There’s a myriad of water conditioning systems available to homeowners today, from whole house systems to point of usage (kitchen sink, bathroom sink) systems. Each has its advantages, and each its disadvantages which must be weighed before making a decision. The bottom line question for each system is “will my family be protected from not only bad tastes, bad smells, and chemicals, but what is the cost efficiency over the long haul.” Some systems require weekly maintenance, others monthly maintenance, still others yearly maintenance, or whenever you detect a change in your water due to the amount of usage.

Let’s look at a few of the options:

• softners: for removing hardness from the water providing the homeowner with more productive cleaning agents. These require salt blocks or salt crystals to be put into a holding tank periodically, depending on the usage; they need to go through a backwashing sequence at least once or twice a week, more frequently with higher usage, and can get “off schedule” due to power outages.
• Acid neutralizers: raise pH to a neutral level of 7; any water under 7 is classified as aggressive and therefore can corrode and deteriorate metal piping and fixtures (water heaters) causing premature failure, and staining
• Purifiers at point of usage. These are most often placed under the kitchen sink to assure purified drinking water. They use carbon filters. Filters need to be changed on a routine basis otherwise bacteria builds up in the filter and produces harmful water rather than the hoped for pure drinking water
• Chlorine Filters: installed on city water systems to remove chlorine.
• U.V. Lights: kills bacteria in wells before it enters the home’s water system. The bulb should be replaced yearly. One good way to remember would be to change the bulb every spring or fall when the time changes just as one changes smoke detector batteries or flips mattresses.