What’s in a name?

Posted on by
Reply

Our company has been called Indianapolis Soft Water Service since 1964.  It has never varied.  We briefly looked at modernizing it last year, to Indy Soft Water, but we chose to stay with history.  My father owned this company before us- and he never abbreviated the name for anything.

Recently, he was a little confused and frustrated to see how many companies are using some variation of Indianapolis Soft Water for their domain names.  Only once have we called a company who was seriously crossing the line..

This is important for a lot of reasons.  They use the name because it has good search results or seo values.  They do it to draw business from their competition.  And they do it in part because it does not bother them to move away from their own history to capture a new audience.  In my opinion this is wrong.  Companies have placed their emphasis on taking instead of giving.  Your google or yahoo search result should be accurate to who you are and what you do.  We are Indianapolis Soft Water Service.  We sell rent and repair water softeners in Central Indiana.  Give people the information they need without misleading them.

Give people good service at reasonable prices, and they will tell their friends and family about a small family owned company that does a great job… I think companies have lost that basic sense of business, and until they return to it, consumers will have to work ever harder to find the products they are truly seeking and the right company to purchase them from.

 

 

 

To The Point

Posted on by
Reply

I really liked this article because it has some low cost options for reducing water use on a daily basis http://www.ecoevaluator.com/building/water-efficiency/water-conservation-facts.html

Like the washer, water softeners have become more efficient.  Our Pro Mate 6.5 uses half the water of a traditional water softener.  Instead of using 85 gallons of water during a regeneration, it uses 40.  If your water softener runs once per week, this is going to save at least two thousand gallons of water per year- that is a great step in the right direction. For other ideas on how to conserve water visit us at  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bottle-Free-Indy/158411074231289

Our new division Bottle Free Indy is constantly seeking ways for consumers to enjoy the product they want ( great tasting water) without the waste.  Check it out… you’ll be amazed what one or two little changes can do.

How Does Chlorine Affect My Water Softener?

Posted on by
Reply

This is good information whether you are using city or well water- as many homeowners will periodically bleach their wells to kill bacteria. What affect does chlorine have on the resin in your water softener?  Without getting too far into the science, chlorine will ultimately breakdown the resin and create a swelling of the resin itself.  This response will ultimately reduce the effectiveness of your softener.  A lot of the information I found indicated that normal levels of chlorine in the municipal supply will typically not create this problem, the exception was for areas where higher levels of chlorine are required due to higher levels of bacteria found in the city water supply.  Indianapolis falls into this category.

We have higher levels of chlorine because a majority of our water supply comes from standing bodies of water, Morse and Geist, not the small number of municipally  owned wells.  This requires a higher level of treatment due to the nature of the water itself.  Standing water sources have higher levels of bacteria which require greater levels of treatment prior to entering the public water supply.

In the past, there have been two ways to remove chlorine from water. First, there was granular media carbon.  This is backwash style system that will typically recycle once per week.  These advantage to this style of system is that there is no pressure drop in the home during peak use times. The downside is that they are a little costly to maintain on an annual basis.

The second method for removing chlorine is a cartridge filter.  These are smaller and more affordable to maintain, but when the flow of water is increased typically a pressure drop occurs and the level of chlorine removal desired is not achieved.

Finally, there is a third choice.  The cartridge tank is part of the green filtration series by Hellenbrand.  This zero waste no backwash filter services 15gpm with a 90% reduction in chlorine for up to 140,000 gallons, or approximately one year for a family of four.   I like these numbers.  Even better, the cartridges come in different capacities so you can engineer your cartridge tank to meet your needs.  Designed to be easy to maintain by the homeowner, removing chlorine just got alot easier and more affordable.  For additional reasons on why you may want to remove chlorine from your household supply of water, follow this link  http://www.wcponline.com/pdf/1110Li.pdf

For well water, this is a great way to remove sediment prior to the softening process.

