WaterCrest-10 VS The Competition
Click here to Download the full pdf
A residential water treatment system is defined under two criteria, Point Of Entry (POE), and Point Of Use (POU). For the purposes of the following we will only focus on POE water treatment systems.
A POE water treatment system is connected to the water line where the water coming from a city, or a well, (i.e., raw water), enters the home. The water is diverted through the POE water treatment system and then distributed throughout the home, usually bypassing the outside lines. In this manner of installation, all of the water that is used inside of the home first runs through the POE water treatment system.
Conventional Water Treatment
(water softener, carbon filter, reverse osmosis):
A conventional whole house water treatment system is configured in three stages;
Stage 1 Water Softener
Stage 2 Back Washing Carbon Filter
Stage 3 Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System
When you look at a conventional whole house water treatment system you should notice that it is not a system at all. In reality it is an amalgamation of three separate individual systems hooked together only by the plumbing in the home. You should also notice that the first two stages of the system are the only portion of the system that feed every line in the home with soft water and water which runs through the carbon filter.
Stage 1, is the water softener and is emblematic of it's name, it softens the water which means that it removes all of the hardness minerals, or Cations, (i.e., calcium, magnesium, barium), from the water in an effort to eliminate scale buildup in plumbing, water heater and fixtures throughout the home. It removes these minerals through a process called Ion Exchange. Ion Exchange works when hard water is run over a bed of negatively charged poly beads that are about the size of the head of a ball point pen. There are tens of thousands of these beads in the typical residential water softener. The Cations in the hard water have a naturally positive charge and are attracted to the resin bed inside of the softener tank. As the hard water passes over and through the beads, the positively charged Cations are attracted to the negatively charged beads. Once the beads are fully covered, then the water softener goes into a regeneration process. During the regeneration process salt water is sucked out of the Salt Storage Tank and into the Softener Tank. The salt water passes over and through the resin beads. Because the salt water has a higher negative charge than the resin beads, the Cations jump off of the beads and onto the Sodium Ion. During the regeneration cycle, the salt water that has attracted the Cations is then directed to a drain in the home. This process takes approximately 15 to 90 minutes, using .25 to 15 pounds of salt, and approximately 1 to 150 gallons of water depending on the manufacturer. Some softeners are more efficient than others, but they all waste water, salt and in all but two brands, they waste electricity during the regeneration process by virtue of their methodology of treating water.
Stage 2 is the Back Washing Carbon Filter. A carbon filter tank is filled half way up with Activated Carbon and is designed to eliminate turbidity, taste, odor and chlorine from the water. Most carbon filters use a back washing valve that is attached to the top of the tank which is just like a softener valve, except it doesn't suck any salt water into the carbon bed. It only back washes the carbon bead once, or twice a week depending on water usage in the home. During this back wash cycle, the filter wastes approximately 50 to 120 gallons of water depending on the manufacturer. Again, the water used to back wash the carbon goes straight down the drain in the home.
Stage 3 is the Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System, or (RO). An RO uses a permeable membrane to remove Organics and Inorganics from the water. Water is pushed through the membrane under pressure. When the water comes out the other side, it is now called Permeate. The permeate is again run through a small carbon filter to polish the water in an effort to make it taste better. From there the water goes into a pressure, or holding tank. From there the water goes to a specially mounted faucet at the kitchen sink, and maybe to the refrigerator as well. RO water is literally made one drop at a time, and is so aggressive that it can only be run through non-leaching tubing. If it were run through copper or galvanized tubing, it would eventually create tiny holes in the tubing and begin to cause leaks. It becomes aggressive because the RO process removes Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) from the water. For every action there is an opposite but equal reaction, and the RO process is a perfect example of Newton's law. Striping the water of everything as an RO does, makes the permeate water extremely hungry for what was removed. This is why RO water must be run through either poly, glass, or stainless steel tubing. When the holding tank is full, (or when the pressure between the tank and the RO membrane reaches two thirds the incoming line pressure), the RO shuts off and the membrane sits in a relaxed state. But during the process of making permeate one drop at a time, the RO wastes water. For every one gallon of permeate made, the RO uses three to five gallons to wash the membrane down. This wash down water is then fed to the home's drain.
Physical Water Treatment
Physical water treatment systems are new to the industry. One would think that because this is a new technology, the industry as a whole would make an effort to package it in a new delivery system design. Not so with the existing water treatment industry. "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got". These are the words the existing water treatment industry lives and dies by. It is an incestuous and archaic industry from top to bottom that is vehemently resistant to change.
