Ask The Water Doctor

When we proposed adding this to our website, and adopting the phrase into our company lexicon, the words weren't just a gimmick for marketing, but a thoughtful expression spoken with conviction. At US Water Systems, we strive daily to be the “good guys of water.” We understand the importance of clean water and the impact it can have on individuals and communities. That's why we h...

I had a customer ask me this very question recently, and it is a worthy question, so I will attempt to answer it for them. When I say, "Third Party Websites," I mean sites like Amazon, E-Bay, Wal Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. Some of our competitors sell on these sites and many wonder why we do not do the same. Before I do answer the question, I have to say that we do sell a little bit on Am...

Ever since Clack Corporation came out with their commercial water softener valves (and when I say "commercial," I mean 1.5", 2" and 3" valves), there has been constant discussion about which valve is the best in water conditioning circles - Clack or Fleck? Clack has made great inroads into Fleck's commercial business and it is difficult for me to say what is the most popular system today. ...

For the past several weeks, we have been getting calls from customers who need parts for their Pelican Water System. In case you don't know, Pelican Water Systems was founded in Deland, Florida in 2007 and went through Private Equity Financing before they were acquired and merged into Pentair Water Solutions in 2019. As of several weeks ago, I cannot find Pelican Water Systems anywhere, as they ...

How to know when to change your water filters and why you should. Before we can discuss changing water filters. First, what is a water filter? Wikipedia defines “water filter” like this: “A water filter removes impurities by lowering contamination of water using a fine physical barrier, a chemical process, or a biological process.” Simply put, a water filter is a method used to filt...

For about ten (10) years, I was on the Board of Directors for a non-profit that provided water purification systems for people in Haiti. In cities like Port-Au-Prince and surrounding areas, nearly 3,000,000 people live without a public water supply, a sewer system and rarely have their trash picked up. Of course, this is a very rainy country and when it rains, sewage and the like spread easily due...

The New (and Better) Alternative to the Fleck® 9000, 9100 and 9500 and Kinetico® It was over 35 years ago when Fleck Controls® (now owned by Pentair®) came out with a new type of metered water softener control. It wasn’t that many years prior to that when the first metered water softeners hit the market. Fleck® was one of the first companies to do this when they released the Fleck® 56...

If you are in the market for a water softener, water filter, salt-free conditioner, or a reverse osmosis system, it would seem logical to “Google” something like “Best Water Softener” or “Best Reverse Osmosis System.” That’s what many people do without really understanding what is happening. When you Google “Best Water Softener” the search will take you to a page where it says s...

NOTE:This is an update of a blog published back in 2013. Let me clarify one thing at the beginning - Fleck does not make water softeners. Fleck makes water softener control valves, like one below. Fleck Controls used be called L.W. FLECKENSTEIN, INC. and people would say they had a "Fleckenstein valve." They are now called "Fleck Controls" and are owned by Pentair Water, a world conglomerate o...

“Rainwater harvesting” is simply the collecting and using rainwater as a way to conserve resources. Some people use rainwater for watering plants, cleaning, bathing, and even drinking. Like any water treatment process, it is vitally important that a rainwater harvesting system be properly engineered and that it be maintained efficiently so as to not compromise water quality. Should you want...

Let me preface what I am about to say with this: I am not an expert in cannabis, nor do I try to be. However, I am an expert in water treatment and cannabis does require water to grow. In fact, there is no cannabis without H2O. This happens to be my 50th year in water treatment. I have always been involved in agricultural water treatment since my very first year in the business, but in the last five to six years, water treatment for agriculture has declined compared to water treatment for Cannabis or Marijuana and Hemp.

In May of 2022, Todd Francis, the President of First Serve Cleaning & Restoration of Indianapolis, Indiana, contacted Mark Timmons, the President of US Water Systems. Todd had just invested a considerable sum of money into the purchase of a High-Tech Oriental Rug Cleaning Machine, and he wanted to take the cleaning of Oriental Rugs to a new level...