Soft Water Benefits Study

I have just read an article about some of the benefits of softened water.  They had different case studies using softe water and hard water 30 grains per gallon.  ( Just to give you a base line, Water Quality Association says 10 is considered extremely hard)  They used laundry detergent that was phospate free.  The laundry study investigated stain removal where detergent usage was 50, 75, and 100 percent of the manufacturers recommended level; water hardness ranged from 0-30 gpg hard and water temps were 60, 80, and 100 degrees F.  Nine different phosphate free detergents were tested on nine different stains. The most significant conclusion is the fact that stain removal is increased more by softening water than by increasing detergent dosage or by increasing temperature.  Decreasing hardness was up to 100 times more effective at stain removal (depending on the stain) than increasing detergent dose or temp.  The same type of conclusion was drawn when it came to dishwashers as well.  There was 70 percent savings on detergent (phosphate free) and up to 12 times more effective at cleaning dishes.  There are many more benefits to soft water if you have time, the Battelle Study with gas hot water heaters found there was a 24 percent effeciency loss with hard water.  It is important to have soft water and if you are looking for a water softener or thinking about getting one then check us out at http://www.allamericanwatersofteners.com/

Soft Water Benefits Study

I have just read an article about some of the benefits of softened water.  They had different case studies using softe water and hard water 30 grains per gallon.  ( Just to give you a base line, Water Quality Association says 10 is considered extremely hard)  They used laundry detergent that was phospate free.  The laundry study investigated stain removal where detergent usage was 50, 75, and 100 percent of the manufacturers recommended level; water hardness ranged from 0-30 gpg hard and water temps were 60, 80, and 100 degrees F.  Nine different phosphate free detergents were tested on nine different stains. The most significant conclusion is the fact that stain removal is increased more by softening water than by increasing detergent dosage or by increasing temperature.  Decreasing hardness was up to 100 times more effective at stain removal (depending on the stain) than increasing detergent dose or temp.  The same type of conclusion was drawn when it came to dishwashers as well.  There was 70 percent savings on detergent (phosphate free) and up to 12 times more effective at cleaning dishes.  There are many more benefits to soft water if you have time, the Battelle Study with gas hot water heaters found there was a 24 percent effeciency loss with hard water.  It is important to have soft water and if you are looking for a water softener or thinking about getting one then check us out at http://www.allamericanwatersofteners.com/

A New Water Softener? Don't Get Ripped Off!!!

I was called to McKinney Texas this week to do a maintenance check on a water softener.  When I arrived I saw a plumbing truck in front of the house.  It was a local company that I had seen not only in McKinney but also in Frisco Texas as well.  I knocked on the door of the home and the lady answered and asked me to wait until the plumber was done.  I thought that was strange and asked if I could look at the water softener while I waited to come in.  She said fine and told me where it was.  I went around to the side of the house and found a Reionator, it is made by Water Tech, has a Life Time Warranty on the tank, media and PC board.  I ran it through its different cycles and found it to work like it is supposed to.  No problems here.  The plumber left and I was invited in.  I checked the reverse osmosis system and it was fine, I also checked the water and it was soft.  I told the lady that everything was okay and there was really no need for me to come out until they knew for sure they had a problem.  She showed my the quote she received from this plumbing company, it was for more than $4,000.00.  The service man told her that her water softener was not working and that she needed a new one.  He said he pushed the button and nothing happened.  Well of course not, that will only make it regenerate that night, we all know that you must hold it for atleast 5 seconds or until it begins to regen.  None the less he either did not know what he was doing or was trying to rip her off.   Don't buy a new water softener unless the guy can prove that it cannot be fixed.  I have found that almost all water softeners can be fixed and have had one exception.  It was a culligan machine and only because they discontinued the parts so the customer would have had to buy a new one.  Other than that I have been able to repair all the ones I come across.  You can ask the next service guy some questions to see if he really knows what he is talking about.  Here are some questions and answers that may help you identify a rip off artist.
1. What is the difference between a clack and fleck valve? A; Fleck uses a teflon coated brass piston on most models and fleck uses a hard plastic piston
2. What is the raw water hardness?  A;He should have a test kit to ensure the softener is or is not working.
3.  Does my water softener have cation or anion exchange resin? A; Almost all residential water softeners use cation exchange resin, some may have a little anion exchange resin.
4. Ask him to explain what the ion exchange process is. A; simply put it is a matter of positive charged ions connecting to negative charged ions to remove hardness and get rid of it and recharge the media.
5. If you have a filter ask him what it is you are having filtered out.  He should ask specific questions to determine the kind of media you have or what you think you have that needs to be filtered out, IE, odor, chlorine; most common media is carbon, for iron most common is birm. 
If you aren't sure about this guy then call another company, but do some research first, there are so many people out there that will sell you a new water softener when there is no reason to buy one, just fix the one you have.  We ask you if you would like to buy a new one and we do give cash back towards a new one but we don't try and sell you a new one unless we can't fix what you have.  99.999999999% of the time we can fix what you have and so should they so don't get RIPPED OFF!!!!!!!!!!!

A New Water Softener? Don't Get Ripped Off!!!

