to all of the cholera, malaria, ebola, recurring bubonic plaques, various small pox epidemics, as well as typhus epidemics. When counted up we've lost an untold number of human lives on planet earth. In fact, we've lost more to these unseen enemies then all of the wars men have perpetrated on men with spears, swords, guns, tanks and bombs in recorded history. It truly is a devastating and dangerous enemy. Maybe this enemy might be even more scary because we can't see it?

     The microorganism world is a hidden world that we can't see with our human eyes and therefore don't know where to hide or hold up to defend ourselves. It's like a ninja all dressed in black hiding in the shadows of the night stealthily sneaking up on you unseen and then administering the assassin's hand all before you have any idea they were even there till the piercing pain penetrates your skin.

     One thing we do have on our side in twenty-first century is technology. We can now see this enemy through powerful electron microscopes. We can cultivate them, study their replication patterns and habits and devise vaccines that can help our bodies develop antibodies to recognize and destroy these invisible warriors. We can at times even create medications to kill these invisible ninjas once they've penetrated our defenses. However one the best defenses we have in this viral, bacterial war is avoidance and preparedness.  

     As suggested by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) we must be aware and be clean. We must use common sense in defending against these tiny terrorists. We should wash our hands and face frequently, we should keep a safe distance between each other so those micro combatants who have become airborne do not have enough hang time to reach our mouth, nose, and hands. We need to avoid touching our faces just in case these viral menaces have somehow attached themselves to our hands via us touching surfaces where they may be hiding, surviving, until we inadvertently pick them up and give them access to our inner selves where they can wreak havoc and devastation. We must be wise, use common sense, and treat every surface as if someone just wiped pooh all over it. This includes not touching the outsides of the masks and gloves we wear. Think, "someone put pooh on them" and keep that disgusting visual in the front of your mind whether or not you think it is a terrible analogy, because it's not, its a deadly serious one!

     When it comes to living in our homes we need to take even more precautions as it is our refuge, our fortress against the invading horde of the viral scourge. Make sure you use chlorine, alcohol, or hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle or in disinfecting wipes.... if you can get them..... and clean the surfaces people touch regularly like door knobs, faucet handles, refrigerator handles, toilet flush handles, computer keyboards and cell phones.

     When your within the walls of your home do not let proper etiquette fall by the wayside, cover your mouth with a kleenex or handkerchief when you sneeze or cough. A powerful sneeze can spew misty mucous laden droplets up to 25 feet! Research by MIT even found that droplets can stay suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes! Yes that is disgusting when you think of someone sneezing in that enclosed car your a passenger in and that sneezer did not cover his mouth while the rest of the victims inside still need to inhale that air to stay alive having to breath in all of the yuck that person just sneezed out.

    It is assumed our world has about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 viruses and 5,000 different known varieties and millions of unknown varieties. Viruses are odd in that they have molecules of DNA but no cells. They have some sort of a protein or lipid coat that surrounds their genetic material and they only reproduce or replicate within the cell of a host. Some are airborne, some are waterborne, some spread via insects, some via the fecal-oral route, some via our food, and some are sexually transmitted. In other words, it's very difficult to escape these strange life forms that virologist Ed Rybicki called, "organisms on the edge of life."

     Covid-19 is primarily spread via respiratory droplets released from talking, coughing or sneezing. Therefore a whole house air filter or water filter will not reduce the spread of Covid-19. However this article seeks to fortify our homes from all types of viruses and bacteria that can cause disease in either the air or in our water.

      A consideration to reduce certain microorganisms in our home is to install a Hepa (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter or a UV (Ultra Violet light )air filter in your home either in an independent free standing version or as part of your furnace. There are many types and styles out there so do your research thoroughly to make sure your getting what you feel is the best for your home.

     When it comes to the water in your home you can guard that water by filtering the water with a 25-1 micron depth filter.  Follow that with an ultra-violet light unit. Follow the UV light with a .2 micron filter to catch the dead little bodies. From there pass the water through an activated carbon filter. This will give you water that is microbiologically safe, as long as you maintain it properly. For water that you will be ingesting we recommend installing a reverse osmosis filter system under your kitchen sink which will filter your water to .0001 microns which is many times smaller than a virus. At Total Water LLC we can help you with this portion of your home self defense planning.

     One of the final and best ways to fight these nasty almost and almost not life forms is to live a healthy lifestyle. So stop smoking, stop drinking, stop doing illegal drugs, stop abusing prescription drugs, stop eating poorly. Exercise. Live a moral life. Be clean in your lifestyle and habits. And build up your immune system by getting the proper nutrition so ultimately your body will be able to fight these nasty little pseudo life forms.

