On Wednesday we had a new water treatment system installed by Brian and Matt from Adams Well Drilling & Water Treatment.  When Brian was out the week before he determined that our old Water Boss water softener was not working very well.  This came as no surprise to us based on the house purchase inspection, but we had hoped it might last a bit longer than it did.  Alas, he also determined (confirmed) that we had sulphur-reducing bacteria and probably iron bacteria as well.  The water has always had a slight rotten egg smell (hydrogen sulfide) but had gotten worse recently.  The inside of the toilet tanks had also become a nursery of sorts (iron bacteria), so something clearly needed to be done.  They removed the old Water Boss water softener along with the old sediment pre-filter and carbon post-filter.  We also had them remove a Culligan Reverse Osmosis (RO) system.  The only thing that remained from the old system, other than pipes and tubing, was the Well-X-Trol storage/surge tank (and the well pump, of course).

With the old stuff out of the way, they first installed a new large capacity, dual porosity sediment pre-filter.  The replaceable filter element is 50 microns on the outer portion and 5 microns on the inner portion.  Although 5 microns is relatively small, the element has enough surface area to pass many gallons of water per minute.  They reconfigured some of the pipes and fittings and then installed a Water Right water softener with a large brine tank, and a Water Right carbon filtration unit with a chlorine pellet tank for the unit’s self cleansing feature.  The softener will treat about 800 gallons of water before needing to regenerate the media and has a controller that tracks the usage.  (By comparison our Water Boss regenerated every 300 gallons.)  It will also learn over time what our water usage pattern is and adjust the regen cycle accordingly.  For this reason it would be in our best interest to standardize when we do things like laundry and running the dishwasher.  To date, however, our life in retirement has lacked that degree of routine.

Their last task was to install an RO system to replace the Culligan system they took out.  The new system has a pressure boost pump on the input, a pre-filter, RO membrane, post-filter, large storage tank, delivery pump, and finally an Arsenic 3 filter.  They replaced the Culligan faucet at the main kitchen sink.  They also ran a line to the bar sink in the basement where they removed the old Insta-Hot and installed an RO faucet.  Since Adams also drills and services wells (and probably installed the one in our house many years ago) we now have one local vendor responsible for our entire fresh water system, with the exception of the hot water heater, from well to faucet.  The water heater is part of the hydronic heating system and is serviced by TOMTEK HVAC.

Wednesday was also our Door-To-Door Organics delivery.  Linda has a standing order for the “bitty fruit” as it is an appropriate size for us and the fruit is usually quite good.  She has found that she does better buying vegetables on a more frequent, as needed basis, and gets what she can from the Howell Farmers Market on Sunday mornings if we are around.