D. I. Y. Water????????
Do it Yourself-ers should pay serious attention to the warnings in this Blog. Every time I speak to a Customer who has tried to do their own installation or service, it seems to always end the same way. They wind up asking us to come in and straighten out their system. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a true Yankee, Do It Yourself-er. I recently installed 28 replacement windows in my 1850 New Englander Home and they look beautiful.
Water Treatment is very different than the average DIY project. You have to know the backwash flow rate of the system, pump flow rate, the daily household demand, the 8 minute peak demand, seasonal fluctuations, how to understand a water analysis, potential maintenance issues, space available, pipe size, drain requirements, distance to the drain, electrical availability, type of counter top and sink, accessibility issues, heat/freezing issues,and code requirements. Then you can specify a Water Treatment System that will work if it is installed properly. If these requirements are not met, most Systems will work well for 1-6 months and then they will stop working and actually make the water worse.
Secondwind no longer offers Residential equipment without including our own signature installation with it. We had to learn the hard way. It seems that even the best DIY customers took more time to teach the installation requirements, than if we had just done it ourselves. The DIY customers weren’t installing things the way that we recommended, which could lead to Warranty coverage issues when they asked us to service the failing equipment, and everyone is eventually left with a bad taste in their mouth, YUCK!
We highly recommend that dealers consider having one signature installation for every customer. When a phone call comes in from a customer on a Sunday afternoon you want to be able to tell the customer how to bypass that system quickly, so that everyone can go back to their afternoon plans, and not have to make a service call cross State.
One thing that DIY customers seem to have a problem grasping is that Water Treatment is a Science and also an Art form. Many successful dealerships will approach the same situation differently, based upon past performance and the Water Quality in their specific areas. You won’t get this type of Local expertise from a Big Box Store running a special on 2/3 cubic foot Water Softeners. They may say that they will solve your water problem right in the Manual, just don’t expect to be able to take a shower, when anyone else in the house is using water.
I could go on and on about DIY installation nightmares that I have seen. Hopefully this small handful will suffice for today. Just remember to call a WQA Certified Water Treatment Specialist to create your Water Treatment System Design and have it installed by a WQA Certified Water Treatment Installer and enjoy your great water!
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