Spring is in the Air, and in the Water…

March 8th, 2010

You have got to love it! The Mercury is rising, people everywhere are excited about reclaiming their backyards and getting ready to open up their Summer camps.

One thing that can go overlooked in the Spring clean up process is the Well Water. If your home is on a Dug Well you should get used to Sanitizing your Well every Spring after the snow melt and rainy season has finished. Dug Well are under the direct influence of surface Water. Surface Water can bring everything it comes in contact with right to your faucet. So dug well users need to be extra vigilant about their water quality. Most of the modern Wells in New Hampshire are Drilled Bedrock Wells that go down into the Granite Bedrock deep enough to escape the influence of surface Water. These Wells offer a more consistent Water quality than the seasonally changing Dug Well.

If you have a Summer home or Camp that’s on a well system remember that it has been siting dormant for a long time. Simply running the Water may not be enough to bring your water back to the quality that you need. Sterilizing the Well prior to moving back in is a great way to assure that you won’t have any surprises when those precious days finally arrive. If you would like printed instructions on how to Sterilize a well please go to our website at www.secondwindwater.com.

As water sits in a well for a particularly long period of time naturally occurring Bacteria will begin to reproduce rapidly this can often result in bad Taste, Odor, and even Bio Slime. This Bacteria is not necessarily harmful to your health, but it isn’t all that desirable either.

Water Treatment Systems should be serviced in the Spring prior to being put back online. Old Cartridges should be replaced with new ones. Cartridge Filter Housings should always be sanitized anytime that you exchange Cartridges.

Thank you for your continued support of Secondwind Water Systems. We truly appreciate your business and referrals. If you have any Water questions please visit our website at www.secondwindwater.com or call 1-800-287-5767. Until next time this is Chris Saltmarsh CWS-6, saying, “Thanks for reading!, and enjoy your great water”… : )

Testing 1, 2 ,3 !!!

March 5th, 2010

I see it everyday, everywhere I look food items in grocery stores always have the ingredients listed right on them. People often pour through the list of minerals, vitamins, carbs, fats, proteins, gluten, sugars, salt, and such. Reading over several products they finally make their decision on what to serve their family for dinner tonight. They go home open the box of food take a cup of water from the faucet and add it to the food and begin cooking. Rarely do they consider what is wrong with this scenario. It’s the Water, what was in that Water? Everything else was safely examined and tested to meet their standards.

If you are on a Municipal Water Supply give them a call. They will be happy to mail you out a copy of your most recent Water Test Analysis or possibly even direct you to their website where you can access results instantly. If you are on your own Well like most of our readers then you will have to take control of the situation yourself. For more information on Water contaminants and a brief description of their characteristics please visit our website at www.secondwindwater.com

So let’s talk about testing your water. Testing is easy! In fact your part of the job is actually called sampling. Leave the testing up to a Certified Laboratory. Most Water Treatment Specialists will insist on performing their own on-site water testing in order to solve for aesthetic Water problems. However, any Primary contaminants (things that can make you sick) should be analyzed at a Certified Laboratory. Just call your local Lab and discuss your concerns, your personal and family health history, where you are located, the type of well that you have, and then really listen to what they recommend. Most Labs have special testing bundles available at a discounted price. Testing for specialty items like Arsenic, Radon, and Uranium may not appear in the packages, so be sure to ask if these additional tests make sense for you. Usually the lab will mail out a box filled with empty bottles to your house. You just fill the bottles following the directions in the box. Fill out the paperwork along with a check and mail it to the lab for analysis. Some folks like to do things in person and that’s fine. I’m sure that they will be glad to see you.

The important thing is to really discuss what you want tested. Don’t just settle for what most people do! Think about the water the same way that you would think about your food. Test the Water and then you will really know what you are offering your family at dinner time.

Thank you for your continued support of Secondwind Water Systems. We truly appreciate your business and referrals. If you have any Water questions please visit our website at www.secondwindwater.com or call 1-800-287-5767. Until next time this is Chris Saltmarsh CWS-6, saying, “Thanks for reading!, and enjoy your great water”… : )

Keeping your Water Softener clean…

March 1st, 2010

When a prospect calls Secondwind about solving an Iron problem one of the first things that we will look into is the type of Iron that we are treating for. Soluble (Ferrous) Iron is easily removed using a Kinetico Water Softener. Solid Ferric Iron is easily Filtered from the Water. Sometimes if the Water contains both Ferric and Ferrous Iron. In this case we will recommend a Filter followed by a Softener as the most robust solution.

The Valance of Iron will change very quickly once a sample has been drawn. Therefore, Laboratory Water Analysis will usually not contain testing for Ferric and Ferrous Iron. In most cases Laboratories only test for Total Iron. This often results in the misapplication of Water Treatment Equipment. For more information about Iron removal and Water Softener Maintenance please visit our website at www.secondwindwater.com .

Although a Water Softener is not a good Filter, it can still remove some Ferric Iron from the Water In low amounts. Longterm however, this is not good for the Resin, because the Ferric Iron is very hard to clean off. Over time the ferric will accumalate and start to break through into the treated Water. If this is the case at your site there are several good cleansing products on the market, such as Res-Up and Iron-Out, that can help remove the Ferric Iron. Start off by using Salt that has a Resin Cleaner additive already built in. This will cost more but it will pay you back manifold. If this is not enough to keep your Softener clean try using Resin Cleaner in a large dose to clean out the Resin, repeat the procedure on regular intervals as often as necessary. There will be instruction on the container describing how to do this. Be certain to follow all directions, especially the warnings about proper venting.

Rust Remover Salt and Resin Cleaners can help you keep the Resin clean if there are limited amounts of Ferric Iron and so it’s a good first attempt. Ultimately you may have to install a Backwashing Filter if there is too much Ferric Iron going into your Water Softener.

We truly appreciate your business and referrals. If you have any Water questions please visit our website at www.secondwindwater.com or call 1-800-287-5767. Until next time this is Chris Saltmarsh CWS-6 saying, “Thanks for reading!, Remember to Keep you Water Softener clean, and enjoy your great water”… : )

Troubleshooting over the phone…

February 26th, 2010

No one ever expects to have a problem with their Water Treatment System, in fact the odds are very low that you will. However when you have over 10,000 customers there is always bound to be a glitch somewhere. In most cases the issue is usually solved by troubleshooting over the phone.

The majority of the issues that arise are related to either a worn out well pump or a plugged up Pre-Filter Cartridge. The simplest way to quickly find out if the problem is in the well pump is to put your Treatment System in bypass. For easy instructions about how to use your system bypass visit our website at www.secondwindwater.com .

If the Cartridge Filter is plugged the water will surge to the house when you open the bypass. If the pump is burnt out there will still be no water to the house, but at least you will know that it is not the Water Treatment System. Once you have this much figured out you will know whether to call a well/pump company or a Water Treatment Company.

The important thing to accomplish while troubleshooting over the phone is to get the customer to relax and be your eyes and ears at the site. Usually you will discover a solution to the problem quickly and everyone goes back to their busy day. Sometimes the solution is harder to find and can take more time, in most cases patience rules the day. There are many experianced troubleshooters here at Secondwind call us anytime.

Thank you for your continued support of Secondwind Water Systems. We truly appreciate your business and referrals. If you have any Water questions please visit our website at www.secondwindwater.com or call 1-800-287-5767. Until next time this is Chris Saltmarsh CWS-6, saying, “Thanks for reading!, and enjoy your great water”… : )