The Truth of Water – Answers

James from England writes:

I am about to purchase a LG Steam Washing Machine which has
recently been exibited and tested on UK television. I am concerned that as
we live in a “hard water area” that the scale build up could become a
problem especially due to the heat required to produce the steam. What are
the best solutions to ensuring the treatment of the water is sufficient to
minimise the scaling of the internal heaters etc. Ranging from the cheapest
and most effective, either chemical or mechanical.

Hi Tony, thank you for the question.

It is my understanding that many appliances like this one have a minimum and maximum recommended hardness range for the water they use. Your first move should be to read the manual or speak to a company representative for this product. Find out the hardness ranges. The company may have incorporated some sort of internal cleaning mechanism for this issue, or other.

Once you have determined the exact range that the machine can tolerate, you want to find out how hard your water is. If you are on municipal water, you may call your municipality. They will have the hardness there for you. If you are on your own well water, then hardness is a simple and inexpensive test that any drinking water laboratory can do. Look in your phone book for a laboratory.

There are two common measurements for hardness.  The older, and most common measurement is grains per gallon, or GPG.  The newer measurement is mg/L as CaCO3.   When comparing your hardness results to the machine specifications, you can get mg/L CaCO3 from GPG by multiplying by 17.1, and dividing by the same number to get back to GPG.

LG may tell you that the best method for dealing with this is to clean the machine at intervals with CLR, vinegar, citric acid or some other effective de-scaling chemical. That would certainly be your most inexpensive option.

LG may also have a system for adding a chemical to sequester the hardness.  Again, LG would be the best place to go to ask about a sequestering agent, both for the method of adding it and the most appropriate chemical so that it does not damage the machine.

You could certainly plumb in an ion exchange water softener to the water lines that go to the machine.  You can get a smaller unit if you don’t want to soften the whole house.  Kinetico has a good under the counter softener for sale, and you can read more about it here.  I believe they have representatives in the UK.

Lastly, reverse osmosis filtration removes everything, including hardness. However, to get the flows you need it is very expensive and requires a large amount of maintenance, much more than de scaling your machine.

I hope this has helped point you in the right direction.  Please do not hesitate to write in again if you need further clarifications or have another question.

Recently, Anna from Michigan wrote into The Truth of Water asking several questions.  She has recently moved from Poland to Michigan, and purchased a house with well water.  Our correspondence is long so I’ll break down her questions below and answer them in turn.

1. Anna has a water softener, and has heard that it can be bad for your health. Is this true?
2. Where to get your water tested, and how often?
3. There is a smell coming from the water. As well, rusty stains are developing on her water fixtures
4. She wants to disinfect her water using U.V. to ensure it is safe to drink, and would like a recommendation on a U.V. unit.

Anna, thank you for writing in and I’ll try to help you as best I can.

Question 1 – Is water softener water bad for your health?

Water softeners add sodium to your water in the same proportion that they remove hardness. Sodium in excessive amounts can be bad for your heart and blood pressure. Your best bet is to plumb a special line of non softened water to your kitchen sink and use that water only for drinking and cooking. This way you’ll be able to benefit from sodium free water for your health, and softened water for your cleaning activities.

Question 2 – Where to get your water tested, and how often?

It is best to find an Environmental laboratory closest to you.  Some samples are time sensitive so the sooner you get it to the lab, the better.  As I live in Ontario, the laboratories I am close to are too far away to be of use to yourself. However, I have found a Michigan association of Environmental laboratories.  You can find them at http://www.michlabs.org/. Please write into them and explain your situation, and that you need to do some well water testing. They will be able to recommend a lab close to you. Most laboratories have a well water testing suite custom tailored to the problems specific to the area.  When you do find a laboratory, please make sure that they can test for ultra violet transmittance.  This is usually a very inexpensive test but it is necessary to properly size a U.V. treatment device, as I will explain below.  Generally most home owners will get their water tested 4 times per year, once quarterly.  As you progress in your testing and find some contaminants commonly not existing in your water supply, you can start reducing the frequency of testing or eliminate it. You should ALWAYS test for bacteria in your water, as that is the most acute problem you may face and can come up at any time.

