Your Water Appliances Have a Warranty – Does Your Drinking Water Quality Violate this Warranty?

Have you read your warranty on that $ 1500.00 appliance, GUESS WHAT?   If your drinking water quality is not appropriate your warranty may be invalid.    The same goes for the water heater, other heat exchange devices, dishwashers, clothes washers, and other water related appliances.   At the Eastern Regional Water Quality Conference in September 2017, I meet Kris Toomey from LH Brubaker Water Conditioning.  He told me a bit about his business.

“Appliances and water treatment go hand in hand. The benefits of soft water for appliances are plentiful.  It is a perfect marriage between providing an appliance that improves the quality of life for a family and offering  water treatment equipment to ensure the long-term reliability of the state-of-the-art appliances and at the same time providing a barrier to protect the family.  Providing the appropriate water quality treatment of the household water is like offering an additional “insurance policy” for the house, family, and the appliance.  Not only are you protecting their investment, but you are helping with soap savings, skin and hair benefits as well as protecting the plumbing system, water heater, and plumbing fixtures.   In many cases, this action is necessary to protect the warranty on the new equipment.  There is no better feeling than ensuring that the family walking through your door making an investment in their home is given the right information to ensure the reliability of the appliances. Every fridge that leaves the store has an opportunity for an RO system to provide the highest available purified water option and this additional barrier protects not only the appliance, but also the family.”

For example:  Depending on the hardness of your drinking water, the concentration of the total hardness or  hard water  or the corrosiveness of the water may void or invalidate the manufacturers warranty, the HOME Warranty,  and any extended warranty of your water related appliances, such as: dishwasher, refrigerator, washing machine or water heater due to its corrosive nature.  A typical water heater warranty, for example, could state that the heater is covered for anywhere between 6 -12 years. If you actually read the warranty, it may actually list specific water quality parameters that should not be exceed or conditions, such as scale formation due to water quality or corrosive water conditions.  Therefore, if you buying a water appliance from a business that does not recommend getting your water tested and you are on a private well or on city water that has occasional problems, you should ask about the terms of the warranty and get your drinking water tested.  At a minimum, the Know Your H20 Team recommends the installation of a whole house particle filter (Well Water or City Water (basic approach / advanced approach)) to protect home water appliance from corrosion related to the presence of particles in the water that could damage piping.

Kris Toomey CWS-1
Director of Water Sales
LH Brubaker Water Conditioning

ktoomey@lhbrubakers.com
717-945-5851 ext. 206
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Impact of Water Quality on Water Heating Equipment

“The local water quality is one of the factors that contributes most significantly to the long-term  performance and longevity of water heating equipment. Specifically, highly alkaline water will lead to the accumulation of scale, which will impact the efficiency of tankless and gas storage water heaters and can lead to decreased equipment life.”

and

“Hard water cut that efficiency by 48% due to scale build up and shortened the life of the heating elements. In some test instances, tankless water heaters failed after 1.6 years of use.” (Source)

Note:

Learn about the warranty when purchasing a water related appliance and Get Your Water Tested (Well Water or City Water) Requires Different Testing!   You may not need a whole house filtration system just a water treatment system on the water going to the on-demand water system or a POU Water device, especially on city water that may contain water treatment chemicals that create chemical scales.