 

How do you select a Water Softener?

Posted on by
Reply



(Click for larger image)
How to Size the Water Softener

Picking the right water softener is an important step in the purification of your water To understand sizing, it is best to understand how it all works. What a water softener does is trade “hard” minerals in water for “soft” minerals in water. The typical trade is as calcium (hard mineral) enter a water softener it is traded for sodium (soft mineral). Inside a water softener are a bunch of chemical magnets called “ion exchange resin”. These little chemical magnets do the trading. The more chemical magnets you have in a softener, the higher the capacity is. Capacity is the amount of gallons a softener will purify before you need to recharge (regenerate) it.

Capacity of water softeners are measured in “grains” or “grain removal”. This is a chemical measurement that has been used a long time. One “grain per gallon” is equal to 17.1 parts per million. The average water in the united states has 10 grains of hardness per gallon. You can calculate the exact amount of hardness you have in your water using a water softener test kit. To calculate how much water you need to purify, multiply the number of people in your house by 80. (the average person uses 80 gallons of water per day). For an average family of 4 the calculation would look like this:

 

People = 4
Gallons per person = 80
Gallons used per day = 4 x 80 = 320
Grains of hardness = 10
Total grains used per day = 3200
 

Try Our New Water Softener Calculator – Click Here

The vast majority of homes would use a 32000 grain water softener.  This would cover most homes with up to 4 people and up to two baths with showers (7 g.p.m.). On a low salt saver setting this example would regenerate about once a week.

 

See more info on capacity and salt settings here.

What type of softener do you want?

There are basic types of water softeners.  

  • Timer Regenerated - These softeners regenerate based on a time clock. In our case above we would set the timer for once every 7 days and no matter how much water you use, the softener will regenerate and use about 8 pounds of salt each time it regenerated. Although a timer system is a little cheaper the salt usage is the highest of these softener types. 

  • Meter Regenerated - These softeners regenerate by keeping track of how much water you actually use. During set up you simply tell the controller how many grains your softener is, how hard your water is and how many people are in your home for a reserve setting of 100 gallons per person to cover you so the system can regenerate at 2 am the next morning after your system thinks it needs to regenerate. A big advantage that meter based systems have is that if you should go out of town or have guest come and go, your softener adjusts itself to regenerate sooner for guests or later if you travel or use less water. By only regenerating when it needs to, this softener is very efficient in its usage of salt pellets. These types of system are the most popular. 

  • Manually regenerated - These system do not have timers or meters on them. Instead they have a simple level that will allow you to regenerate it only when you want to. These type of softeners are perfect when you do not have a drain where you need to place the softener. You can then attach a garden hose and take it to a drain temporarily only when you need to regenerate the softener. Of course in that case you may want to get the larger capacity softeners if you want to limit the time you would need to do this. 

Removing Iron with a water softener. 

Water softeners can remove a limited amount of dissolved Iron form your water. Softeners do this because Iron likes to stick on to the surfaces of ion exchange resin.  A standard water softener contain ion exchange resin that will allow it to remove Iron if the the level is less than 4 p.p.m. A special fine mesh resin softener contains smaller bead sizes which give Iron more places to stick to. Fine mesh Water Softeners can remove dissolved Iron up to 10 p.p.m.  As the resin is regenerated the Iron is flushed off the surface of the resin and sent to the drain. The addition of an inexpensive resin cleaner will assure more complete Iron removal and will give you extended life of the resin beads.  Generally staining can be seen with iron levels as low as 0.25 p.p.m. So there is a good chance that if you have Iron staining problems, a water softener might just fixed the problem and give you soft water all with one device.  If you Iron level is higher then you may need to purchase an Iron filter for levels above 5 p.p.m.



Concerns about Sodium and Potassium in softened water. 