Question 3 – Smell and Rust in the well water

Many times, well water can contain sulphur reducing bacteria and produce hydrogen sulphide, which will make your water smell like rotten eggs. If this is not the case, I do understand that Michigan groundwater can sometimes be contaminated with methane, which will cause a smell. If your water does not smell like rotten eggs, it is most likely methane.  The company I will recommend below will be able to help you with this.  The rust in your water is from iron, which can come from your well water and/or your iron well casing.  To treat this, you need to oxidize with either air or an oxidizing agent and filter it out.  The below company I will mention will also have experience with this.

Question 4 – U.V. system recommendation

One of the most important treatment devices you will own is your U.V. system, simply because it will kill or inactivate any microorganisms like bacteria, virus’s and protozoa, which can be common to some ground water supplies.  It is very important to properly size your U.V. system.  Just as car companies must not under size an engine for their car, if you under size a U.V. system it will not deliver an effective dose.  The US EPA, AWWA, NSF and various other water specialists recognize that the lowest safe dose for U.V. to produce safe water is 40 mj/cm2.  In order to achieve this, you must achieve these factors:

1. Know your maximum flow rate. The higher the flow rate the lower the U.V. dose will be.
2. The U.V. transmittance of your water, or how much U.V. light can penetrate your water
3. The strength of your lamps at all times, as lamp strength degrades over time.

I work for a small muncipality, and have installed about twenty small U.V. treatment systems. After careful consideration, I purchased all of them from a company called U.V. Pure.  The reasons I did this was simple. U.V. pure took all three factors above into consideration.  Through independent third party testing, they have proven a minimum effective dose of 40 mj/cm2 at the end of lamp life, at a maximum flow rate (which they set with a flow restrictor), and with a U.V. Transmittance of 75%.  If the lamp output failed, or if the U.V. transmittance dropped below 75%, the unit shut off a valve and sent out an alarm, ensuring that you either get safe drinking water or you do not.

U.V. Pure offers a home unit which is independently verified by a third party company to produce this. They test using live bacteria and ensure all are dead on the other side of the system. Indeed, I have my own performance data showing E.coli bacteria on the raw water side of one of my systems and clean, bacteria free water on the other.

Where to get water treatment?

I contacted U.V. Pure to find the closest distributor to you.  They lead me to a company called Clear Water Systems in Brighton, Michigan which I believe is close to you.  As an added bonus, this company also carries Kinetico Water filters, which I have direct and positive experiences with.  Kinetico has filtration options that can take care of any iron, sediment, or methane in your water.

Make sure that if you visit Clear Water systems, you take the results of your well water tests with you. This will help them choose a system to best take care of your needs.

You can contact Clear Water Systems at the following:

To recap: To help solve your problems, use the website I gave you in question 2 to find a local drinking water lab.  Take that information to your local clear water systems dealer, so he can help you with treatment for your iron and stinky water problem, and a properly sized U.V. Pure U.V. system to make sure your water is safe to drink.

I hope I’ve helped you out today. Please let me know if you need any further information or clarifications.  Also, I would be very interested to see how you make out in your endeavors!

Reverse Osmosis filtration is a favorite selling piece of public water treatment stores. Just as bottled water companies work hard to sell the perception that water from a bottle is better and safer than tap, filter companies advocate the same misconception that you need a reverse osmosis filter.

Because reverse osmosis filters can remove almost all of the dissolved minerals in water, these companies tout the water as “purified”, “better for your health” and “a necessity for drinking and cooking”. In fact, plain H2O is extremely corrosive and will suck much needed minerals from your body just as a dry sponge sucks up water. Over time, this can lead to ill health.

Indeed, looking at the minerals dissolved in ordinary tap or spring water, you will find some of the same things that are on the label of your multivitamin. We evolved drinking nature’s water, and nature provides us with many of our needed minerals in natural water sources.

