Nov
10
Water Softener Sale
November 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We have select sizes of the Water Value WS-1 Clack controlled water softeners on sale until the end of the month. These electronic, turbine metered, on-demand complete water softener systems feature easy and automatic setup along with high flow rates and high efficiency. These professional grade systems - once only available to water treatment professionals - are now available to the public.
The Water Value WS-1 water softener systems feature high flow rates, electronic turbine metering, high salt efficiency, LCD display, easy initial setup, FREE installation kit, high capacity ion exchange resin, Structural tanks, brine grid, bypass valve, drain line and more. Everything you need to connect to your existing plumbing. There are a number of options you can choose from as well including pipe connector size (free installation kit is 3/4-inch NPT), optional tank jacket and brine tank colors. The sizes included in this sale are the 24,000 grain, 32,000 grain, 40,000 grain and the 48,000 grain capacity. To find out which size works best for your application, use our handy Softener Sizing chart.
This sale ends November 30, 2008.
Oct
15
Bottled Water vs Tap Water
October 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Yet another reason to stop buying the plastic bottles. The Associated Press article “Bottled Water vs Tap Water” published on 10/14/2008, lists a number of contaminants in numerous samples of commercially available bottled water. Basically, the article states there is no health benefit to drinking bottled water over tap water. The contaminants in the bottled water are within EPA standards, so it is certainly not dangerous, but there is no benefit to plastic bottled water over tap water.
If you desire contaminant-free drinking water, the two ways to go are distillation and reverse osmsosis. While distillation is expensive to operate and not practical for most point-of-use applications, reverse osmosis is. When landfill requirements, purity issues and expense are taken into consideration, it makes little sense to buy bottled water.
Oct
6
Solving Well Water Problems
October 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Private wells can present quite a few problems for homeowners and businesses alike. All water out of an underground well contains some degree of hardness. But hardness is easily removed with a standard water softener. Most wells also produce water with some type of iron contamination. While iron in your water is not considered a health risk according to the US EPA under certain amounts, it can cause many problems with staining of plumbing and fixtures, laundry and often times produces an unpleasant odor. Water Value Company has an excellent iron elimination system available called The Terminator. Using 3 stages of water treatment, it injects oxygen into the water as the well pump runs. It then oxidizes and bleeds off excess air and sulfur gas, and finally filters out the oxidized iron through an automatic backwashing filter system. The Terminator system is very effective in removing high amounts of iron, manganese and hydrogen sulfide.
But often times well water will not only contain iron and odor, but bacteria also. Bacteria can be killed with UV filter lamps and chlorinators, but BWI (Better Water Industries) has come out with an ingenious all-in-one device for treating not only bacteria, but iron, sulfur, sulfate reducing bacteria, black manganese, algae, tannins, arsenic and even low pH. It is the Sentry I Open-Air System and it even increases low level well water output. 
While being ideal for removing very high levels of iron and sulfur gas from your water, the other benefits of this open-air system coupled with a standard water softener downline of the appliance makes for nearly perfect water right out of your tap, no matter how difficult your well water problem may be. The simple design of this open-air system means easy installation. It comes pre-wired and plumbed with a 1-inch inlet valve, adjustable air-draw for oxidation, safety floats, dry pellet chlorinator, submersible pump, and bladder tank. Water enters the Sentry I Open-Air system and is injected with air for oxidation, chlorine for oxidation and disinfection, holding tank and a booster pump to provide higher water pressure to your faucets than a standard well system can.
So if you need to solve multiple problems with your well water and require a simple to use, low maintenance water treatment equipment solution, the Sentry I Open-Air System is the right choice.
Sep
3
Brine Tank Overflow
September 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
A widely common problem people have with their water softeners is too much water going back to the brine tank after regeneration. This can happen with a 15 year old softener or a brand new one. There is likely only one cause; a leak somewhere. Finding that leak is the trick. So if you’ve searched and found this article, you have a problem with your softener’s brine tank over filling. Therefore, you do not want to have to read through the mechanics of the brine system of your water softener, you just want to fix it. So I will try to get right to the point here.
First of all, if your water softener is brand new, the leak is not caused by your brand new control valve. Do not bother to call whomever you purchased it from and demand a warranty replacement. You will still have the same problem with a brand new controller. The leak is likely in the line leading from the control valve to the brine tank. There are only two fittings in this line, so check both of those. Even the plastic fitting inside the brine tank’s brine well needs to be “wrench tight” not finger tight.