Existing Physical water treatment uses a technology called Template Assisted Crystallization, or TAC. In layman terms, TAC is the process of applying a special food grade chemical process to a bead that is very much the same size and shape of a resin bead that is used in a softener. However, the similarities stop there. Instead of attracting the Cations to the bead, the chemical compound jumps off of the bead and attaches itself to the Cation by using properties from the Cation itself in order to form a crystal shell around the Cation. Once this process is complete, the Cation becomes insulated and cannot put off a magnetic charge thereby rendering it unable to be attracted to any solid, or metallic surface. The result is that the water still feels hard, but no scaling can occur down stream of the system. While the process seems very simple, and the delivery system in itself is very simple, the Anti-salient media is complicated to manufacture and very expensive by volume in comparison to Ion Exchange media, or resin. As shown on the previous page, the physical water treatment system is normally packaged in a single tank configuration with a non-back washing In/Out head screwed on top of the tank to direct the flow of water to and from the tank and throughout the home.
Some companies, like Pelican Water, figured out that they needed to marry physical water treatment with a sediment prefilter and a post carbon filter using the same delivery mechanisms. They learned this from us when we introduced the first cabinet designed multi staged physical water treatment system in 2007 first in China, and then here in the States. However, they didn't understand what we were actually marrying our Anti-scalent media with. So what Pelican Water gives the consumer is a physical water treatment system that removes particulate matter, taste, order, chlorine and hardness, but their systems for the most part look much like a conventional whole house water treatment system and they do not address the removal of bacteria, virus, or cysts, trace metals, and sub micron particulate. The WaterCrest-10 addresses all of these in one tight package.
WaterCrest-10
The WaterCrest-10 is a monumental break through in technology, design, efficiency, aesthetics and process with respect to POE systems. At first glance the most notable difference is the size and the fact that there are no conventional media tanks. The WaterCrest-10 instead utilizes bayonet designed quick connect 5†x 20†disposable, and/or reusable cartridges. This has never been done before in a POE system design. It represents the culmination and collaboration of 240 years of combined industry experience. It's unique design enables it to be manufactured more efficiently than competitive systems. It's clean lines and modern look makes it appealing to a new breed of savvy consumers. It's compact size makes it easy to inventory, ship direct to the consumer and install in any home. It's modular design allows for quick and easy maintenance. It is true industry disruptive technology!
The WaterCrest-10 functions as one true POE whole house water treatment system in three stages.
Stage 1 BioGuard
Stage 2 & 3 Nano Zinc Scale Inhibitor
BioGuard
Waterborne pathogenic microorganisms are a major source of disease worldwide. Pathogens and water system deficiencies that are identified in outbreaks my also be important causes of endemic waterborne illnesses.
Of increased importance, however, are outbreaks caused by the microbial contamination of water distribution systems. In light of the growing evidence showing the resistance of certain micro-organisms to standard disinfection methods (including chlorination and UV radiation) mechanical removal of these contaminants is often the most reliable choice.
When used in multiple layers, BioGuard filter media is capable of retaining 99.9999% of micro-organisms (such as viruses, bacteria & protozoa which can include Cryptosporidium, Guardia Intestinals, Legion Ella, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, E-coli, Mycobacteria, Aspergillus), Endotoxins & DNA – all at flow rates hundreds of times greater than virus rated ultraporous filters. And the turbidity of the water coming through the BioGuard media typically remains below 0.01 NTU (even when tested at 250 NTU) until the filter is exhausted.
BioGuard filters utilize a non-woven filter media containing a thermally-bonded blend of microglass fibers and cellulose infused with nanoalumina fibers. The microglass and cellulose act as the scaffold upon which the active component of these filters (the nanoalumina fibers) is permanently affixed.
The advantage to this technology is that it is an adsorptive removal process; this innovative nanotechnology is based on attaching nanoalumina boehmite (AlOOH) fibers 2 nm in diameter x 250 nm in length onto a submicron microglass structural fiber. This method makes available greater than 42,000 square meters of nanofiber surface area per square meter of filter media of loading capacity.
BioGuard is an electropositive fibrous filter media with high particle removal efficiency as well as high dirt holding capacity. When incorporated into a pleated filter, its flow rate is equivalent to, or higher than pleated filters that are rated at 3 microns. BioGuard's absolute rating is 0.2 microns. Yet the flow through a standard 2.5†diameter x 10†high cartridge is 10 gpm with an initial pressure drop less than 2 psi. High flow rates are a characteristic of BioGuard filters.
