Nov
12
Information Overload
November 12, 2007 |
With the advent of the Internet, information abounds. I was able to tune my guitar yesterday using a tone produced on a website - http://www.onlinetuningfork.com/ - to international concert pitch. I was able to pay my electric bill. We also looked up how much formula a 1 to 3 month old baby should be consuming (multiple sources). You can literally find answers to any question you can think of online. But who writes those answers? Are they accurate? Can you depend on them?
One way to help ensure accuracy is to get your information from multiple sources as was the case with the baby formula amount. But what about water treatment? What is the best item, device, appliance, method, configuration or system for your water treatment needs? Why should you trust Water Value when another water treatment web site disagrees?
I’ll begin with an example. A couple of weeks ago, I was emailed a water test result. This is the best way to start your quest for answers. Find a web site or two that appear to have what you need and get their recommendation. A water test is the most accurate way to convey your water’s problems to someone else. But the water test I received was inaccurate. It listed very few high readings. The iron content was almost non-existent and hardness was 0.25 mg/L which is nearly non-existent. Yet the email sender was complaining of “iron stains” on fixtures and toilets. Because the test results did not list bacteria, I had to assume it was a bacterial infection. There was no chlorine present so it was likely a private well as the source water. I asked the customer a few questions about the low readings and he later admitted the hardness reading must be a mistake, but we still did not know how much hardness there was in the water.
Several days later, the customer gets back with me. This time he’s got a recommendation from an online competitor. The competitor is recommending a softener and iron filter system along with sediment removal. Wait a minute, the water test showed no appreciable iron. What is going on here? The customer wants me to let him know what I think of this recommendation. Well, it’s obvious the competitor is throwing equipment at the customer based on what he wants rather than based on the facts. I suppose we could take this approach as well, but that’s not how we operate. Neither sediment nor turbidity were mentioned, so why the sediment filter? It never hurts to filter for sediment when on a private well, but if it’s not an issue, why treat for it? Also, a standard softener can handle iron up to 3 mg/L, so why the iron filter? The iron in this water was only 0.20 mg/L which while annoying, is easily treated with a standard softener.
It’s always a good idea to research before making an investment in water treatment equipment solutions, but be careful when approaching online suppliers with restricted resources. Read closely what they claim their equipment or system will do. It is illegal to make claims that are false. Any company that does will not stay in business very long. Water Value Company has never claimed to be water treatment experts, rather we are water treatment equipment experts. We know our products inside and out. Everything on the web site is tested by us before it is made available. If a product or system does not live up to its claims, we do not sell it, it’s as simple as that.
So when you know what you need to correct problems with your water, we are here for you. We are not going to recommend any treatment method or system just because. For example: we do not sell chemical feed pumps online. If your water requires chlorine injection from a chemical feed pump instead of the WellPro dry chlorine pellet dropper we sell, we’ll tell you. There is no point in making a sale if it is not the correct solution to the problem.
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