If your water softener is older, say 2 or 3 years, then it’s likely you need to clean the brine injector assembly and the air-check at the bottom of the brine tank’s brine well. The brine well is a large diameter tube that runs down the inside of the brine tank. The air-check will be in the bottom of that. If you have an Autotrol model 255 control valve, you will not have an air-check in the brine tank, but there will be a brine pickup there which should be checked and cleaned of any debris if necessary.
The air-check is simply a plastic ball in the bottom of a serrated tube. The ball closes off the backflow of brine water out of the brine tank. In other words, the control valve does not “know” when the brine tank is empty. This air-check mechanism takes care of sealing off flow from the brine tank. If it does not seat properly, there will be a vacuum leak. The service manuals of all makes and models of water softeners we carry deal directly with cleaning of these air-checks and brine injectors. After making sure the brine line is not leaking, the air-check and brine injector are the next items to focus your attention. They should be clean of any brine or debris buildup.
Finally, all water softeners sold by Water Value come with a safety overflow float assembly. If yours has a leak where the brine pickup tube connects to the safety float shutoff, you will eventually end up with an overfilled brine tank. If the safety shutoff valve itself is leaking, you will also end up with an overflowing brine tank. Check that pickup tube and float assembly for leaks. A very easy way to do this is to activated your safety shutoff valve when the water softener is in brine refill mode. Simply pull up on the float assembly rod to activate the shutoff. If you see water dripping out, then you have a shutoff valve leak.
If a control valve has a brine draw cycle time of 8 minutes, and there is a vacuum leak somewhere in the brining system, that 8 minutes might not be long enough to draw all of the brine water out of the tank and into the softener’s resin bed for regeneration, leaving some brine in the brine tank. Then when the control valve reaches its final brine refill cycle, it will run for 8 minutes to replace the water it initially drew up out of the brine tank. If the brine tank still has water inside because of the vacuum leak, too much water will be sent to the brine tank. This is what causes brine tank overflow. It’s also possible that it could take several regenerations over several weeks time to realize this condition.
The preventive maintenance section that comes with these softener systems’ service manuals explains how to clean your specific brine valve and air-check. Do this brine system cleaning once per year, and you should never have brine tank overflow problems again.
Aug
6
Cost For Activated Carbon Goes Up
August 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The cost of granular activated carbon for water treatment has tripled in the last few months. There are all kinds of speculation as to why but in fact, there are a few reasons. These price increases currently affect automatic backwashing carbon filter systems and will no doubt start showing up soon in the manufactured cartridge filters.
Up until a couple of years ago, the vast majority of activated carbon coming into the U.S. was manufactured in China. For various reasons, the U.S. government wisely assessed and enforced import fees on this popular filter media. Water Value was already incorporating U.S. made carbon media in its systems all along, but when the Chinese media was no longer practical to purchase due to the increased cost, the other water treatment companies were forced to buy U.S. carbon. Because their prices went up and ours did not, we even went so far as to upgrade our carbon media to a nationally known name brand manufacturer in place of the generic U.S. media we were using.
We are still using that name brand carbon in our automatic filters, but the cost has risen above what anyone in the business had anticipated. A great deal of this can be attributed to the cost of oil for sure. While oil is not directly used in the manufacture and processing of activated carbon, producing the heat required is. It will either come from electrical or gas energy.
Rest assured that any of the activated carbon systems/products you purchase from Water Value have, and always will contain the highest grade of media available and it’s certainly made in the U.S.A.
Aug
4
Water Pitchers Saving the Environment
August 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I really like the new commercial about the filter-style water pitchers. They show a person doing some sort of activity such as treadmill running or even reading a book. In all cases, the person is accompanied by a plastic bottle of water. The commercial displays the line “20 minutes on a treadmill (or whatever the activity is): forever in a landfill”. The “forever in a landfill” is of course referring to the plastic water bottle.
We have addressed this issue of the plastic water bottles in the recent past. Our solution to the problem might be a bit more expensive than a filtering pitcher, but it’s much more practical.
Today, everyone knows how important it is to keep hydrated either while exercising or even at rest. Water helps to clean out the toxins in your body, and especially today, there are plenty of toxins in our environment. But the use and waste of these plastic bottles is going to catch up with us quickly. Either re-using the bottle or choosing an alternate, washable container is the right thing to do.
