No Water?
Water Quit Working?
Poor Water Pressure?
Water Tastes Awful?
Need a Water Storage Tank / Cistern?
Water Staining Everything in Sight?
Need a Well Inspection/Certification?
Like to Know what's in your Water / Analysis?

And Much Much More!

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Water Softening

Why do you need a water softener?

Water in many states, and Arizona is one of them, tends to be hard. Hard water can cause a range of annoying problems from staining everything in sight to soap scum and mineral deposits in plumbing fixtures. Water softeners remove unwanted minerals by using various water treatments.

What changes will I notice after changing over to a water softener?

The first noticeable difference will be less staining, the ability to recapture soap lather and softer clothing and softer hair after shampooing. Water heaters utilizing a water softener actually have lower costs for use. For homemakers, glasses and silverware become shinier and look cleaner.

So what exactly is hard water ?

Hard water poses no health risks for anyone who comes in contact with it. It simply is water that contains high mineral content such as calcium and magnesium. It appears that these are fine for a person's diet but they can be detrimental to pipes and fixtures. Hard water can clog pipes due to mineral buildup. A little bit of preventative maintenance can save a person from replacing pipes and fixtures.

Water softening is the removal of calcium, magnesium, and certain other metal cations in hard water. The resulting soft water is more compatible with soap and extends the lifetime of plumbing. Water softening is usually achieved using ion-exchange resins.

Hardness ions dissolved in water can cause a variety of undesired effects including interfering with the action of soaps, the build up of limescale which can foul plumbing, and galvanic corrosion.[1] Conventional water-softening appliances intended for household use depend on an ion-exchange resin in which hardness ions are exchanged for sodium ions. Water softening may be desirable where the source of water is hard.[2] However, hard water also conveys some benefits to health by reducing the solubility of potentially toxic metal ions such as lead and copper.

Water softening methods mainly rely on the removal of Ca2+ and Mg2+ from a solution or the sequestration of these ions, i.e. binding them to a molecule that removes their ability to form scale or interfere with soaps. Removal is achieved by ion exchange and by precipitation methods. Sequestration entails the addition of chemical compounds called sequestration (or chelating) agents.

Since Ca2+ and Mg2+ exist as nonvolatile salts, they can be removed by distilling the water, but distillation is too expensive in most cases (rainwater is soft because it is naturally distilled during the water cycle of evaporation, condensation and precipitation).

Practical means for softening water rely on ion-exchange polymers or reverse osmosis. Devices that claim to use magnetism or electricity as a "water softening" technique are fraudulent. As described by NSF/ANSI Standard 44,[3] ion exchange devices reduce the hardness by replacing magnesium and calcium (Mg2+ and Ca2+) with sodium or potassium ions (Na+ and K+)." Ion exchange resins are organic polymers containing anionic functional groups to which the dications (Ca++) bind more strongly than monocations (Na+). Inorganic materials called zeolites also exhibit ion-exchange properties. These minerals are widely used in laundry detergents.

Resins are also available to remove carbonate, bi-carbonate and sulphate ions which are absorbed and hydroxide ions released from the resin.

Reverse Osmosis

How can I make my water taste better?

A water purification system is an excellent choice for better tasting tap water. We think that the best method of doing this is by reverse osmosis. This actually allows you to change your undesirable water into contaminant free water.

The process of osmosis through semipermeable membranes was first observed in 1748 by Jean- Antoine Nollet. For the following 200 years, osmosis was only a phenomenon observed in the laboratory. In 1949, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) first investigated desalination of seawater using semipermeable membranes. Researchers from both UCLA and the University of Florida successfully produced fresh water from seawater in the mid-1950s, but the flux was too low to be commercially viable[2] until the discovery by Loeb and Sourirajan of techniques for making asymmetric membranes characterized by an effectively thin "skin" layer supported atop a highly porous and much thicker substrate region of the membrane. By the end of 2001, about 15,200 desalination plants were in operation or in the planning stages worldwide.

Around the world, household drinking water purification systems, including a reverse osmosis step, are commonly used for improving water for drinking and cooking.

Such systems typically include a number of steps:

a sediment filter to trap particles, including rust and calcium carbonate

optionally, a second sediment filter with smaller pores

an activated carbon filter to trap organic chemicals and chlorine, which will attack and degrade TFC reverse osmosis membranes

a reverse osmosis (RO) filter, which is a thin film composite membrane (TFM or TFC)

optionally, a second carbon filter to capture those chemicals not removed by the RO membrane

optionally an ultra-violet lamp for sterilizing any microbes that may escape filtering by the reverse osmosis membrane

In some systems, the carbon prefilter is omitted, and cellulose triacetate membrane (CTA) is used. The CTA membrane is prone to rotting unless protected by chlorinated water, while the TFC membrane is prone to breaking down under the influence of chlorine. In CTA systems, a carbon postfilter is needed to remove chlorine from the final product, water.

Portable reverse osmosis (RO) water processors are sold for personal water purification in various locations. To work effectively, the water feeding to these units should be under some pressure (40 pounds per square inch (280 kPa) or greater is the norm).[citation needed] Portable RO water processors can be used by people who live in rural areas without clean water, far away from the city's water pipes. Rural people filter river or ocean water themselves, as the device is easy to use (saline water may need special membranes). Some travelers on long boating, fishing, or island camping trips, or in countries where the local water supply is polluted or substandard, use RO water processors coupled with one or more UV sterilizers. RO systems are also now extensively used by marine aquarium enthusiasts. In the production of bottled mineral water, the water passes through an RO water processor to remove pollutants and microorganisms. In European countries, though, such processing of Natural Mineral Water (as defined by a European Directive[4]) is not allowed under European law. In practice, a fraction of the living bacteria can and do pass through RO membranes through minor imperfections, or bypass the membrane entirely through tiny leaks in surrounding seals. Thus, complete RO systems may include additional water treatment stages that use ultraviolet light or ozone to prevent microbiological contamination.

Membrane pore sizes can vary from 0.1 nanometres (3.9x10−9 in) to 5,000 nanometres (0.00020 in) depending on filter type. "Particle filtration" removes particles of 1 micrometre (3.9x10−5 in) or larger. Microfiltration removes particles of 50 nm or larger. "Ultrafiltration" removes particles of roughly 3 nm or larger. "Nanofiltration" removes particles of 1 nm or larger. Reverse osmosis is in the final category of membrane filtration, "hyperfiltration", and removes particles larger than 0.1 nm.

In the United States military, Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units are used on the battlefield and in training. Capacities range from 1,500 to 150,000 imperial gallons (6,800 to 680,000 l) per day, depending on the need. The most common of these are the 600 and 3,000 gallons per hour units; both are able to purify salt water and water contaminated with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents from the water. During 24-hour period, at normal operating parameters, one unit can produce 12,000 to 60,000 imperial gallons (55,000 to 270,000 l) of water, with a required 4-hour maintenance window to check systems, pumps, RO elements and the engine generator. A single ROWPU can sustain a force the size of a battalion, or roughly 1,000 to 6,000 servicemembers.

Water Well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring, or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by a pump, or using containers, such as buckets, that are raised mechanically or by hand.

Wells can vary greatly in depth, water volume, and water quality. Well water typically contains more minerals in solution than surface water and may require treatment to soften the water