For those who need a sodium restriction, limit sodium intake to 3,000 milligrams per day as suggested by the American Heart Association. A teaspoon of salt contains 2,300 milligrams. Sodium helps your body maintain water balance. Too much sodium, can cause fluid buildup or elevated blood pressure. This puts extra strain on the heart and can make medications less effective. Consider replacing table salt with herbs and spices. Use fresh foods instead of processed, canned, prepackaged and convenience foods to limit the amount of salt in your diet.

All water softeners can be regenerated using Sodium chlorine or Potassium chloride. Since water softeners trade hard minerals for soft minerals that it gets from the regeneration chemical, some people with restricted Sodium diets are concerned about the levels of Sodium in their softened drinking water. The best way to eliminate this concern is to regenerate your softener with Potassium chloride pellets, The softener works the same with either type.

Each grain of hardness in your water will end out equaling  17.1 milligrams per liter of Sodium or Potassium depending on what you are regenerating the water softener with. With a low sodium diet of 3000 milligrams, average water would contain 170 milligrams per liter or water. Under this scenario you would have to drink 17 liters of water or 4.6 gallons or water per day to hit the limit.

How do I bypass my water softener?

Posted on by
Reply

Water softeners operate by directing all water entering a home, either from a public system or a well, to run through the softener, which removes the minerals, such as calcium, magnesium or iron from the home water supply. At times it is necessary to stop the flow of water into the softener, most often to repair or service the water softener. Use of a bypass valve allows water to continue to flow into the home and to “bypass” the water softener.

 

Difficulty:

 

Easy

Instructions

    • 1

      Locate the two water pipes that connect to the softener. One carries the water into the tank; the other carries it out. Located near the softener is a third pipe that runs between the inflow and outflow pipes and connects them to each other. It has a knob on one end.

    • 2

      Push the knob in towards the pipes to stop the flow of water into the softener. If you do not have a valve with a knob as described, proceed to step 3.

    • 3
      Twist the handle on the valve bypass to open it.

      Look for a pipe running between the inlet and outlet pipes that has a handle in the center. Twist the handle on the valve bypass counterclockwise to open the bypass. Between it and the softener, the inlet and outlet pipes also have handles to control water flow. Shut them by twisting the handles clockwise. Water will now flow through the open bypass pipe, not into the water softener. If you have no valve bypass, proceed to step 4.

    • 4

      Look on the tank for a button on the side or near the top labeled “Water Bypass” or something similar, and follow any instructions it might give. If you find no water bypass, proceed to step 5.

    • 5

      Shut off the main water supply to the house to stop the flow of water into the softener tank.

Read more: How to Put My Water Softener in Bypass | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6050461_put-water-softener-bypass.html#ixzz1ntP3cQQD

 

Maximum Contaminant Levels For Drinking Water

Posted on by
Reply

I found this when I was trying to determine if there could possibly be lead in the water at my son’s school.  They obviously drink filtered water at home, but we tend to get a bit lazy about sending the water bottles to school.  This link is all the motivation I will need.

Maximum Contaminant Levels for Drinking Water

 

