Water Testing, Treatment & Filtration

With well water there are many problems that can occur with your water. These problems can wreak havoc on your plumbing system damaging pipe, fixtures, faucets, hot water heater and boiler.

The good news is with a little effort these problems can be brought under control, problems such as these:

• Hardness 
• Calcium (Ca) 
• Magnesium (Mg) 

The term hardness refers to the quantity of dissolved calcium and magnesium in water. These minerals, which come primarily from limestone type rock formations, are found to some degree in almost all natural waters. Calcium and magnesium cause problems for two principal reasons: 

• When the water is warmed, they precipitate out of solution and form a hard, rock-like scale. This scale accelerates corrosion, restricts flow, and reduces heat transfer in water heaters and boilers. 

• When they combine with soap, they react to form a curd, which interferes with cleaning, dries out skin, and leaves deposits on plumbing and clothes (bathtub ring; ring around the collar). 

Ha rdness is measured in parts per million (or the equivalent mg/L) or in grains per gallon (gpg). Note: if the water analysis is given in ppm as CaCO3 then 1 gpg = 17.1 ppm. A common aspirin tablet weighs 5 grains). There is no established limit for the acceptable level of hardness in water, but it is generally considered to start to become problematic at around 3 gpg.

Acidity (pH) 
Water which contains excess acidity tends to act aggressively towards plumbing and fixtures, causing corrosion and staining (i.e.-blue green stains on fixtures from copper pipes or pin hole leaks). Relative acidity/alkalinity is measured on the pH scale, ranging from 0- 14, where 7 is neutral, numbers lower than 7 are progressively more acidic, and numbers higher than seven are increasingly alkaline (basic). The pH value refers not to the quantity of acidity, but rather to the relative acidity/alkalinity of a particular sample.