     God gave us these amazing bodies equipped with everything we need to live on this planet full of viruses, bacterias, mold, funguses, and other nasties. We have internal mechanisms to help fight the fight. We just need to make sure our system is armed as needed. And just like life, sometimes we don't win every battle. But we need to be suited up and prepared to give every battle everything we've got.

     At Total Water LLC we hope each of you will be aware of how you interact with your surroundings in a pandemic world. We hope you will be careful and live mindfully of your self and others. Reduce the spread, level the curve, take precautions, and be hopeful. Remember to be kind,  be patient, share, be considerate of others. We all live here on planet earth and we all would like to survive. So instead of grabbing all the toilet paper or chlorine wipes, remember there are other humans with feelings, hopes and emotions just like yours on this planet. We all have hopes and dreams we'd like to see fulfilled. We sorrow for those who succumbed to this pandemic and pray for those who are infected and are fighting the fight. Be safe while helping to keep our economic system from collapsing as well adding injury to insult. Lets all do our part.

     

     

      A recent news story on KUTV dated January 21, 2020 stated, "Lead found in water at 90% of Utah schools, now DEQ wants to test it all." The story stated that currently there is no requirements to test lead levels in schools. As a result Utah House Bill 88 was introduced requiring lead testing for drinking water of all schools and child care centers.

     Quoted in the article was Claudia Fruin, a pediatrician and founder of Utah Lead Coalition, who said, "There's no safe levels of lead in anybody's body, but its especially toxic to the developing brain of a young child." She continues, "Lead exposure is known to cause developmental delays and behavioral disorders in children. I would like to see every single consumable tap in every school and every child care facility in the state tested so that we could mitigate the high occurrences. For us to fail to collect the data and understand what the risk is to children in Utah is irresponsible."

     We have also heard in past news regarding lead in Flint, Michigan and the risk the residence of the city had and will endure because the governmental structures in place are not regularly testing the water and informing the public of potential dangers. As citizens we trust our entities providing us with water to provide us with safe water.

      We simply want to go to our kitchen tap and turn on the water and fill our coffee pots or water pitchers with supposedly fresh clean water where we assume the water pouring down our throat is safe. It's disconcerting, after we have been drinking thousands of gallons of water, that the city informs us that, "Oh, by the way, we have too much lead in our water." Thats just great as we have now accumulated the lead in our body over years and years and it doesn't simply go away.

     "Lead poisoning happens when   lead builds up in the body. After months or years, these can reach dangerous and possibly fatal levels. Lead is a heavy metal and a strong poison. It can accumulate in the body if it enters the mouth or is inhaled." Jun 18, 2018    www.medicalnewstoday.com › articles.  Hence why it is important to reduce the amount of lead we ingest.

     One way to be aware of how much potential lead is in your water is to Google your cities water report. Each city is required to submit a water analysis to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)and to meet specific requirements. As you review your city's report look at the contaminant list, then look at the sample result and compare that to the MCL. They will also list the MCLG which is the Maximum Contaminant Goal, which are stricker parameters that are not yet in place. In the case of lead the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level) is 0.015 mgl. So for instance, in the testing of the water in the Utah Schools only a few of them were over the MCL. However the concern is a tiny amount over time turns into more within your body.

     The best way to prevent toxic lead buildup is to take control of your own water and filter it to ensure you have the best possible water. For lead removal and most contaminants a reverse osmosis drinking water system will be your best solution. An RO system focuses on point of use and is specifically for drinking water. Remember that your body is 70% water and the cleaner the water you put into your body the better your body will be. You can also install a catalytic activated carbon filter for the entire home so it can reduce the lead in your showers, sinks, and other water using fixtures. 

     In the end, you need to take your water quality into your own hands so you can have peace of mind. You will then be in charge of changing your filters on a timely basis to ensure you will always have the best filtration capabilities so you can produce the cleanest water possible. The alternative is to simply accept the quality coming through your pipes and hope it is safe as your drinking it or showering in it.

       For high quality equipment from a company who can provides knowledgeable service give us a call at (801) 796-0940 and look at our website as well. We would love to give you peace of mind.
      
