One of the most frequent things that customers have expressed to me, before investing in a Water Treatment System, is that the water in the dog bowl is clear when they fill it up in the morning and then turns red by the time they come home in the afternoon. This is caused by precipitating Iron. The Iron was always there. It was just in a soluble state. This invisible soluble Ferrous Iron still has a taste and odor to it, but you can’t see it until it adsorbs additonal Oxygen molecules. Once the iron oxidizes it Precipitates into a solid Ferric Iron form called Ferric Hydroxide. The Iron level will test the same in a lab whether it is Ferric or Ferrous. It’s easy to remember that Ferric ends in the letters IC and I SEE Ferric Iron. Take care of that poor old Dog by installing a great new Kinetico Water System and removing the water bowl blues.

Occasionally a hard water or iron bleedthrough problem is caused by salt bridging.  This is a phenomena where the salt in the brine tank dissolves then rehardens due to low use, weight or humidity.  In general we recommend, don’t put more than 3 bags of salt in your brine tank at a time.  AND, get in the habit of giving the old brine tank a shake when you’re down in the area, especially just before adding new salt.  You also can stir up the salt to prevent bridging – this can be done with a broom handle, but be very careful as with many softeners there is a plastic grid about 3 inches up from the bottom.

I spoke at length with a new prospect earlier this week.  She is a cancer survivor and a second, different cancer had just appeared in their home.  With all the anxious energy of new cancer victims, they were wondering about their water.  A recent test had come up “positive” for coliform bacteria and they were wondering about the impact of this on their health.  At Secondwind we make our living solving water problems and taking care of people’s anxieties, but there is no joy in feeding an anxiety that is not founded.  Bacteria are extremely successful organisms and most of the bacteria that exist in our NH water supplies are not going to harm you.  If you were having a problem related to the common bacteria it would be of a gastro-intestinal nature.  We do have contaminants in NH that contribute to cancer risk and among them are arsenic, radon and uranium.  I cannot urge you too strongly to test for these items.  But remember the risk is due to long term exposure, and they are quite removable.

People purchase bottled water for drinking at home for several reasons – their tap water doesn’t taste right, they know of a problem with their tap water, or just because bottled water feels safer.  Bottled water can be a perfectly fine source of drinking water, but a lot of energy goes into the bottling and transporting process, not to mention the waste that is left over after you’ve finished drinking it.  If you have an actual cooler in the house, there is space taken up by that appliance.

Today’s drinking water technologies allow us to easily and cost effectively remove tastes, chlorine, arsenic, uranium, salts, lead, nitrates and bacteria reliably with a very small appliance that can even be located in the basement below the kitchen.  The water can be plumbed to feed a separate designer tap, and we also can route it to the refrigerator.  This allows you to have adequate high quality water for soups and juices in addition to the water you drink as is.  Installing a reliable drinking water system is the green thing to do, but it benefits you with an extremely high quality and consistent water supply for your family.