Question: 

I have a steam humidifier and it is constantly plugging up, and I have to clean the chamber all the time in the winter.  Is there anything I can do to help this?  Would a water softener help?  – Signed C.C.

Answer:

C.C.,

Steam humidifiers are unquestionably the best way to humidify your household (or business) air if you live in a climate where that is needed.   However, in 98% of the country, the water requires treatment and I do not mean a water softener.  The problem with steam humidifiers is that most water has some degree of mineralization in it.

The minerals are calcium and magnesium, and when water is heated and evaporated by the stream humidifier it leaves the minerals behind.  After a few cycles, if the evaporation chamber contains 1/4 gallon of water, it has the minerals of 4 or 5 gallons (maybe more).  This creates big problems.  A water softener is not the answer because it works by exchanging the calcium and magnesium for sodium.  Instead of calcium and magnesium buildup, you will have sodium buildup.

Solutions – on a Scale of 1-10:

1. Polyphosphate – Some companies have filter cartridges that install on the inlet to the humidifier and “coat” the humidifier with a layer of sodiumhexametaphosphate which is supposed to help.   Bad Idea!  Rating: 1
2. Salt-Free Water Conditioners – They don’t take out the calcium and magnesium so the problem still persists.  Rating:  BIG ZERO!
3. Deionization – You can use a DI cartridge  to remove all of the minerals, but it is very expensive.  It works extremely well, but costs 35 to 60 cents a gallon (depending upon water hardness).    On a scale of how well it works, it’s a 10!  On cost, it’s a 2.  Overall Rating: 5
4. Reverse Osmosis – Unless you have more money than sense, reverse osmosis is the ONLY way to treat a humidifier economically.    Some people even put a DI cartridge after the Reverse Osmosis system to have absolutely pure water, but in most instances Reverse Osmosis removes 98% of the dissolved solids and allows the humidifier to work without the burden of all the hard minerals.

Conclusion:  If you don’t have a reverse osmosis system on a steam humidifier… or any humidifier for that fact, you are doing a very bad thing!

PUT A REVERSE OSMOSIS SYSTEM ON ANY HUMIDIFIER – YOU WILL BREATHE EASIER AND THE SYSTEM WILL LAST A THOUSAND TIMES LONGER!

Here’s a tip: eat healthy, work out, and drink lots of water.

You may not know this, but water – something all of us have access too – is a great “cheat”, to give us an advantage to tackle that weight lose battle.

Research presented at the American Chemical Society, has pointed to weight lose being greatly helped if you drink two 8 ounce glasses of water before each meal. And it also helps you keep it off.

A study was done using 48 overweight men and women who were on a low-calorie diet (1,200 calories per day for women and 1,500 calories per day for men). Half of the participants were instructed to drink 16 ounces of water before each meal.
After three months the results were compared. The ones who drank the water lost an average of 15.5 Pounds, the one’s who did not, lost an average of 11 pounds.

And the results were also long term. By a years time the ones staying on the water regiment lost an addition 1.5 Pounds, the others that did not drink water before meals gained an average of 2 pounds.

The full reason why drinking water before meals promotes weight lose is not yet understood, but the most logical reason seems to point towards the fact that water is filling, and will help stop the urge to over-eat.

And there is also more subtle habit drinking more water will break. Drinking more water is most likely going to discourage calorie heavy drinks at meals, like soda.

So, give the water diet a try this year. It’s a healthy and practically free tool, to go along with a healthy meal, and active lifestyle.

You might want to make sure that the water is chemical-free, clean and great tasting.  That’s where US Water comes in.

Have a happy and healthy New Years, from the Water Doctor.

If you want a whole-house reverse osmosis system, it may be that you are concerned about certain contaminants in you water supply that you want to be sure are gone from your water supply.   Some of these contaminants may be arsenic, PCB, TCE, nitrate and any number of other contaminants.  On the other hand, some people “need” a whole-house reverse osmosis system which is generally caused by high levels of Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) or arsenic and nitrate.

