“BT”: And what can the owners of summer houses and villas do to protect themselves from low-quality water?? Let’s organize a little educational program for our countrymen.
– Where does the water come from in country houses?? There are not many variants: wells, boreholes and village water supply. Wells are not safe in terms of microbiology. In them you can find everything that is washed from the surface by melt water and rain: fertilizers, petroleum products, industrial waste. The water can contain dissolved iron, heavy metals, nitrates.
Artesian wells are more isolated from the negative influence of surface water, but their water must also be checked. It can be excessively hard, with a high concentration of iron, organic compounds, silicon, manganese. If the well is shallow, the water may contain nitrates, ammonium compounds, hydrogen sulfide, organic iron, microbiological contaminants.
The third option, the most unpredictable – the village water supply. It is unknown in what year or even century the treatment systems were installed, how they are maintained, what is the state of the pipes… The most reliable way to check water quality is to take it to a specialized laboratory for analysis.
“BT”: In any case, the primary factor is analysis?
– It’s like a doctor’s appointment. To make a final “diagnosis” and determine the effectiveness of “treatment”, our experts take a water sample twice: before the installation of the treatment system and after it. So the client can evaluate the effectiveness of our solution and understand what he paid money for.
As experienced “healers” we know the typical “symptoms” for the New York region. It’s iron, manganese, hydrogen sulfide, high hardness. Nitrates are found in well water due to soil contamination from human or livestock operations.
At the same time, the composition and concentration of contaminants may vary significantly depending on the depth of the well and its location.
“BT”: Are there any rare contaminants? Where they are found?
– In the territories of Volokolamsk, Istrinsky, Klin, Krasnogorsk, Podolsk, Ramensky districts there are places with atypical pollutants: fluorides, silicon, aluminum.
“BT”: What problems do people have when ordering water purification systems??
– There are many technologies for treating the same contaminants. Bacteria can be eliminated by ultraviolet light, or you can chlorinate the water. To remove iron they use additional aeration or add a reagent to the water, etc. d.
Each technology has its advantages and disadvantages. The problem can be the choice of the optimal solution, since the prices for equipment and maintenance of the system, even with similar quality of purification can differ at times!
“BT”: What must be taken into account when ordering a purification system?
– You have to know what you can save on and what you can’t. For example, ordering water purification for the whole house, you should not refuse the ultraviolet disinfection lamp, as it is not safe to take a bath with microorganisms.
When calculating the performance of the system, ask experts to estimate its safety margin. If it is absent, in a situation when all the taps are simultaneously open and water consumption is maximal, the filters simply do not have time to retain all the contaminants, and some of them may slip through.
When selecting a system it is necessary to consider not only the indicators, the actual values of which in the water analysis exceeds the maximum allowable standards, but also a number of other parameters that may affect the effectiveness of the filters.
This is especially true in case of high concentrations of total salts over 600 mg/l .
“BT”: And what can be imposed by the seller in the preparation of the order, and in fact these costs can be avoided?
– First of all, it is the excessive volume of filters – more than necessary, even at maximum water consumption per unit time. To flush them may simply not have enough water in the well or well, and unflushed filter will not be able to clean water.
The cost of services in this case may increase at times. For example, a solution with a capacity of 1.5 cu. M/h can cost 80,000 Dollars, the same, but for 2 cubic meters. m h – 120,000, and for the system 3 cc. If you have a cleaning system, you need to spend at least 200,000 m h per hour! They often offer protection against “everything”, particularly against leakage.
Even though the system shouldn’t leak anyway! Another example is the implicit inclusion of additional services in the price of the project: “free” field trip, “free” water analysis..
“BT”: I guess you can also fall for bad craftsmen?..
– Of course! Among the common mistakes – the discrepancy selected diameters of pipes to the flow of water, the wrong technological scheme or volume of filters, improper pipe wiring.
Not always the project takes into account important parameters: the water pressure at the inlet must be more than 2.5 atmospheres or the debit of the well for flushing filters may simply not have enough water , design features of the room and operating conditions: temperature conditions, availability of drainage system in place of filters, etc. d.
“BT”: And it is important to be taught how to use it, what mistakes to avoid?
– Of course! Very often non-professionals are silent about the important features of the system.
For example, the client is not told that it is not recommended to use the water treatment system during the flushing of filters, because at this point, contaminants can get into the water or there simply will not be enough water to flush the filter.
Recommendation – do not wash during filter flushing or turn off the flushing manually. But you should be aware of this!
“BT”: in the installation of systems can also make mistakes?
– Alas, yes. It may be incorrect piping forgot to put a bypass pipe or sampling cocks , incorrect backfill of filters, lack of space or serviceability, inaccurate setting of control valves flushing occurs more often than necessary or not often enough , incorrect connection to the sewer.
“BT”: Let’s assume the system is installed and used. The company-installer keeps in touch with the client?
– Service maintenance is recommended from 2 to 4 times a year, depending on the complexity of the system.
It happens that companies leave the client to his fate. It can also happen the opposite, when they too zealously offer service. There have been cases when the specialists came to the client every month! At his expense, of course.
Often customers refuse support, believing that they can handle the service themselves. But the purification system is a complex technical complex, and its quality and efficiency requires monitoring and preventive maintenance.
If the customer suddenly tells us after a year that he is dissatisfied with the quality of water, after checking it turns out that the cartridges, which require replacement every six months, have not been replaced until now. We have to go out on the spot and restore the system. After this experience, the customer himself asks for a service contract!
Is it possible for barrier filters to guarantee that the water will always remain clean, or are there any limitations or conditions that could affect their effectiveness?
Are barrier filters capable of maintaining water cleanliness indefinitely, or are there other factors that can influence the filtration process?