BioGuard Pleated Filter Cartridges provide unusually high flow rates, yet provide extremely efficient filtration solutions for a myriad of applications. Whether used in the field, in a prefiltration mode for ultra-pure water systems, to produce laboratory or process water, in commercial/industrial water treatment, as a microbiological sampler, or as a stand-alone filtration device, a BioGuard filter performs at a level never before believed possible. The BioGuard electropositive technology accomplishes this by delivering the low pressure-drop (∆P) associated with a 2 - 3 filter, yet achieving a removal efficiency of 99.9% for 0.25 particles. When this patented technology is incorporated into a pleated cartridge, the additional surface area pleating affords results in a dirt-holding capacity far exceeding up to 25 times greater than other filter medias. In fact, the filter media in a standard BioGuard cartridge can capture and retain an amount of particulate which is 3.5 times its own weight. NanoZinc ScaleInhibitor
For years, water softeners have been virtually the only means of reliably treating hard water. Other alternatives, including magnets, electromagnets, electrostatic devices and catalysts have been available but haven't proven to be consistently effective on a wide range of water supplies. A recent scientific development, NanoZinc Technology, offers the first effective and consistent chemical-free scale prevention method.
How NanoZinc ScaleInhibitor Works
Unlike the current TAC technology, the NanoZinc technology alters calcium and magnesium ion water chemistry so that the calcium and magnesium ions do not scale out, which means that it prevents the formation of calcium and magnesium carbonate. This differs from TAC.
When calcium and magnesium ions come in contact with the ceramic material inside of the ScaleInhibitor cartridge, ionic hydration is changed. As a result, the calcium and magnesium ions will not bind with the carbonate anions in the water. So there is no formation of scale. This technology will not remove the calcium and magnesium ions from the water, but instead changes their chemistry so that they can remain in the water but not negatively effect hard surfaces that they come in contact with, such as plumbing, hot water heater, fixtures, dish washer, washing machine, shower, tub, or any other water using appliances.
If the hardness is tested before and after the installed WaterCrest-10, the hardness level will be the same. Since the ceramic material inside of the NanoZinc ScaleInhibitor cartridge in an insoluble material in water, it does not add any unwanted chemicals into working and drinking water.
The finished product is clean, clear, great tasting water at every tap in the home with all of the healthy minerals that our bodies need, left in the water.
Click here to Download the full pdf
A residential water treatment system is defined under two criteria, Point Of Entry (POE), and Point Of Use (POU). For the purposes of the following we will only focus on POE water treatment systems.
A POE water treatment system is connected to the water line where the water coming from a city, or a well, (i.e., raw water), enters the home. The water is diverted through the POE water treatment system and then distributed throughout the home, usually bypassing the outside lines. In this manner of installation, all of the water that is used inside of the home first runs through the POE water treatment system.
Conventional Water Treatment
(water softener, carbon filter, reverse osmosis):
A conventional whole house water treatment system is configured in three stages;
Stage 1 Water Softener
Stage 2 Back Washing Carbon Filter
Stage 3 Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System
When you look at a conventional whole house water treatment system you should notice that it is not a system at all. In reality it is an amalgamation of three separate individual systems hooked together only by the plumbing in the home. You should also notice that the first two stages of the system are the only portion of the system that feed every line in the home with soft water and water which runs through the carbon filter.
Stage 1, is the water softener and is emblematic of it's name, it softens the water which means that it removes all of the hardness minerals, or Cations, (i.e., calcium, magnesium, barium), from the water in an effort to eliminate scale buildup in plumbing, water heater and fixtures throughout the home. It removes these minerals through a process called Ion Exchange. Ion Exchange works when hard water is run over a bed of negatively charged poly beads that are about the size of the head of a ball point pen. There are tens of thousands of these beads in the typical residential water softener. The Cations in the hard water have a naturally positive charge and are attracted to the resin bed inside of the softener tank. As the hard water passes over and through the beads, the positively charged Cations are attracted to the negatively charged beads. Once the beads are fully covered, then the water softener goes into a regeneration process. During the regeneration process salt water is sucked out of the Salt Storage Tank and into the Softener Tank. The salt water passes over and through the resin beads. Because the salt water has a higher negative charge than the resin beads, the Cations jump off of the beads and onto the Sodium Ion. During the regeneration cycle, the salt water that has attracted the Cations is then directed to a drain in the home. This process takes approximately 15 to 90 minutes, using .25 to 15 pounds of salt, and approximately 1 to 150 gallons of water depending on the manufacturer. Some softeners are more efficient than others, but they all waste water, salt and in all but two brands, they waste electricity during the regeneration process by virtue of their methodology of treating water.
