Because you deserve better water… and your home does too. Did you know that our water softeners can prolong the life expectancy for many of your household appliances? Pairing them together can make not only for a happy home but a homeowner as well with lower maintenance and replacement costs. One appliance being tankless water heaters that we are seeing more often in both new and renovated homes. Having a softener in place not only eliminates the worry of hard water corroding and damaging the internals of your new appliances but also reduces scaling and build up that can lead to failure on many others throughout the house. Not only are your appliances more efficient with a softener but they’re a lot healthier too. For all inquiries please send us an email at clearmywater@gmail.com or you can reach us 250-306-5803 and we’d be happy to help. Proudly Serving the Okanagan Since 2005
For the most part if you are reading this there is a high chance of you having some sort of treated water within your home. Whether that be well water with a point of entry filtration system (softener, UV light) or pretreated water supplied from your district/municipality. Living in Greater Vernon comes with many perks, beautiful four seasons, gorgeous landscapes, friendly “Vernonites” and a healthy supply of potable water from our regional district. The RDNO (Regional District North Okanagan) supplies water to us the consumer from one of two main sources being: Kalamalka Lake, and Duteau Creek. Depending on where you live, water source and time of the year, both main supplies are known to fluctuate slightly with hardness and chlorine levels, which are common ways to measure water quality. Hardness in water is almost always present, unless removed by using a softener, and is due to both magnesium and calcium being naturally present. To keep it simple Duteau Creeks water source would be more on the “softer side” being only 3-5 grains per gallon hard (50-75mg/l), whereas Kalamalka is quite a bit “harder” at 10-14 gpg (170-200mg/l) (RDNO, 2017). Generally, the softer the water the better we perceive it to be, at 0 grains hard soap lathers better and less water is needed to perform tasks such as doing dishes or washing your car. Many households could benefit from further filtration as hardness can also be harmful to appliances and anything that uses water. Hardness can be visually seen as the white scaling we see under the kitchen tap, shower walls or windows, but what we don’t see is the scaling build up in hot water tanks, dishwashers, washing machines and fridges. Unless preventative maintenance is performed many times part of these main appliance’s failure is due to exposure of hardness over time. Many simple filtration methods such as softeners and other filtration methods can go a long way in extending the life expectancy of these appliances. Chlorine is also present in our water supplies but quite a bit different than hardness. Chlorine is not naturally occurring and is added to the water from the RDNO to prevent waterborne diseases and bacteria growth. The RDNO does a great job of monitoring the chlorine levels and aims to be anywhere 0.5-1.0mg/l keeping the bacteria and further harmful coliforms at bay. Although being potable, we are left with a small odor and taste due to the chlorine and is not always the most pleasant to drink. We do encourage everyone to look into further filtration of water prior to drinking as removing/reducing higher levels of chlorine not only makes your water taste better but is healthier for you as well. Getting more out of your water with cost effective filtration systems is a lot easier than most people think, if you have any questions please feel free to reach out. Bibliography Flix Water. (2023, April 7). Water Hardness, Hard Water, Soft Water. Retrieved from Flix Water: https://flixwater.com/water-hardness/ RDNO. (2017). Greater Vernon Water Quality. Retrieved from RDNO: https://www.rdno.ca/sites/default/files/2021-04/FAQs_-_Greater_Vernon_Water_Quality_April_2017.pdf#:~:text=Answer%3A%20The%20water%20sources%20for%20GVW%20are%20Duteau,treated%20at%20the%20Mission%20Hill%20Water%20Treatment%20Plant.
If you have read our previous article pertaining to “Getting to know your water: Municipal Supplied Water” hopefully you may have grabbed something from it or started some sort of further thought into what more could my water do for me? To answer the question simply, there are many avenues for further water filtration/treatment one can take and were going to touch on a couple common ones we see, install and service quite frequently. Many times, we hear the saying, “We’re on city water, we don’t need any further water filtration.” and yes, we agree that it is considered potable, but potable and getting the most out of your water are far from the same. For the most part we use water every day and making your water work tailored to how you want it isn’t as hard as many people may think. Pushing the matter a little further in almost every neighborhood of Vernon and surrounding area we have water softeners, reverse osmosis applications, chlorine removal applications and UV lights installed and or service. What might be right for you may look similar or extremely different from your what might be right for your neighbor, all based on your preferences and needs. Where to start? Glad you asked. “We’re sick of the chlorine taste and smell”, “We have the hard water spots on everything”, “There must be something better to drink than tap water.” “Why do we have to boil our water?” If you have found yourself asking these questions, we’re happy to say we can help with that! Water Softeners- Much like their name, you guessed it they soften the water. Placed in your mechanical room they tie into your water main making them a point of entry filtration system for the whole house. Through an ion exchange softeners remove hardness (magnesium and calcium) from water removing hardness scaling, gives your hair and skin an overall cleaner feeling, keeps your appliances and fixtures clean avoiding costly maintenance or replacement. Reverse Osmosis- With many things present in our water and a lot not welcome, to get a pure glass of water or water for cooking we look to a point of use Reverse Osmosis application. Mounted under the sink, with a separate faucet a reverse osmosis application gives you a healthy supply of pure drinking water conveniently within your own home. RO works by using a semi permeable membrane that filters water to 0.0001 of a micron, letting water through but stripping any contaminants (97-99%) not wanted and sending them to drain, leaving you with a pure glass of water. Chlorine Reduction- Chlorine reduction is a very common issue we find; the taste and smell are not appeasing. But there are many applications that can remove the chlorine attributes from your water leaving you with a great final product. Point of entry systems, a softener with activated carbon or a Big Blue filter with a carbon filter are used to get rid/greatly reduce chlorine levels. Asking the question, could my water be better? Please feel free to reach out to further the discussion as there are many applications and avenues to dive into to meet your needs.