Keeping the water as clean and fresh as the bottled water factories do is easy too. Reverse osmosis is the single most effective, efficient and economical method of purifying your tap water available today. And it’s also orders of magnitude cleaner than any pitcher filter.
Jul
28
Do You Need Water Treatment?
July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
In most cases throughout the U.S., the answer to the above question is yes. In some cases though, and so long as there are no health issues with your water, water treatment is not needed. Because all water eventually filters down through several layers of minerals until an aquifer is reached, due to the solvent nature of water, it is going to gather minerals such as calcium along the way. When this aquifer is tapped either by a private well or municipal water distribution facility, the hardness minerals come right along with it. This calcium or lime can cause problems with your water pipes due to deposits on the inside walls of the pipes and plumbing fixtures over the years. The hardness also requires higher levels of soap and detergent to produce suds and lather when bathing or washing laundry and cookware. This calcium in the water poses no threat to health, but no benefit either. It is not the type of calcium that can be absorbed into your blood stream such as the calcium your body gets from food or vitamins. But it sure can be annoying when it comes to plumbing fixtures, washing and deposits left on surfaces such as a shower door or bathtub. If these annoyances do not cause you any bother, and there are no other contaminant issues with your water, you will not require any sort of water treatment.
Chances are though, if you’re reading this, you’ve decided that you do require some sort of water treatment. Once you know what is in your water that is causing the problems, it’s easy to figure out what you need. The best way to determine the nature of the contaminants in your water is to test the water. Simply pick up a water test kit at your local hardware/plumbing supply store or even get one of our Complete Home Water testing kits. There are 2 tests for every kind of water problem common to drinking water. There’s even a single test for bacterial infection.
Now that you know how much of what is in your water, you have come to the right place. Hardness, iron, bacteria, chlorine, fluoride, nitrates/nitrites, copper, taste and oder can all be treated easily with one or two devices. Hardness (and even some iron) can be treated with a regular ion exchange water softener. Iron in its many forms can be treated with one of our iron filter systems or chlorination. Turbidity is normally treated with a sediment filter, chlorine with a carbon filter, and even pH can be raised with a Calcite filter system. Nearly all chemical contaminants in the drinking water can be removed with a reverse osmosis system.
Some water treatment devices might require a pre-treatment method for proper operation. For example, reverse osmosis systems require a hardness level of less than 10 grains per gallon to operate properly. If your water hardness is over 10 grains per gallon and you require reverse osmosis treatment, you will also need to add a softener to your water treatment system.
If you cannot find what you’re looking for, try searching this web site. We take every question we have been asked over the phone for the past 7 years and addressed them in a search-able format. Simply type in your question at the “search this site” box in the left side of this page.
Jun
25
Iron Bacteria
June 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We have a great deal of information on the web site pertaining to iron. The vast majority of private wells contain iron in one form or another. Our FAQ section deals with the different kinds and the various treatment methods, but here we will address bacterial iron.
Iron bacteria are living organisms which naturally occur in water and feed off of dissolved iron and oxygen. Symptoms of iron bacteria are slimy water, foul odor and discoloration of the water. It can be difficult to discern between hydrogen sulfide in iron water and this bacterial odor. Iron bacteria can form a film on the surface of standing water kept in toilet bowels and such.
Removal methods for iron bacteria include “shocking” the well with bleach or chlorine, removing the iron that the bacteria feeds off of or filtering it. We have dry pellet chlorinators for disinfecting the well which attach to the well head and release pellets automatically when the pump runs, which fall down into the well and quickly kill the bacteria. Another popular method is a Greensand filter which filters the iron and uses potassium permanganate to regenerate the filter media bed.
When using chlorine to treat iron or iron bacteria, it is strongly advisable to use an activated carbon filter system to remove the chlorine once it has done its job.
Jun
16
Water Softener Salt
June 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We are often asked which type of softener salt to use for our water softener systems. There are a few different types which we will address here. Also, people want to know how much salt to put into the tank and how long it will last.
For the type of salt to use, we generally refer to the manufacturer’s recommendation of “pellet-style salt”. This is what is printed in most of the service manuals for these softener systems. However, we have discovered that these pellets do not always perform properly in tropical climates. The pellets tend to melt and form a salt-bridge or dome at the bottom of the brine tank. Rock salt seems to be the answer to this problem. It would also be a good idea to consider block salt when the softener is located in one of these hot/humid locations.
