Archive for the ‘Dealer Dynamics’ Category
Chillin’ with Old Man Winter…
Old-man winter is nipping here in the northern hemisphere. Snow is already falling in some areas and a natural question extends to winter and its effect on water softeners and filtration systems. Water temperature has a significant effect on the capacity and functionality of many water treatment processes. A smart dealer must be aware of the influence of ambient temperature and water temperature on the effectiveness and longevity of the water quality improvement systems that they sell, install and maintain. As a covalently bonded hydrogen compound, water behaves quite uniquely when temperatures drop. As it cools, water’s density tends to increase (like most other compounds) until it reaches the anomalous expansion rangeof 4-0°C (39.2-32°F) at which point its density decreases. This unique property gives ice its ability to float which prevents lakes from freezing solid, and of course allows for water to burst plumbing pipes and potentially wreak havoc on water treatment devices.
Membrane separators
Since water increases in density before reaching the anomalous expansion range, membrane flux in reverse osmosis, nanofiltration and ultrafiltration systems will decrease significantly as water temperatures drop. Smart dealers will make the appropriate adjustments and compensations as recommended by the equipment manufacturer to deliver the maximum amount of permeate without causing premature equipment failure.
Backwashing filters
Increasing water density means that less backwash flow rate is required to lift the media in a tank. Consult with your OEM about designing equipment with sufficient freeboard and appropriately sized backwash flow controls to ensure that no media is lost from the system.
Water softeners
While resin manufacturers are usually concerned with excessively high water temperatures on ion exchange resin, cold water temperatures also present their own share of issues. Cold water decreases resin kinetics and increases salt dissolution times. Slow kinetics cause a dramatic decrease in ‘effective’ system capacities, which usually causes customers to end up with hard water bleed-through unless the dealer makes appropriate programming compensations. Naturally, systems with resin status sensors will automatically compensate for this phenomenon. Most dealers will derate the system by as much as 30 percent if it will be exposed to cold influent water in the range of 1.6 to 7.2 °C (35 to 45°F).
Winterization procedure for water softeners
There are many opinions on how to winterize water softeners. Some dealers believe that since most softeners installed in cold climates are located in basements that they require no winterization. I believed that until I witnessed ambient temperatures in Montana basements hovering at -10F (-23°C) during January in unoccupied vacation homes. These low ambient temperatures cause fiberglass resin tank to split as if they were opened by a zipper. Not a healthy situation when things finally thaw out in spring! Winterization is normally only performed when the home/business will be unoccupied and marginally heated during winter.
A simple and generally safe and effective single tank water softener winterization procedure is as follows:
- Initiate a manual regeneration cycle.
- Advance manually to the brine/rinse ion exchange cycle.
- Induce a saturated brine solution into the softener along with resin cleaner and disinfectant into the mineral tank. (five gallons of brine per cubic foot of resin)
- Bypass the system and terminate the regeneration cycle.
If the building will be unheated and piping blown-out or drained down, the following additional steps should be performed instead of bypassing the system:
- Inject compressed air through the brine port at a maximum of 20 psi until all brine has been purged from the resin tank down the drain.
- Advance through each remaining regeneration step to allow water to drain from the control head.
- Leave the system in service (Do not bypass).
- Disconnect and remove the float from the brine tank; drain and store in a safe place.
- Drain down or blow down the home as per normal winterization procedures.
Some dealers perform winterization by inducing antifreeze into the mineral tank with a pump. When using antifreeze, be careful to use only propylene glycol (food-grade) antifreeze. Ethylene glycol antifreeze is highly toxic and should never be used for winterization. Concentrated polyethylene glycol is acts an effective anti-bacterial in most cases.
Springtime startup procedures should include a rigid disinfection and rinsing protocol to provide for the health and safety of the establishment and its occupants. As with all things, be sensible, thoughtful and methodical in your approach to winter. Consult with your OEM and dealer network to ensure that you are employing the best industry practices to give your customers the very best water year-round.
Density of Liquid Water
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Values below 0 °C refer to super-cooled water.
The Never-ending Quest for Good Water
Dealer Dynamics: The Never-ending Quest for Good Water
Greg Reyneke, CWS-VI
Living in America is wonderful. Our massive consumer-centric culture, access to cheap technology, copious quantities of cheap food and a seemingly unlimited supply of potable water are taken for granted here and in many other first-world nations. As with the entire world though, there are haves and have-nots; when it comes to access to clean, delicious, life-sustaining water, there are many people who certainly ‘“have-not’”.
