e-mail: jhardman@zoominternet.net
Despite Thousands of dollars spent every year in advertising to tell people, this seems to be Ashland's best kept secret.
We have sold water softeners, iron and SULPHER removal units, and related accessories including reverse osmosis units longer than we have drilled wells. (41+ years)
We have single tank softeners and dual or twin tank softeners for water hardness (what most people call "lime") and air operated hydrogen sulfide/ iron removal units. Yes, "rotten egg" smell CAN be removed and fairly easily too.
Our units are custom made, one offs, built particularly for your well water. We use Fleckinstein valves on our units which give years of trouble free use, AND can be rebuilt when the time comes. No need to buy a new water softener every so many years when you buy a good one to start with.
Our pricing includes installation and plumbing, three year warranty on the valve, ten on the resin tank, and we provide a one year parts, labor, and adjustment warranty.
The Three “Levels” of Water Treatment
There are four basic things we look at when we treat water, calcium, magnesium hardness (the “lime” component), Iron (the “rust” component), PH, which is a measure of acidity or alkalinity, and hydrogen sulfide or the “rotten egg” smell. There are many more things to treat water for, but these seem to catch most water issues.
Level 1: Water is between 3 and 20 grains per gallon of calcium hardness. Iron is non existent, or is very low, for example, 0.2 parts per million of iron and PH is 6.8 to 7.2. No sulpher present.
This level can be handled with a cheap “do it yourself superstore” water softener. Buy the top of the line model. If the iron (which is the problem child) begins to bleed right through the softener, use iron out salt. If it still bleeds through, consider going to a level two system. We sell a single tank level one system, but it is a Cadillac compared to most level ones out there. In Ashland County, level 1 is found about 15% of the time.
Level 2: Water is between 20 and 50 grains of calcium hardness, Iron is between 0.2 and 2.5 parts per million, and PH is 6.6 to 7.2. No sulpher present.
This level requires a twin tank water softener to remove the iron (rust) (remember, as a general rule, water softeners do not remove the iron we have in Ashland County unless they are the twin tank style. At this point, the do-it-yourself superstore models are really stretched and WILL NOT handle the iron. “Rust” bleeds right through) The PH must be 7.2 or under. There are companies out there that claim their single tank unit will remove all the iron of this level, but our experience has been that we get calls from those individuals who have bought these single tank softeners and they are calling us to ask what to do about the rust bleeding through. Level 2 water is found 60% of the time.
Level 3: Water is between 50 to 140 grains per gallon of hardness, iron is between 2.5 and 6 parts per million, and PH is above 7.3. Sulpher smell in the COLD water. The hardest water we have ever found in Ashland County is 136 grains of hardness and 6 parts per million of iron. (yes, we are successfully treating it, and yes, we are removing all the smell, but it takes ALOT more that the “do it yourself” superstore softener. This is where all of the “Our well water is so hard it can’t be treated” stories come from. They bought a level one softener, and put it on level three water).
This level requires an aeration iron/sulpher unit (full size) to pretreat the water before the twin tank water softener.
Notice I didn’t say “filter”. These so called, laughable “whole house” cartridge filters are a joke at any level. When they were first introduced back in the 1960’s, they were meant to be installed on ONE faucet, not run the whole house’s water flow through. Level 3 water is found 25% of the time.
lnk