      

     Recently I had posted a picture and a comment about a product offering on Facebook. Once posted FB then gives you the option to boost the post in order to advertise. So when we go on to Facebook and scroll through our feed to see whats happening in the lives of our friends we will have an advertisement that is stuck in that feed. Personally, I haven't found it very effective, and whether that is due to Facebook not being a very effective medium for product sales, or whether water treatment is not a good product for that medium, is unclear, suffice it to say, I find it ineffective.
     Well, in this recent post, I had a person from another water company comment on the post and say, "Don't let these guys fool you..." I responded back to his comments and we went back and forth when he finally said, "No need to get so bent out of shape...just a simple water fight." I've pondered on that comment wondering why a person would say negative things when they know nothing about the company nor any of the people who work for the company? They choose to post something negative on another companies feed versus posting something positive about themselves on their own feed?
      I then reflected on the state of the new world we live in where we are bombarded with news commentary versus simply news, and where the news is fake much of the time versus true and where we now have a term for it called "fake news." Strange times indeed. It is an end justifies the means world where the end isn't necessarily good, positive, or worthwhile. What seems to be lacking in politics, relationships, and business is character, ethics, and integrity.
      In simple terms business integrity means doing what you say you will do, offering a product that is what it is an will do what you say it will do, standing behind the guarantee or warranty provided, and offering it at a price that is fair within the market. For an example, I will use equipment from the water treatment industry which we work within. If I am selling an inexpensive water softener that was manufactured in China, and it has cheap materials and components, subpar resin, possible plastics that leech VOC's, I shouldn't sell it for the highest possible price, and advertise it as a top of the line system, and I should fully disclose the type of system it is because there is a market for less expensive cheap items. But if I portray it as a Mercedes, and sell it for the price of a Mercedes, but it is actually a Hongqi, then were not having integrity.
     Some would say that the free market is a "buyer beware" system. That if we can sell it for "whatever the market bears" then that is equitable and fair. After all "we're in business to make money" not give out humanitarian aid. Well, a free market system is really meant for an honest and integral people not for bandits, scam artists, and fast talkers. Yes, they are the ones who sometimes seem to profit at times, but usually in the long term their misdeeds eventually come to light and they either go out of business or out of town to a new market. Yet in the meantime many unsuspecting and innocent folk were the beneficiaries of their slick lifestyle. These idioms are not integral explanations of the free market. If we choose to sell and compete in the market place we should present our product and ideas based on truth and reality so the consumer has all the facts and can make an informed decision based on the same.
     In the water treatment industry, there are many brands of equipment, many different sales styles, full service dealers and sales only dealers, and a wide price range. For instance, you can purchase an Autotrol system from a dealer, from a big box store, from a plumber, online, to a part time guy selling everything from vacuums to humidifiers, to curb lettering. They're all selling the same control valve yet you may pay anywhere from $800 to $7,000 depending on the marketing package. Meaning they may put in a better resin, put a nice attractive cover on it, include the installation, throw in a lifetime warranty, have a colorful brochure with an eye catching website, and high pressured sales people, and in each case you will most likely get soft water. But was the price worth the product you received?
     The burning question is -  was all that worth a price difference of $6,200? Many would say perception is the key and whatever the market will bare is the rule, but is it really? If you are presented with a great story, awesome pictures, and an emotional appeal, does that automatically make the actual product more valuable? For example, a company called Pentair makes a system called a Fleck 5600. A second tier manufacturer may take that NSF (National Sanitation Foundation)certified valve, put it on an NSF certified structural tank, put in an NSF certified Purolite resin, and then a local dealer sells it as a 48K grain quality water softener. Another dealer can also acquire a knock off 5600 Chinese made control valve, put it on a Chinese made tank, and add Chinese resin to it, it'll look just like the U.S. company Pentair's system, but the quality and durability is not nearly the same, but they have catchy brochures and wiley sales people and you'll buy it for the same price thinking you made a great decision.
     At Total Water LLC , for instance, we sell a control valve manufactured by Clack Corporation. They manufacture a very well thought out durable valve. It has high efficiencies, high flow rates, multiple levels of programing, and simply works. Yet because this valve is so good, many second tier manufacturers use the Clack valve in producing their complete system. Companies like Water Right, Hellenbrand, Avian, Nugen, Performance, Watts, Charger and many others. They all make systems with Clack's control valve. They all use NSF fiberglass tanks, and NSF American made resins. And if you purchased any one of those systems you would have an excellent water softener that would be durable and efficient. You would have made a good buy, so long as the price you paid was fair for the extra services rendered by doing business with the local dealer. 
     Some ideas to think about are; does the local dealer stand behind the product? Do they offer service and maintenance on their systems? Do they offer a fair and honest warranty with win win provisions? Do they make the system more attractive with blow molded jackets and matching covers or is it a simple raw rustic look. Do they offer WiFi, a service contract, timely service, knowledgeable trained personnel, and work guarantees? All of these items have a value to them and is worth paying more for. But how much more?
     In my years of business and years in water treatment I have found many people look at water treatment as a get rich opportunity. Because it is one of those rare appliances which actually pays for itself over time and has the potential for high mark ups due to the potential savings home owners can realize over many years. If a homeowner owned a softener for say 20 years, over that time, they could save money on soap products as they would be decreasing the amount they use by 50% - 75%, they would save money on worn clothing from washing and drying them frequently, their water fixtures would last much longer therefor reducing repair and replacement costs, they would decrease their hot water heating costs by preventing scale build up, their shower doors and dishes would last longer as they'd keep them longer as they would look nicer longer, they could reduce their lotions and potions costs as their skin would be cleaner and healthier. All of this has a cost to it and over 20 years a homeowner could literally save thousands and thousands of dollars.
     Well, if we look at how much you are saving over a selected period of time and then determine that our product has a certain value in saving a consumer money why shouldn't we benefit financially in that savings. So if you saved $10,000 in 20 years, why should we not get $5000 of that? After all your saving $5,000 as well which you wouldn't have saved had we not explained it and sold you the system? Could be fair depending on how you looked at. But is that the price you want to pay for a product?
     We prefer to think that it is a product much like any other. It has a function, it will wear out, there is value to it, and you as a consumer should benefit from it and feel good about it. So we take the cost of the system, ad a fair multiplier to it for a markup to pay for unseen costs in acquiring and paying for that good, calculate our fixed overhead expenses and variable costs, labor, taxes, and a reasonable profit, and come up with a price. We then sell it at that price. If we operate a wise business and can't make it at that price we recalculate as necessary and reprice. In the end we have a good honest product at a reasonable fair price. Interestingly enough, it makes our price less in many cases and significantly less in some. 
     At Total Water LLC, we strive to provide a good quality system, at a reasonable fair price, with good customer support and experience, and an honest warranty that protects both our customers and ourselves. We believe in full disclosure, explaining our products and how they work and why on a factual basis, and if we are incorrect or made a mistake we own up to it. We want people who become our customers to trust us and feel as if we have their best interest in mind. We also believe in offering a viable service and product and in being paid for that as well. We strive to be experts in our field and to be a resource for that knowledge to you.
     We want you to do business with a company that fits your needs and expectations. If that is not us but another, we are happy for you and hope your relationship with them will be beneficial to both you and them and that it will be a win win. We simply advocate doing honest business, in being real, and respecting other companies in their pursuit of honest business. If you would like us to see how we can help you please call us at (801)796-0940