When we talk about a lack of clean water, first world arrogance casts its eyes to visions of starving, dehydrated people in exotic locales, but it is really much simpler than that. Our entire human race runs on water. Every function of our bodies and even our civilization relies on water of varying quality. Without potable water, humankind would certainly cease to exist!
Looking at 2011 so far, it has not been a very good year for water quality in the developed world; natural and man-made disasters have caused significant contamination to surface and groundwater supplies. Earthquakes and tsunami activity have wreaked havoc; northern Japan is still discovering how much damage has been done. Shale fracking procedures have possibly contaminated groundwater and even permanently changed the hydrodynamics of certain aquifers. Flooding in the American northeast has liquidized the last hundred years of ground-level soil toxicity, creating a groundwater contamination nightmare whose consequences will certainly haunt us for many years to come.
That (usually) clean glass of water that comes from your tap is a distinct luxury compared to many other parts of the world. Our municipalities and privately owned water utilities work extremely hard with the limited funds that they have at their disposal to provide us with working utility-grade water that meets minimum legislated safety standards. It is our responsibility to help our clients bring their water quality to a level that meets their own individual sense of quality, taste, feel and cleanliness. We have many tools at our disposal: sediment filters, iron filters, pH neutralizers, softeners, conditioners, ultrafilters, nanofilters, distillers, RO purifiers, and a host of other technological wonders unheard of and even unobtainable in many parts of the world.
In some areas of this planet, the lady of the house will walk over a mile in oppressive heat with a 20-liter (5.28-gallon) container with her infant on her back, to the nearest pumped safe water from a community supply. Once full, she will hoist that heavy burden onto her head and walk home with a smile on her face, grateful to have clean water for her family. It is humbling indeed to think of this scenario while sipping on a glass of iced purified water that required no more effort on my part than simply raising my carcass of the couch and depressing the lever on a faucet. Oh, how much we do take for granted!
In many parts of the world, normal people are paying the price for our insatiable appetite for cheap consumer goods. Villagers in China, India, Vietnam and the Philippines increasingly have to deal with PCBs, industrial solvents, heavy metals and other toxins in their water due to negligent environmental stewardship by local industry and governments who put profits ahead of people. Other areas face the ongoing threat of poor infrastructure, where drinking water supplies get contaminated with human and animal waste through ignorance and negligence.
Without clean water, life has very little value. Growing up in South Africa I frequently passed the retaining wall at Hartebeespoort dam, where the Latin phrase Sine Aqua Agricola est Misera was chiseled into the granite for all to see. Loosely translated it means without water the farmer is sad. Without clean water all humankind is sad indeed. Our vocation and duty as water quality improvement professionals is to improve the comfort, health and safety of our clients by improving the quality and aesthetics of their water.
Many excellent NGOs, like “Water for People” (waterforpeople.org) and Clean Water Fund (cleanwaterfund.org) exist to bring good clean water to those who need it in America and around the world. When deciding your personal and corporate philanthropy this year, please consider contributing to organizations like these to help others locally and globally come closer to the levels of clean water quality that we enjoy.
Keep helping your clients get the quality of water that they deserve. Never settle for minimum standards and remember to give to those who desperately need our help.
Soft Water, A Continuing Evolution: What Are You Selling?
Stated simply, hard water is water that is hard to lather, and soft water isn’t. A more accurate definition of soft water describes the physical removal (to less than one gpg in most cases) of calcium and magnesium salts.
Salt-based ion exchange technology was first broadly applied to residential water softening in the post-world war II era and has become the gold standard by which all other technologies are judged. The first residential water softeners were of the portable exchange type, where soft water men delivered tanks loaded with sodium-charged zeolite mineral that was able to soften water. The schedule for tank exchange was determined by field-testing water hardness levels and then guessing the household’s average daily water consumption.
Innovative soft water dealers soon realized that the portable exchange model was flawed and quickly evolved to supply ’regenerate in place’ systems. A removable lid was incorporated into the tank, whereby homeowners could load their own salt regenerant dosage into the system, and then flush the accumulated hardness and regenerant residual down the drain. This was more convenient for the dealer, but not necessarily for the homeowner, since they were periodically opening a pressurized vessel and exposing their family to the inevitable bacterial and leak liabilities. Technology again offered a solution, an eductor assembly and manual valving nest that allowed the homeowner to regenerate the system themselves from a stored brine tank of salt. Regeneration schedules were based on when the water ’felt hard‘ or based on a calculated time interval recommended by their dealer.
