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”… : )

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”… : )

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”… : )

Anything mechanical will eventually require service. Preventative Maintenance (PM) reduces the pain associated with waiting for a service call. Being proactive regarding PM instead of waiting for a service emergency will make your life and your water flow much smoother. Airstrippers for Radon in Water reduction are a prime example where PM can save you a lot of headaches.

There are many different Models of Airstrippers available. They all use the same basic principles of reducing the water pressure by blowing air through the Water to create bubbles that reduce the surface tension on the Water, thus releasing the gasses from the water. The gasses are then vented to the outdoors in such a way as to meet U.S.E.P.A. safety standards. The Water is then re-pressurized and safe to flow off to the building.

The Water flow going into the Airstripper is controlled by floats that open and close Solenoid valves attached to the plumbing. The Water flows through the Solenoids into the Airstripper tank, which is not necessarily Water tight because of the Air Blower and Vent pipe. If there were no Solenoid valves the Water would flow into the Airstripper at full force and spray out of the overflow valve or air Blower until the well ran dry. Fortunately when the Solenoids fail it is not usually a catastrophic failure. It is more of a slow weeping of water. There is a lot more to all this than I can describe in this short blog and all systems are different, but this should give you a decent idea of how these Airstripping system work in general. If you would like to learn more about Radon Airstrippers please visit our website at www.secondwindwater.com .

Checking and replacing Solenoid valves on a regular basis is very important. When Solenoids get old they will start to weep Water through into the Airstripper. This usually goes unnoticed because most people run their Water at least once every 8 hours, or so. As the Water level in the Airstripper starts to rise up someone will eventually come along and run the Water. This allows the Water level to return to normal, and so the cycle keeps repeating itself over and over, unnoticed. When people seem to notice a problem is when they return home from Vacation or a long weekend away. The excess Water trickles into the Airstripper and eventually ends up on the floor. This is an avoidable problem so please have your Airstripper serviced regularly. When those service cards come in the mail, call us right away.

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 service your Airstripper every year, and enjoy your great water”… : )