     Many people purchase a water softener because they understand the value such an appliance adds to their home, as well as the protection it offers to their water using appliances and all the aesthetic benefits in their laundry, dishwasher, glass shower doors, and inside their toilet bowls. When their salesman explains all of this they are excited, and when it gets installed and they begin using the water they are even more excited. Sometimes there is sticker shock with the purchase of a water softener, depending on who they purchased it from, but that fades as they use the treated water and understand it really does pay for itself over time. Their bonding with the water softener increases as they use the water and as they slowly come to realize just how much of a difference this appliance makes. 

     Then, a year later, when the scheduling lady from the service department calls and lets them know it's time for their yearly service, all of a sudden the love affair is facing divorce court, and they are upset that the system needs to have service done on it. Stop the presses! Yep, the salesman in his eagerness to close the sale, left out the details of maintaining this expensive system you just purchased. Somehow, he felt if he was completely open and honest with you, he would missed out on the sale, and you, the customer, would have declined to purchase the system because over the years there would be maintenance costs involved.

     Well, as with most things in life, there is maintenance. From that Fezzari mountain bike you purchased, to that new Honda Accord, to that new Mac computer on your desk, and that printer that sits next to it, to your favorite fishing reel, and your favorite 12 gauge duck hunting shotgun. Anything that is mechanical needs to be serviced which includes all of your appliances; dishwasher, washing machine, reverse osmosis, and water softener.

     Now, you may be a person who is a severe procrastinator, or completely unaware that such things need to be done, or a fastidious OCD person who is on top of it. Which ever it is, your water softener needs to be serviced regularly. Why? Well, the enemy, hard water, enters your home via the main water line which has its beginnings in a well deep in the ground somewhere where it has dissolved calcium, magnesium, iron, and other minerals. This is then sucked up from the ground through pumps and passed through a treatment plant which filters some sediment out of it, is disinfected with chlorine, and then shot through the piping system to your home, where it may even pick up some other contaminants, and then enters your home and goes directly to your kitchen sink, toilets, showers, and some of it via your hot water heater. 