If you are at all concerned about our water supplies, no doubt you are doing everything you can to conserve water. Low flow toilets, taps and shower heads are among the many things that you are doing to protect this most natural resource. But did you know that reverse osmosis wastes water too? As much as fifty percent of the water going into an R.O. filter is rejected and poured right down the drain, wasted.

A reverse osmosis filter is a membrane, similar to a rubber sheet. Unlike other membrane technologies, this membrane does not have tiny holes in it to allow the water through and provide filtration. Instead, it relies on the molecular structure of the rubber itself to filter the water.

This technology requires the water to already be exceedingly clean before entering the filter; otherwise it will clog very quickly. That is why most manufacturers sell R.O. filter systems with as many as four pre filters, to filter tap water that is already potable!

Water does not go in one side of the filter and out the other. Rather, it smacks up against the side of the filter, flowing side stream to it. Water molecules that can pass through via osmosis do, and those that cannot are simply rejected, they go down the drain. Perfectly good water is being wasted.

Remember, when you are conserving water, every little bit helps. Not only is reverse osmosis unhealthy at best, it wastes half of the water that it filters.

If you have municipal tap water, an R.O. filter is absolutely not needed. Many water stores will sell you an R.O. filter after selling you a water softener, simply because of the sodium the softener adds to the water. If you have very hard water, the softener can impart a salty taste, not to mention its bad for people with hypertension or other heart problems. Instead of simply advising you to plumb a water line that’s not softened to your kitchen sink for cooking and drinking, a reverse osmosis unit is insisted on, because this makes them more money.

If you have a well or other source of water, reverse osmosis is an absolute last resort. Your first action should be to ensure the security of your water source. This will go a long way to providing safe and healthy water for you and your family for years.

Remember, water is our most precious natural resource. Every little bit helps when trying to conserve this for us and for future generations to come. When purchasing home water treatment, ensure that your choice will waste no water. If you’re not sure, ask someone who knows. Remember, if the salesmen insist that you have to have a reverse osmosis filter no matter what, if you get the hard sell, always get a second opinion.

Many people have water softeners in their homes.  Many of you that do don’t understand how a softener work.  Sure, it allows you to use less detergent in the laundry and your soap lathers much better in the shower, but how does it work?

Hardness in water is actually calcium.  Hardness is also a few trace minerals like magnesium and iron, but the majority of this hardness is calcium.  Calcium, when dissolved in water forms what’s called a cation. That is, it takes on a positive charge.

All this calcium is what makes soap harder to lather, which makes it undesirable in your water for cleaning purposes.  Many people who live in areas with very hard water will install a water softener to take out all the hardness.

A water softener is simply a vessel filled with thousands and thousands of little beads called an ion exchange resin.  The resin will remove the calcium from the water in a process called ion exchange.  This process can remove the calcium in your water only by substituting another element in its place.  In this case, the element is sodium.

The salt you add to your softener is actually sodium chloride.  When introduced into water, it dissolves into two compounds: A positively charged sodium atom and a negatively charged chloride atom.  As the water passes through this resin, the resin takes a calcium ion and gives up a sodium ion.

The end result is a concentration of sodium ions in your water in place of the calcium ions, and sodium ions do not contribute to hardness in your water.

Eventually the resin becomes depleted of all of it’s sodium ions so it must be replenished.  This is what happens when your softener system goes into backwash.  If flushes out all the calcium to drain and replenishes all of the sodium lost to the ion exchange process.

This is why your softener needs salt and why you must keep replacing it.

It’s a good method for making nice soft water for cleaning, but remember: The calcium is replaced with sodium on a 1:1 basis.  This may mean that you end up with a large amount of sodium in your water which is not good for people with hypertension and heart disease.  If you do install a softener, it is in your best interest to have the plumber bypass the lines to your kitchen sink so you can use this water for drinking and cooking without high concentrations of sodium.