I was called to McKinney Texas this week to do a maintenance check on a water softener.  When I arrived I saw a plumbing truck in front of the house.  It was a local company that I had seen not only in McKinney but also in Frisco Texas as well.  I knocked on the door of the home and the lady answered and asked me to wait until the plumber was done.  I thought that was strange and asked if I could look at the water softener while I waited to come in.  She said fine and told me where it was.  I went around to the side of the house and found a Reionator, it is made by Water Tech, has a Life Time Warranty on the tank, media and PC board.  I ran it through its different cycles and found it to work like it is supposed to.  No problems here.  The plumber left and I was invited in.  I checked the reverse osmosis system and it was fine, I also checked the water and it was soft.  I told the lady that everything was okay and there was really no need for me to come out until they knew for sure they had a problem.  She showed my the quote she received from this plumbing company, it was for more than $4,000.00.  The service man told her that her water softener was not working and that she needed a new one.  He said he pushed the button and nothing happened.  Well of course not, that will only make it regenerate that night, we all know that you must hold it for atleast 5 seconds or until it begins to regen.  None the less he either did not know what he was doing or was trying to rip her off.   Don't buy a new water softener unless the guy can prove that it cannot be fixed.  I have found that almost all water softeners can be fixed and have had one exception.  It was a culligan machine and only because they discontinued the parts so the customer would have had to buy a new one.  Other than that I have been able to repair all the ones I come across.  You can ask the next service guy some questions to see if he really knows what he is talking about.  Here are some questions and answers that may help you identify a rip off artist.
1. What is the difference between a clack and fleck valve? A; Fleck uses a teflon coated brass piston on most models and fleck uses a hard plastic piston
2. What is the raw water hardness?  A;He should have a test kit to ensure the softener is or is not working.
3.  Does my water softener have cation or anion exchange resin? A; Almost all residential water softeners use cation exchange resin, some may have a little anion exchange resin.
4. Ask him to explain what the ion exchange process is. A; simply put it is a matter of positive charged ions connecting to negative charged ions to remove hardness and get rid of it and recharge the media.
5. If you have a filter ask him what it is you are having filtered out.  He should ask specific questions to determine the kind of media you have or what you think you have that needs to be filtered out, IE, odor, chlorine; most common media is carbon, for iron most common is birm. 
If you aren't sure about this guy then call another company, but do some research first, there are so many people out there that will sell you a new water softener when there is no reason to buy one, just fix the one you have.  We ask you if you would like to buy a new one and we do give cash back towards a new one but we don't try and sell you a new one unless we can't fix what you have.  99.999999999% of the time we can fix what you have and so should they so don't get RIPPED OFF!!!!!!!!!!!

Is Texas following Pennsylvania

The New York Times raised some eyebrows by saying Pennsylvania's monitoring of water from gas well sites is lax. Is there any danger to our drinking water from a process known as hydraulic fracturing?

Engineering a producing gas well is not as simple as drilling a hole in the ground and adding some pipe. Underground rock structures have to be fractured to release natural gas. The process is known as hydraulic fracturing. Water, acid and other materials are pumped under extremely high pressure to fracture the underground rock structures. The process has been used for decades in Pennsylvania.

The New York Times articles suggest that naturally occurring, low level radioactivity picked up by underground water could be a health hazard if it reaches drinking water supplies.

 It was the first thing that Governor Corbett's choice for DEP Secretary was asked about in a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

"There are drinking water standards," said Judge Michael Krancer, the Acting DEP Secretary. "As one of the commentators of the article says, we think it's safe. There have been calls from various quarters to do some testing."

Judge Krancer said if he's confirmed as DEP Secretary, he'll look into such testing.

But the man who just departed as DEP Secretary said experts on radioactivity and health within the agency assured him it is not a concern.

"Those are the experts in state government who looked at this thing and were very sure at the time that it did not pose a threat," said former DEP Secretary John Hanger.

Hanger said drinking water operators are already required to check for radioactivity, although not that frequently. He said doing more testing is the smart thing to do.

A DEP spokesperson said about 70 percent of waste water at gas well sites is recycled on-site. Some of the waste water goes to treatment plants for processing before being released in streams and rivers.

Water Softener Install in Frisco TX

Well we finished our longest water softener installation in Frisco TX on Monday.  Firstly I got a call inquiring about a water softener in Frisco so we went to look at the job.  The water in Frisco unfortunately smells like freshly turned soil.  Most people can't smell it because they are used to it, we however live on private water wells and there is no chlorine odor so we can easily detect odor in water.  I even have sulphur odor in my water so I have to use a large backwashing carbon filter for our home.  Any way after aquiring a permit and getting the water softener installed, we found ourselves failing the inspection until we got the RPZ or backflow preventer tested.  Before that could be done we had to go to Public Works and get a permit for the test.  Linda at Frisco Public Works was super helpful.  She gave me the permit and also a lengthy list of testers who could test the RPZ for us.  We were able to get a guy named Dale to come out right away and test it and James from the City of Frisco came as soon as I called him and finished the inspection.  A lot of people don't like to pull permits from the city because of all the things that need to be done as well as feel like the inspectors are not helpful.  We however found that not to be true.  Gilbert, Mike and James from the city of Frisco have been very helpful and told us that the rules are black and white which we prefer so there is no guess work involved.  I want to say thank you to the city of Frisco.  We installed a water softener called the Reionator which is made by Water Tech.   http://www.watertech.com/our_products/classic.htm    This is an awesome water softener and the thing we like best about it is that it comes with a lifetime warranty on the the three major parts, the tank, media and the PC board.  No one else in the industry has done that.  We installed it on Friday and on Monday the customer told us he could tell the difference in the water and was even more pleased that it did not have as much of the slick feeling as his last water softener.  He was happy and we were happy.   Thanks again Water Tech for making great equipment for us to make our customers happy.