     This water, which now has these fixture damaging minerals in it, begin to take their toll on your water using appliances and fixtures wearing them down, destroying fragile components such as o-rings and gaskets, and leaving their white ugly stains on and around your brush nickel faucets, your black refrigerator drip trays and on your european frameless glass shower doors. They also become lodged in your water heater eating it up and along the inside of your pipes wearing them down as well. Hence, the water softener. It truly is the hero of your dishwasher, wishing machine, shower faucets, and inner workings of your toilet. They love your water softener. 

     The problem now is the softener takes the brunt of all that water nastiness and it begins to take its toll on your water softener. The resin beads inside begin to break down with the residual chlorine and gets fouled with the iron passing through it, and gets organically fouled with bacteria and other organics, and pretty soon the positive exchange sites become coated and covered up and the ion exchange process is hampered and your capacity diminishes and the system just doesn't seem to be keeping up any more.

     In order for the system to operate many intricate functions need to happen. The system must meter the volume of water that passes through it so it knows when to regenerate. The injectors and injector screens need to be clean and clear to allow a siphon to occur so it can draw out the salt from the brine tank. The brine line flow control and drain line flow controls need to stay clear and open to allow proper flow into and out of the softer so the resin has the proper bed expansion and the brine tank receives the proper amount of water to dissolve the exact amount of salt to regenerate the precise amount of resin beads, so you have continuos soft water. All of those components need to be cleaned, lubricated and periodically changed so everything functions properly.

     Recently I had a 4 mm kidney stone appear. This little tiny stone brought me to my knees with incredible pain and prevented all my other systems from functioning. It clouded my mind, made my legs wobbly, blurred my eyes, and doubled me over when I wanted to stand straight and walk. Something that tiny and simple brought my entire system to a grinding halt. So instead of maintaining my body properly by drinking plenty of water, cutting out sodas, and calcium forming foods, I made poor choices. In the end proper vigilance and maintenance would have been less expensive.  Instead I had to undergo lithotripsey and when it was all said and done it cost me $15,000. Maintenance would have been preferable.

     A water softener looks simple on the outside, but becomes complicated on the inside. It has seals, spacers, pistons, brine pistons, flow controls, injectors, floats, disks, o-rings, screens, distributors, and electronics. They need to be cleaned, lubricated, adjusted, replaced, and turned. Then after cleaning and lubricating all of the components we can get to, there are small intricate ports and tunnels running inside the valve that we can't get to that need to be cleaned. This is where a specialized citric acid with detergents is added so it can clean the internal workings of the unit as well as clean the resin beads keeping them in prime operating condition.

     The water softener in my home is now going on 24 years. I regularly maintain my system. So in return for the favor, it regularly gives me soft water, which in turn saves me literally thousands of dollars over the years by protecting my appliances, fixtures, clothing, dishes, and plumbing. It also makes my home look nice when guests want to use the facilities. 

     When I take my Fj Cruiser to the dealer to have the oil changed they ask me each time, based on a print out of my previous services and my mileage, if I would like the radiator fluid changed, the differential fluid changed, the fuel filter changed, the engine flushed, and tires rotated. Each time I pick something so that my Fj is maintained regularly. With almost 200,000 miles on it, it has never let me down, never stranded me anywhere. Overtime, when I call on it to serve me, it is there. That's how things go when we maintain what we have. It is a law of life. Especially in a world where everything moves to chaos and disorder and disintegration. Doing our part simply makes it last longer and work better. If you didn't regularly paint your outside deck furniture the weather and environmental conditions deteriorate it in no time and you could buy new furniture yearly depending on where you live.

     So, should your water softener be service yearly, yes. Are your required by law to do it? No. Is it common sense to do it? Absolutely. So when you get the call to come over and service your faithful friend in the basement be happy that you have the opportunity to keep your softener in good working order. So when you go to bed that night you can sleep more comfortable knowing that in the morning when you get up you are going to shower and you will have that awesome silky smooth experience where your skin feels moist, your hair manageable, and you use 50% less shampoo and soap. You will know that day after day, year after year, your friend is working away making sure the evil minerals and contaminants don't make their way into your home.

     If you'd like us to come and service your system please call us at 801-796-0940. Also visit us at totalwaterllc.com. We'd love to keep your best friend working great. If you already have a dealer who you trust, call him and schedule a service call.

