Frequently Asked Questions
There are two primary water safety considerations: immediate effects on health and long term effects on health. A laboratory test for coliform bacteria can determine if the water is safe to drink. (A note of caution, the water supply could be contaminated after the initial test). Lead, arsenic, PCB’s, insecticides, and radium are just a few of the substances in water that can affect health given time and exposure. A Reverse Osmosis (RO) system is an effective way to assure the quality of your drinking water. (Testing for these contaminants and others can be run in a water lab. Ask us for prices.)
There are many causes of staining. Three of the most common causes in this area are:
- Iron-usually causes a brown or rust colored stain. There are several water treatment methods for removing iron. The amount and type of iron determine which water treatment is best.
- Tannins-can cause gray to brown stains. Ion exchange is a preferred method for tannin removal.
- Low pH-can cause green stains when the slightly acidic water reacts with copper plumbing. A neutralizer to adjust the pH is the most common form of water treatment.
What water treatment options are available for apartments?
Because apartments share a common source of incoming water, it is usually not possible to treat all the water going to one apartment. With the landlord’s approval, an RO system can be installed under the kitchen sink to provide high quality drinking water.
Reverse Osmosis is the finest filtration known, allowing the removal of particles as small as dissolved individual ions from a solution. Popularized in areas where local water supplies contain excessive salt content, RO consistently reduces the vast majority of impurities found in water for domestic use. Testing is the only way to know what your water quality is like day to day. The Culligan AC-30 Premier model RO (Good water machine) tests the water every time you fill a glass at the special Culligan faucet. When the filters need replacing, the faucet sensor reads the increase in mineral content and visually alerts you that it is time to change filters.
Reverse osmosis uses a membrane that is semi-permeable, allowing the fluid that is being purified to pass through it, while rejecting the contaminants that remain. Most reverse osmosis technology uses a process known as crossflow to allow the membrane to continually clean itself. As some of the fluid passes through the membrane the rest continues downstream, sweeping the rejected materials away from the membrane and to the drain.
Is water from an RO system really as good as bottled water?
An RO system uses multiple filter plus Reverse Osmosis to make great tasting, low sodium drinking water. Reverse Osmosis removes about 97% of the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids.) If you read the labels on bottled water, you will see that Reverse Osmosis is the same process used by many bottlers. You are effectively getting "bottled water without the hassle of bottles."
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