With a whole-house reverse osmosis system, you will have bottled-quality water from every tap and you never have to worry about which faucet is safe to drink from.  That said, if you want or needs a whole-house reverse osmosis system, here are a few things that you need to remember:

Your reverse osmosis systems is only as good as the per-treatment ahead of it.  What we mean by that is that if you have problems like high hardness, iron, manganese, sulfur, tannin or chlorine in your water, you will need to address those issues with proper per-treatment BEFORE the reverse osmosis system.   This may involve a water softener or an anti-scalant system, a carbon filter, iron filter or other filtration.

Any reverse osmosis system is only as good as the per-treatment ahead of it.  Additionally, after the water has been treated by reverse osmosis, it may be slightly acidic and need pH correction with a calcite filter.

After the per-treatment and reverse osmosis system, the water is stored in and “atmospheric” tank and then is re-pressurized by a Grundfos pump which delivers all the water you need, when you need it.

There are lots of ways that you can make a whole-house reverse osmosis system “cheaper” but if you want a reliable system that will work flawlessly for 15-20 years, then US Water Systems is your perfect solution.  We don’t cut corners – we provide extremely high quality systems that are built to last.  Be careful – there are a lot of “inferior products” on the market which might look good but don’t work so good.

Case-in-point:  I always try different reverse osmosis systems at my home and after trying the nextRO for several months, I replaced it with a permeate pump reverse osmosis system (50 gpd membrane).  For your information, my TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) are around 540 ppm.  After 8+ months, I was really discouraged because my TDS routinely remained at over 100 ppm.  If I drained the system on back-to-back days, I could get it down below 50 ppm, but it would rise quickly again.

TDS creep was winning the game.  In case you don’t know what TDS creep is, it is defined as follows:

“The natural diffusion of TDS ions through the membrane from the feed side to the permeate side when the feed pressure is shut off (i.e., when the tank is full).  This effect results in lowered water quality.”  -  A Practical Application Manual for Residential, Point of Use Reverse Osmosis Systems by Robert Slovak

Now, before we go any further, it needs to be understood that a permeate pump reverse osmosis system should do the following:

1. A Permeate Pump RO should make water faster than an ordinary RO
2. A Permeate Pump RO should make higher quality water than an ordinary RO
3. A Permeate Pump RO should waste about 80% less water than any ordinary RO
4. A Permeate Pump RO should deliver the highest pressure at the faucet of any RO

Well, my pressure was good.  Excellent actually, as I was feeding two ice makers, a kitchen faucet and a humidifier.  It makes water very rapidly and I know that it wasted less water, but the water quality was horrible.  Additionally, we have several customers who were not thrilled with their water quality, just as I wasn’t.  What to do….

Everyone told me that the Aquatec 1000 Permeate Pump was the “cat’s meow” but the results were less than stellar.  After months of fighting this issue, I decided to try the “old Aquatec 500 Series Permeate Pump” which is designed for membranes up to 50 GPD.  Not a 75 GPD or a 100 GPD, but just a 50 GPD.

So, I changed the permeate pump ( a 2 minute job).  Then I drained my reverse osmosis tank (the TDS was reading 114 ppm).

When I got up the next morning I checked the TDS and it was 18 ppm!  From 540 ppm to 18 ppm… not bad.

It has remained below 25 ppm since then and we have made a decision at US Water:  We will sell a 50 GPD permeate pump with an Aquatec 500 Series Permeate Pump, not a 1000 Series.

Here’s what bothers me: Why can’t the engineers at Aquatec (who makes the permeate pump) and Watts (who USED to make our permeate pump RO system) figure this out?

All 50 GPD Permeate Pump Reverse Osmosis Systems from US Water now have the Aquatec 500… and exceptional water quality.

This is a public service announcement brought to you by The Water Doctor!

Oh… the 500 is also quieter than the 1000…  duuuuhhhhhh!