What To Know Before Choosing A Water Treatment System

It cannot be stressed enough. Before you choose a water treatment system for your home or business, you must find out what is in your water first. We get a lot of calls from people wanting us to choose a water softener for them but they cannot provide us with how much hardness is in their water or even if they have iron water or not. Most people provide us with the square feet of floor space of the house, which does not matter when choosing a water treatment system, and the number of people using water, which does indeed make a difference.

Other information to gather that will help us to recommend a system for you is pH balance, nitrate levels, presence of bacteria, flow rate requirements, turbidity and chlorine content. Let's cover each of these items.

The amount of hardness in your water is important even if you are not considering a water softener. If your water is above 10 grains-per-gallon (gpg) of hardness content and you are shopping for a reverse osmosis system, then you will also need a softener because reverse osmosis membranes will clog up in a short time with hardness that high. The amount of hardness in your water can be determined with a simple water test kit available at most local hardware stores or pool and spa supply shops. We also have multi-test water kits available online.

If your water is provided to your business or home via a municipal supply or community well, then chances are iron is not an issue. The federal government requires all municipal water treatment plants to add chlorine to the water being treated. Chlorine will not only kill bacteria and algae, but also oxidize any iron that may be present in the water supply. But if you are getting your water from your own private well, and you do not have a chlorine injector or well chlorinator, then some form of iron could very well be present in your water. Iron greatly affects the sizing of a water softener. Water softener resin can remove iron up to a certain limit and if your water iron content is below a certain amount, you can size your softener properly to get rid if the iron as well as the hardness.

PH balance is important to know before choosing any type of iron filter system because many of them will not work with low pH (acidic) water. If you were to have a pH rating of 6.0 for example, a Birm filter will not work properly for you. For low pH iron treatment, the Terminator iron removal systems we carry are available with pH correction capabilities.

Bacteria in water can be treated a couple of different ways. If it is iron bacteria that are causing problems, removing the iron that the bacteria live off of works quite well but keep in mind that if your well is infested with the bacterial iron then the best treatment method would be well chlorination. Bacteria that exists without the presence of iron can be treated with either well chlorination, chlorine injection or ultra-violet treatment.

Nitrates are most economically treated by way of reverse osmosis (RO). There are quite a few models of inexpensive RO systems out there that remove very nearly everything from your water. Keep in mind that RO membranes require a hardness rating of less than 10 grains-per-gallon to function properly, and at least 35psi of water pressure.

Flow rate requirements are an important consideration with automatic backwashing filter systems. Most filter media slows down water flow because of its porous nature. The flow rates of most auto-filter control valves are quite high until they are attached to a media filter tank. The larger the diameter of the media filter tank, the higher the water's flow rate.

Turbidity is important to consider when using ultraviolet water treatment for bacteria. If the water is too turbid (cloudy) then the light from the UV lamp cannot effectively penetrate the water to kill the bacteria. A fine sediment filter will probably need to be used.

Chlorine is used in all US municipal water treatment plants and in community wells as required by the USEPA. But chlorine can shorten the life of softener resin and effect the efficiency and life span of reverse osmosis systems and has been linked to carcinogenic compound creation. Activated carbon filtration can render chlorine inert.

In summary, while solving most water problems does not need to be complicated, it is important to keep in mind the need for water testing before choosing a treatment method. Once you have the results of your water test, it's a simple matter of contacting a water treatment specialist that can aid you in choosing the right system for your needs.