Why get a reverse osmosis filter cooler versus a bottle water cooler

If you have ever wondered how a water softener works, click the clink below. It is an article by Rohm and Haas a resin manufacturer, and they explain about Ion-exchange which is the principle behind water softening. In fact, did you know there really is no such thing as soft water?

It is a term that evolved from when pioneers trekked across the country and when they stopped and washed their clothes in lakes and rivers, if the soap didn't lather up, and the clothes didn't clean well, they said the water was hard to use. So the opposite of hard is soft, hence soft water. It really should be called an ion-exchange unit because we are exchanging calcium and magnesium, which are the ions that make up "hard water," and exchange them for sodium. The system does that back and forth thousands of times.

The second link is another great article on the ion exchange process and presents several of the negative things that can happen to the resins, which shows the need for resin treatments which we perform on our services and which is available from us and shown on our website. We hope it helps you learn about how a water "softener" works. Remember if you need a great water softener or great service, give us a call at 801-796-0940.

http://www.lenntech.com/Data-sheets/Ion-Exchange-for-Dummies-RH.pdf

http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/water/13D.pdf

Many times water treatment dealers sell water softeners and never offer the customer a reverse osmosis drinking water system. In that case we did half the job. Part of the issue is understanding water and the reasons we use water. In the industry we classify water usage into three categories, utility water, work water, and life water. Utility water is the water you water your lawn with, wash your car with, and spray off your driveway with. Work water is the water you use to wash your clothes, clean your sinks and toilets, and do your dishes with. Life water is the water you are going to drink, cook with, and make soups and juices with.

The water softener is for work water. It protects your fixtures, makes cleaning and laundry easier, gets your body cleaner without the soap residue, and increases the life of your cloths, dishes, appliances, razor blades etc. Life water comes from a reverse osmosis unit. It is a multi stage filtration process that takes the water at the point of use and turns it from work water into life water. The philosophy is that your body is about 70% water. All of your organs are mostly water. We would only survive several days without water. So the cleaner the water you absorb into your system the better off your body and organs will be. Once the water has been purified we would strongly recommend that you then put on a post alkaline filter to increase the pH and negative ORP's you will be taking into your body. See our blog post on Alkalizing.

A revers osmosis system, as mentioned, is a 3, 4, or 5 stage filtration process. The systems we use is a 4-stage 50 gallon per day reverse osmosis unit. The system fits neatly beneath the kitchen sink, at least ours do as we use a low profile high gallon per day system. The first stage is a sediment filter otherwise known as a prefilter. This is a spun blown polypropylene filter which had a nominal filtration capability of 5 microns. To give you a visual of how small 5 microns is, if you look at the diameter of human hair, that is 20 microns. The human eyes limit is 20 microns. So the sediment filter filters to 4 times smaller than the diameter of human hair.

After the water passes through the sediment filter it then passes through a granular activated carbon filter (GAC). This is a highly adsorptive media made from coconut shells. One teaspoon of carbon has the surface area of a football field. Carbon is used to remove chemical organics from the water, as well as clarify the water, and remove taste and odors. The main function of the carbon in a reverse osmosis system is to remove the chlorine which is detrimental to the membrane in the unit.

From there the water passes to a semi-permeable membrane. This is a TFC (Thin Film Composite) membrane. The best way to understand a membrane is to think of a paper towel roll. The water penetrates from the outside of the roll towards the inside trapping all of the contaminants within each of the rolls or folds. Water is then run parallel along the membrane grabbing the contaminants and flushing them out to drain. The processed water or permeate water is the purified water which is the water we will drink. The reverse osmosis membrane filters the water to .0001 microns. For example, an ecoli bacteria is .5 microns in width by 2 microns in length. The smallest virus is about .02 to .001 microns in size. This means that a reverse osmosis membrane will reject 94% to 99% of almost all contaminants.

After the water is purified it then passes one more time through an inline GAC filter before it passes to the faucet where you will access it for a delicious drink of water. Once you drink water from your reverse osmosis system you will have a hard time drinking water from a restaurant without filtered water or at your friends house. You will definitely taste the difference between filtered life water and ordinary tap water.

If you do not have a reverse osmosis system, and are concerned about your health, and the quality of your water, you will definitely want a reverse osmosis system under your kitchen sink. It really does make a difference what quality of water you drink. If you would like clean, pure, refreshing water, call us, we would love to install a reverse osmosis system for you and let you experience the difference.