Type Contaminant MCL
Inorganic Chemicals (IOCs) Antimony 0.006 mg/l
Arsenic 0.01 mg/l
Barium 2 mg/l
Beryllium 0.004 mg/l
Cadmium 0.005 mg/l
Chromium 0.1 mg/l
Cyanide (free) 0.2 mg/l
Fluoride (Adjusted)* 2 mg/l
Fluoride (Natural)* 4 mg/l
Mercury 0.002 mg/l
Nickel —
Selenium 0.05 mg/l
Thallium 0.002 mg/l
Nitrate 10 mg/l
Nitrite 1 mg/l
Total Nitrate & Nitrite 10 mg/l
Sodium* No MCL
Asbestos Asbestos 7 MFL**
Lead & Copper Lead Action Level 0.015 mg/l
Copper Action Level 1.3 mg/l
Radionuclides* Gross Alpha 15 PCi/l
Gross Alpha Action Level 5 PCi/l
Radium-226 Action Level 3 PCi/l
Radium-226 & Radium-228 (combined) 5 PCi/l
Manmade ***
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) 1,1-Dichloroethylene 7 μg/l
1,1,1-Trichloroethane 200 μg/l
1,1,2-Trichloroethane 5 μg/l
1,2-Dichloroethane 5 μg/l
1,2-Dichloropropane 5 μg/l
1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene 70 μg/l
Benzene 5 μg/l
Carbon Tetrachloride 5 μg/l
Cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene 70 μg/l
Dichloromethane 5 μg/l
Ethylbenzene 700 μg/l
Monochlorobenzene 100 μg/l
o-Dichlorobenzene 600 μg/l
p-Dichlorobenzene 75 μg/l
Styrene 100 μg/l
Tetrachloroethylene 5 μg/l
Toluene 1000 μg/l
Trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene 100 μg/l
Trichloroethylene 5 μg/l
Vinyl Chloride 2 μg/l
Xylenes (total) 104 μg/l
Disinfection Byproducts Total Trihalomethanes**** 80 μg/l
Haloacetic Acids 5***** 60 μg/l
Synthetic Organic Compounds (SOCs) 2,4-D 70 μg/l
2,4,5-TP (Silvex) 50 μg/l
Alachlor 2 μg/l
Atrazine 3 μg/l
Benzo(a)pyrene 0.2 μg/l
Carbofuran 40 μg/l
Chlordane 2 μg/l
Dalapon 200 μg/l
Di(2-ethylhexyl)adipate 400 μg/l
Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate 6 μg/l
Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) 0.2 μg/l
Dinoseb 7 μg/l
Dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) 3×10-5 μg/l
Diquat 20 μg/l
Endothall 100 μg/l
Endrin 2 μg/l
Ethylene Dibromide (EDB) 0.05 μg/l
Glyphosate 700 μg/l
Heptachlor 0.4 μg/l
Heptachlor epoxide 0.2 μg/l
Hexachlorobenzene 1 μg/l
Hexachlorocyclopentadiene 50 μg/l
Lindane 0.2 μg/l
Methoxychlor 40 μg/l
Oxamyl (Vydate) 200 μg/l
PCBs 0.5 μg/l
Pentachlorophenol 1 μg/l
Picloram 500 μg/l
Simazine 4 μg/l
Toxaphene 3 μg/l

* Community Water Systems Only

I am including a couple of additional links that detail what volatile organic compounds are- as well as haloacetic acids.  I could not immediately locate a good source for synthetic compounds, but plastic and rubber were listed as the primary culprits. Send me your thoughts.. would you be willing to pay more for your water to have a cleaner municipal supply, or do feel that in home filtering at your personal expense (and control) is better?  It is a big question, and one that I think we will hear a lot more about in the not so distant future.

Volatile organic compound

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary, room-temperature conditions. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and enter the surrounding air. An example is formaldehyde, with a boiling point of –19 °C (–2 °F), slowly exiting paint and getting into the air.

Many VOCs are dangerous to human health or cause harm to the environment. VOCs are numerous, varied, and ubiquitous. They include both man-made and naturally occurring chemical compounds. VOCs play an important role in communication between plants.[1] Anthropogenic VOCs are regulated by law, especially indoors, where concentrations are the highest. VOCs are typically not acutelytoxic, but instead have compounding long-term health effects. Because the concentrations are usually low and the symptoms slow to develop, research into VOCs and their effects is difficult.

Contaminants in drinking water

Haloacetic acids (HAAs) are a common undesirable by-product of drinking water chlorination. Exposure to such disinfection by-productsin drinking water has been associated with a number of health outcomes by epidemiological studies, although the putative agent in such studies has not been identified.[citation needed] A study published in August 2006 found that total levels of HAAs in drinking water were not affected by storage or boiling, but that filtration was effective in decreasing levels[1].