The typical was softener media resin requires brine to exchange the hardness ions attached to the media beads. The hardness ions are released from the media beads when rinsed with brine. Both the brine and released calcium/lime are then rinsed down the drain by the softener’s control valve.
Brine is simply salt saturated water. Water will dissolve salt that it comes into contact with until it is saturated and becomes brine. This is why the salt level in your softener’s brine tank should always remain above the water line. Following this requirement ensures that the water in the bottom of the brine tank is always saturated with salt. If the level of the salt pellets or block sink below the level of the brine tank’s water line, the solution may be too weak to perform a proper and efficient regeneration of the softener’s resin media.
Which brings us to the next subject, how much salt do you use? As stated above, you should put into your softener’s brine tank enough salt to bring the salt level up above the top of the water. This is the minimum amount. Beyond that, you can fill, or even over fill the brine tank with salt. It does not matter, just so long as the minimum amount is in that tank. So for people that can spare the floor space and do not want to hassle with lugging around 40-pound bags of salt too often, a larger brine tank is the way to go. You can choose various brine tank sizes on the same page that you would order your softener from as an option. By default, some of our larger softener systems already come with a large brine tank.
For small to medium residential systems we select a 15×17x36 rectangular brine tank, but you can also select an 18×30 or 18×40 round brine tank. Some of the larger softeners also have a 24×41 round commercial brine tank available. Commercial brine tanks do not come with a brine grid as they are not necessary
In so far as how long a 40-pound bag of salt will last in your softener, there are several variables to consider which make it very difficult to predict. First is the amount of hardness or compensated hardness in your water. Generally speaking, 15 pounds of brine is required for every cubic foot of softener media to regenerate. This amount can vary a lot. For example, we currently have several softener systems that are serviced by us in our local area which are operating on 20 grains per gallon of hardness with no iron present. So it would seem that a 32,000 grain softener (1-cu/ft capacity) would require 15 pounds of brine solution for each regeneration. But this is not the case. Usually 8 to 12 pounds will do. The water pressure, temperature and flow rate also become factors. There are also a few of the newer control valves out there that are more “salt stingy” than some of the older mechanical ones.
Which softener salt do you use? Unless you are in the tropical climate mentioned above, use what the manufacturer recommends, which is softener salt pellets. Which brand? The least expensive brand in your area. We are fortunate here in Michigan. Softener salt is reasonably price, but I have heard of other locations in the US where the cost of a 40-pound bag of salt is as much at $4 higher than normal. We do not carry softener salt on our web site. It would not make much sense to distribute such a heavy item. Once the cost of shipping is added to a bag or more of salt, it would become more costly than even the higher priced locations.
So how much salt is there left in the water after the softener regenerates? How much sodium will you be consuming when using a water softener? The Mayo Clinic has the answer to that one. Basically, the answer is very little. 
But if you want to completely eliminate sodium produced by softened water completely, then potassium chloride is the choice for you. Potassium chloride costs about $1 more per 40-pound bag here in Michigan, but it is just as effective as salt (sodium chloride) at regenerating your water softener’s media bed. Keep in mind that often times untreated water may already have sodium in it and softening your water with potassium chloride will not reduce that pre-existing amount.
Jun
3
Logix Manuals on Backorder
June 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It appears that the service manuals for all of our Autotrol LOGIX controlled softeners/auto-filters were out of stock. We were not informed of this until now (2 weeks later). So to everyone that ordered a LOGIX controlled system; your service manuals are on the way.
These manuals are normally very well stocked, but even the manufacturer can run out from time to time. After all, I’m certain they do not print these publications themselves, rather they have a printing company do it. While it is rare that any of the water treatment systems listed on this web site ever run out of stock, it can happen. We are normally notified of the shortage and pass that information on to you via your email address. In this case, because the manufacturer also includes a quick reference sheet for setup, they correctly assumed that the customer would be able to get up and running without the entire 84 page manual. We have informed them that if there is an outage of service manuals in the future, they should let us know.
Even though there were no complaints or phone calls from customers informing us of the missing manuals, we sincerely hope there were no difficulties or delays caused by this temporary shortage.