As Americans became more affluent, their time became an increasingly more valuable commodity and manufacturers introduced the automatic water softener, a system that incorporated a mechanical timer and automated regeneration assembly. This simple technology was truly revolutionary in its day, saving people time and coming closer to the goal of ensuring continuous delivery of soft water to the home. These day-timer systems were so simple, reliable and intuitive that many homeowners still buy them today in areas where their use hasn’t been completely outlawed, yet.
The 1970′s ushered in an era of increased awareness of environmental issues and the market demanded a more efficient solution than merely guessing on which day of the week to regenerate the softener. Residential softener manufacturers began marketing ’upflow’ (counter-current) regenerated softeners that induced brine into the softening tank opposite the service flow, allowing for a more complete cleaning cycle, as well as squeezing further efficiency out of the synthetic gels resins. Upflow regeneration technology (when properly deployed) provided significant salt-savings as well as improved water quality.
The mechanically metered water softener was introduced to allow dealers to program water softeners with a gallon capacity, based on their most recent water test data. The system was then able to monitor water consumption and clean on demand, saving salt and hassle. As with all analog systems, the mechanical meter contained numerous gears, which contributed to system complexity and increased the likelihood of mechanical failure. (These cheap, metered controls are still sold in many areas where dealers put profits ahead of environmental efficiency.)
The 1980s brought cost-effective microcontrollers and hall-effect sensors to the industry, allowing one-piece flow meters and improved control and flexibility, especially over reserve capacities. (Since water softeners are taken offline or bypassed during regeneration, it is important to regenerate during a time when most occupants of the home are unlikely to be using water to protect from hardness bleed through.) The industry decided that 2 a.m. was a good time for this operation since most people would be asleep. To allow for sufficient softening capacity, the reserve was calculated to predict how much water would be used by the household during an average day. Formulas for the perfect reserve, still the subject of spirited debate amongst soft water technicians and dealers, were created. Innovative manufacturers introduced algorithmic advances, like adaptive and floating reserves, that adjusted over time, based on the measured average daily water consumption in the home, eliminating much of the guesswork involved with standard calculations. Proportional, variable, and fractional brining software further enhanced single-tank softening efficiency; salt dosages could be precisely calculated to use only the exact amount of salt required for each regeneration cycle. Manufacturers and software developers infused significant investments of time and money into making this software as efficient and user-friendly as possible, within the limits of best-guess methodology.
Some manufacturers now forego reserve capacities completely and design softening systems with two alternating softening tanks, effectively supplying the home with 100 percent soft water, 100 percent of the time. Twin-tank technology is inherently far more salt efficient and redundant than single-tank technology since reserve capacities are not required, and ion exchange tanks can switch multiple times per day without bypassing to regenerate.
Salt-based ion exchange systems soften water very well, and depending on the characteristics of the ion exchange resin used, will also remove certain other metallic ions like iron, copper, zinc and even lead. Because water utilities and private wells do not provide consistent raw water quality to the home, it is not uncommon to see water hardness levels fluctuate throughout the year. Certain areas in the US will see hardness levels fluctuate from as low 10 gpg (174 ppm) to 40 gpm (696 ppm) in very short periods of time. Extreme variations like this as well as common seasonal fluctuations make it difficult for a water dealer to provide consistent water quality while maximizing salt efficiency. The homeowner and dealer must then test the water every week and recalibrate the system, or set the capacity to a best-case scenario, which will either waste salt or provide inconsistent water quality.
Many patents exist for sensor-based softeners, where the water softener either senses a change in water quality or resin charge condition. Some sensor designs work well, automatically adjusting the system capacity once a hardness front reaches the sensor, but it is essentially closing the door after the horse has left the barn when deployed on a single tank system, because it has to wait until the designated regeneration time before cleaning itself.
Recent innovations include softeners that incorporate twin-tank technology, upflow regeneration and resin exhaustion sensors. These systems are built utilizing the best the industry currently has to offer: redundancy, intelligent sensing and efficient regeneration. This configuration might become the new gold standard for performance, consistency and efficiency in the 21st century; only time will tell.
Disruptive technologies like electro-deionization (EDI) and capacitive-deionization (CDI) are starting to become available at an affordable level for home use. Prominent manufacturers, as well as small boutique-designers, are working feverishly to be first to market with a reliable product that will produce sufficient flow throughput at a price point to be viable for residential deployment. It is not inconceivable that these technologies will provide water as good as or better than salt-based ion exchange through the use of electricity within the next five years.
So what are you selling these days? Are you selling the cheapest knock-off import that you can get your hands on, or are you selling systems that improve your customer’s lifestyle, save money on salt and protect the environment? Pay careful attention to the products and consumables that you sell. Focus on you customer first; the profits will automatically follow.