Stage 2 is the Back Washing Carbon Filter. A carbon filter tank is filled half way up with Activated Carbon and is designed to eliminate turbidity, taste, odor and chlorine from the water. Most carbon filters use a back washing valve that is attached to the top of the tank which is just like a softener valve, except it doesn't suck any salt water into the carbon bed. It only back washes the carbon bead once, or twice a week depending on water usage in the home. During this back wash cycle, the filter wastes approximately 50 to 120 gallons of water depending on the manufacturer. Again, the water used to back wash the carbon goes straight down the drain in the home.
Stage 3 is the Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System, or (RO). An RO uses a permeable membrane to remove Organics and Inorganics from the water. Water is pushed through the membrane under pressure. When the water comes out the other side, it is now called Permeate. The permeate is again run through a small carbon filter to polish the water in an effort to make it taste better. From there the water goes into a pressure, or holding tank. From there the water goes to a specially mounted faucet at the kitchen sink, and maybe to the refrigerator as well. RO water is literally made one drop at a time, and is so aggressive that it can only be run through non-leaching tubing. If it were run through copper or galvanized tubing, it would eventually create tiny holes in the tubing and begin to cause leaks. It becomes aggressive because the RO process removes Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) from the water. For every action there is an opposite but equal reaction, and the RO process is a perfect example of Newton's law. Striping the water of everything as an RO does, makes the permeate water extremely hungry for what was removed. This is why RO water must be run through either poly, glass, or stainless steel tubing. When the holding tank is full, (or when the pressure between the tank and the RO membrane reaches two thirds the incoming line pressure), the RO shuts off and the membrane sits in a relaxed state. But during the process of making permeate one drop at a time, the RO wastes water. For every one gallon of permeate made, the RO uses three to five gallons to wash the membrane down. This wash down water is then fed to the home's drain.
Physical Water Treatment
Physical water treatment systems are new to the industry. One would think that because this is a new technology, the industry as a whole would make an effort to package it in a new delivery system design. Not so with the existing water treatment industry. "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got". These are the words the existing water treatment industry lives and dies by. It is an incestuous and archaic industry from top to bottom that is vehemently resistant to change.
Existing Physical water treatment uses a technology called Template Assisted Crystallization, or TAC. In layman terms, TAC is the process of applying a special food grade chemical process to a bead that is very much the same size and shape of a resin bead that is used in a softener. However, the similarities stop there. Instead of attracting the Cations to the bead, the chemical compound jumps off of the bead and attaches itself to the Cation by using properties from the Cation itself in order to form a crystal shell around the Cation. Once this process is complete, the Cation becomes insulated and cannot put off a magnetic charge thereby rendering it unable to be attracted to any solid, or metallic surface. The result is that the water still feels hard, but no scaling can occur down stream of the system. While the process seems very simple, and the delivery system in itself is very simple, the Anti-salient media is complicated to manufacture and very expensive by volume in comparison to Ion Exchange media, or resin. As shown on the previous page, the physical water treatment system is normally packaged in a single tank configuration with a non-back washing In/Out head screwed on top of the tank to direct the flow of water to and from the tank and throughout the home.
Some companies, like Pelican Water, figured out that they needed to marry physical water treatment with a sediment prefilter and a post carbon filter using the same delivery mechanisms. They learned this from us when we introduced the first cabinet designed multi staged physical water treatment system in 2007 first in China, and then here in the States. However, they didn't understand what we were actually marrying our Anti-scalent media with. So what Pelican Water gives the consumer is a physical water treatment system that removes particulate matter, taste, order, chlorine and hardness, but their systems for the most part look much like a conventional whole house water treatment system and they do not address the removal of bacteria, virus, or cysts, trace metals, and sub micron particulate. The WaterCrest-10 addresses all of these in one tight package.
WaterCrest-10
The WaterCrest-10 is a monumental break through in technology, design, efficiency, aesthetics and process with respect to POE systems. At first glance the most notable difference is the size and the fact that there are no conventional media tanks. The WaterCrest-10 instead utilizes bayonet designed quick connect 5†x 20†disposable, and/or reusable cartridges. This has never been done before in a POE system design. It represents the culmination and collaboration of 240 years of combined industry experience. It's unique design enables it to be manufactured more efficiently than competitive systems. It's clean lines and modern look makes it appealing to a new breed of savvy consumers. It's compact size makes it easy to inventory, ship direct to the consumer and install in any home. It's modular design allows for quick and easy maintenance. It is true industry disruptive technology!
