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
Find Other Water Professionals

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.

Your Drinking Water and Your Health – You are Not an Observer !

Even though 60% of the human body is water, water is a resource that is often taken for granted.  The primary concerns with water relate to having adequate quantity of the proper quality.  In terms of hydration, drinking water is probably one of the best ways to keep your body healthy.  Water is used in your body to help maintain your temperature and ensures the proper operation of your circulatory, digestive, and neurological systems.   Water is one of the pathways that potential contaminants and disease causing agents can enter the body, so the quality is also important.   Therefore, we need drinking water of adequate quantity of the proper quality.

When the body is not properly hydrated, our body’s response is to make us feel thirsty, but if you miss this clue watch out for dry mouth, swollen tongue, weakness, dizziness, confusion, palpitations, and fainting.   If over hydrated, you can become water intoxicated or hyperhydration.  If hyperhydration occurs, the kidneys can not process all the water and the system becomes overwhelmed.   There are phone apps and other tools to help you to remember to drink enough water, but our general recommendation is if you feel thirsty it is time to get a drink and given a choice pick water.

Water comes in many forms, which can include premium bottled water, tap water, spring water, carbonated water, soda, coffee, tap water, nutrient infused water, juices, and purified water.   Of all these, it is my professional opinion that we just need to drink water.   The two most common sources of drinking water for a community is either public water or a private water source.  A public water source is always regulated by both the federal and state governments and many may call this city water or tapwater, but well or spring water may be from a public or private source.   If you get your water directly from a well or spring, this is a private source and this is not commonly regulated.

If you get your water from city water, the most common health concerns are related to the presence of chlorine-by-products or corrosive by-product in the United States, the public water supply systems are disinfected using various forms of chlorine and phosphate is added to attempt to control corrosion.  The chlorine is used to disinfect the water, but it can react with naturally occurring organics to form trihalomethanes, i.e., a potential carcinogen; while phosphate will react with the metals in the water to form a scale or coating on the inside of the piping, see “Flint, Michigan”.    If you are on well water, the most common problems are the presence of bacteria and elevated levels of salts in the water, like nitrate, chloride, and sulfate, or corrosive water.   In some cases, the water may contain elevated levels of radionuclides and trace metals, like arsenic, iron, lead, and manganese.      The quality of the drinking water depends on type of water, location, level of treatment, the condition of your plumbing, and your home or house.   In some areas, the community is concerned about pipelines and natural gas development, but a hidden problem may be the existing quality of their drinking water.

For citizens, our general recommendations related to drinking water are:

1. City Water Customers– Review any annual “Consumer Confident Reports” produced by your water supplier and act accordingly.
2. Private Water Sources -Get your water tested, at least annually, and have the results review by an expert (our Mail order program) or maybe conduct a in-home screening test yourself and calculate your Water Quality Rank.
3. Look out for potential problems with your drinking water, based on what you can see, taste, smell, or otherwise detect with your senses or problems that may be caused by the water.
4. Review our Drinking Water Diagnostic Web Application.

A few short phrases we should try to remember.

We ALL Live Downstream !
Groundwater and Surface water are Connected!
We are Part of the Water Cycle – Not just an Observer!

Websites of Interest

Consumer Confidence Reports
https://www.epa.gov/ccr/ccr-information-consumers

Neighborhood Hazardous Reports and Water Testing
http://www.knowyourh2o.com

 

Ohio Waste Treatment Facilities Charged with Clean Water Act Violations

“The centralized waste treatment plant owned and operated by Patriot Water Treatment LLC and the city of Warren’s publicly-owned wastewater treatment plant in Trumbull County (Ohio) were sued by the FreshWater Accountability Project (www.FWAP.org) for significant and ongoing violations of the Clean Water Act. Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services (www.fairshake-els.org) brought the lawsuit on behalf of FreshWater Accountability Project through the Citizen Suit provision of the Clean Water Act that allows “any citizen” to “commence a civil action on his own behalf…against any person…who is alleged to be in violation of (A) an effluent standard or limitation under ⦋the Act⦌ or (B) an order issued by the Administrator or a State with respect to such a standard or limitation.”

It appears that the pretreatment standards may have not been meet and there is a question if the proper wastewater treatment assessments or wastewater characterization were conducted as part of an Industrial Pretreatment Permit.   I am not sure if the issue of “were not carried out to protect public health and safety or the bio-accumulative impact ”  is a real issue, because it would depend on the nature of the contaminant and potential to exposure.  With respect to radiological parameters radon half life is about 3 days and most radium and uranium would likely be bound to sludge and solids, so monitoring of the waste sludge would be a big concern.   No matter what – proper waste characterization and treatability studies should always be conducted.

Read more at http://fwap.org/ohio-waste-treatment-facilities-charged-with-clean-water-act-violations/

Lawyers –  lawsuit can be accessed at http://fwap.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Time-Stamped-FWAP-v.-Patriot-Water-Treatment-et-al.-Complaint.pdf

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Drinking Water and Surface Water Testing From Throughout The USA !

DIY – Do it Yourself- Citizens are screening the quality of their drinking water and private water wells .     With thousands of customers around the world, where starting a new project where everyone can share their results & then view other results submitted from around the world.    We currently have the surface water testing calculator complete and we are working on the drinking water calculator (looking for donations).

Get a DIY City Water Testing Kit or Well Water Testing Kits

The Keystone Clean Water Team (KCWT) -Carbon County Groundwater Guardian Program (CCGG) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, volunteer, environmental education organization which provides homeowners with information on private wells, water quality and quantity, and septic systems. We are dedicated to protecting private well owners from illnesses caused by our drinking water. We advance good groundwater stewardship by raising awareness on a variety of groundwater issues that affects everyone with a private water supply. We can help you get your water tested at the lab of your choice or use our Mail Order Program, plus explain the test results –Get our Educational Booklet.

Well Water City Drinking Water Quality Screening Test – DIY at Home

Complete Water Testing Kit – Because it is important to KnowYourH20 

Whether you have well water or municipal water, you won’t know what you’re drinking unless you test it.  Crystal clear water can contain a number of contaminants from chemicals to metals and even bacteria.  Many of the contaminants that are cause for concern can easily go undetected. They are colorless, odorless, and tasteless.

Safe Home Complete Water Analysis Test Kit includes 10 tests that are easy to administer and give you results within 10 minutes with the exception of the bacteria test which takes 48 hours. This single kit includes all of the following water tests:

• NEXT GENERATION of drinking water test kits for 2024, with patented technologies for testing any drinking water supply (City Water or Well Water).
• INCLUDES 27-testing mechanisms that provide testing for 14-different parameters (302 Total Tests/Kit). See attached image of package-back, for a complete list of parameters to be tested.
• EXCLUSIVE BRAND of water test kits to earn the Good Housekeeping Seal. Named one of the Top-10 New Products at the National Hardware Show. Includes trilingual instructions. Made in the USA!
• YOU GET MORE BENEFITS for your dollar with Safe Home – Our team guides you before, during, and after testing. See details on attached image with this listing.
• YOUR PURCHASE MAKES A DIFFERENCE in people’s lives. Safe Home donates a portion of every test kit sale to clean water initiatives around the globe. See attached video to learn more!

These tests allow you to quickly and accurately analyze your drinking water and are compatible with well water, city/municipal water, tap water, residential drinking water, ground water, spring water sources, and bottled water. The results are fast and easy to read by following along with the color-coded charts and instruction manual. Testing can easily be done in your home, classroom, school, office, or anyplace else where you would need to test water quality.

If you looking for more information on water quality and drinking water, please visit the Water Research Center.