The WaterCrest-10 functions as one true POE whole house water treatment system in three stages.
Stage 1 BioGuard
Stage 2 & 3 Nano Zinc Scale Inhibitor
BioGuard
Waterborne pathogenic microorganisms are a major source of disease worldwide. Pathogens and water system deficiencies that are identified in outbreaks my also be important causes of endemic waterborne illnesses.
Of increased importance, however, are outbreaks caused by the microbial contamination of water distribution systems. In light of the growing evidence showing the resistance of certain micro-organisms to standard disinfection methods (including chlorination and UV radiation) mechanical removal of these contaminants is often the most reliable choice.
When used in multiple layers, BioGuard filter media is capable of retaining 99.9999% of micro-organisms (such as viruses, bacteria & protozoa which can include Cryptosporidium, Guardia Intestinals, Legion Ella, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, E-coli, Mycobacteria, Aspergillus), Endotoxins & DNA – all at flow rates hundreds of times greater than virus rated ultraporous filters. And the turbidity of the water coming through the BioGuard media typically remains below 0.01 NTU (even when tested at 250 NTU) until the filter is exhausted.
BioGuard filters utilize a non-woven filter media containing a thermally-bonded blend of microglass fibers and cellulose infused with nanoalumina fibers. The microglass and cellulose act as the scaffold upon which the active component of these filters (the nanoalumina fibers) is permanently affixed.
The advantage to this technology is that it is an adsorptive removal process; this innovative nanotechnology is based on attaching nanoalumina boehmite (AlOOH) fibers 2 nm in diameter x 250 nm in length onto a submicron microglass structural fiber. This method makes available greater than 42,000 square meters of nanofiber surface area per square meter of filter media of loading capacity.
BioGuard is an electropositive fibrous filter media with high particle removal efficiency as well as high dirt holding capacity. When incorporated into a pleated filter, its flow rate is equivalent to, or higher than pleated filters that are rated at 3 microns. BioGuard's absolute rating is 0.2 microns. Yet the flow through a standard 2.5†diameter x 10†high cartridge is 10 gpm with an initial pressure drop less than 2 psi. High flow rates are a characteristic of BioGuard filters.
BioGuard Pleated Filter Cartridges provide unusually high flow rates, yet provide extremely efficient filtration solutions for a myriad of applications. Whether used in the field, in a prefiltration mode for ultra-pure water systems, to produce laboratory or process water, in commercial/industrial water treatment, as a microbiological sampler, or as a stand-alone filtration device, a BioGuard filter performs at a level never before believed possible. The BioGuard electropositive technology accomplishes this by delivering the low pressure-drop (∆P) associated with a 2 - 3 filter, yet achieving a removal efficiency of 99.9% for 0.25 particles. When this patented technology is incorporated into a pleated cartridge, the additional surface area pleating affords results in a dirt-holding capacity far exceeding up to 25 times greater than other filter medias. In fact, the filter media in a standard BioGuard cartridge can capture and retain an amount of particulate which is 3.5 times its own weight. NanoZinc ScaleInhibitor
For years, water softeners have been virtually the only means of reliably treating hard water. Other alternatives, including magnets, electromagnets, electrostatic devices and catalysts have been available but haven't proven to be consistently effective on a wide range of water supplies. A recent scientific development, NanoZinc Technology, offers the first effective and consistent chemical-free scale prevention method.
How NanoZinc ScaleInhibitor Works
Unlike the current TAC technology, the NanoZinc technology alters calcium and magnesium ion water chemistry so that the calcium and magnesium ions do not scale out, which means that it prevents the formation of calcium and magnesium carbonate. This differs from TAC.
When calcium and magnesium ions come in contact with the ceramic material inside of the ScaleInhibitor cartridge, ionic hydration is changed. As a result, the calcium and magnesium ions will not bind with the carbonate anions in the water. So there is no formation of scale. This technology will not remove the calcium and magnesium ions from the water, but instead changes their chemistry so that they can remain in the water but not negatively effect hard surfaces that they come in contact with, such as plumbing, hot water heater, fixtures, dish washer, washing machine, shower, tub, or any other water using appliances.
If the hardness is tested before and after the installed WaterCrest-10, the hardness level will be the same. Since the ceramic material inside of the NanoZinc ScaleInhibitor cartridge in an insoluble material in water, it does not add any unwanted chemicals into working and drinking water.
The finished product is clean, clear, great tasting water at every tap in the home with all of the healthy minerals that our bodies need, left in the water.
Click here to Download the full pdf