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Archive for April, 2015

4 Health Problems You Can Avoid By Drinking More Water

Posted by Rayne Water

Most people know just how important drinking water is for your health. Without it, our bodies cannot function properly and we are not as mentally sharp. But beyond just the general health concerns are some pretty serious health problems you can avoid by drinking more water. How many can you guess? Continuing reading this article to check your knowledge about drinking high quality water and your health.

Drink water for kidney health

 

 

 

 

 

1.  Save your kidneys!  One of the top health issues you can avoid by drinking more water has to do with your kidneys which perform several functions, the most important of which is filtering waste products, excess water, and other impurities out of the blood. These waste products are stored in the bladder and later expelled from the body as urine. We need them to regulate pH, salt, and potassium levels in the body, and they produce hormones that regulate blood pressure and control the production of red blood cells. The kidneys are also responsible for activating a form of vitamin D that helps the body absorb calcium to build bones and modulate muscle function. In other words, we need our kidneys for a healthy body. Water helps keep our kidneys healthy and working properly because it helps to flush them out and drinking plenty of water may also help prevent kidney stones and urinary tract infections.

2.  Lose weight!  Another health condition impacted by drinking more water is obesity. No, it doesn’t cure it and obesity still depends on numerous other factors, but it can help support a healthy diet. Replacing ‘liquid calories’ with water is a strategy to eliminate excess calories and prevent obesity.

3.  Be heart smart!  Drinking a good amount of water could also reduce your risk of heart attack.  Furthermore, keeping the body hydrated helps the heart more easily pump blood through the blood vessels to the muscles. If that isn’t a good reason to drink plenty of water, we don’t know what is!

4.  Avoid cancer! Plus, drinking more water is also said to help prevent some pretty serious cancers. Research suggests that drinking enough water every day, could reduce your risk of developing cancer of the large bowel, breast and prostate. That’s another phenomenal reason to drink more water each day!

Drinking high-quality water with a water filter will create great-tasting and safe drinking water, the perfect alternative to soft drinks or other sugary beverage choices. Water supports a healthy body, the research certainly proves it. Do you drink enough water? How do you help your family make smart choices about drinking more water? Cheers!

Dangers of Benzene in Drinking Water

Posted by Rayne Water

Since Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been tasked with determining the safest level of drinking water contamination before any adverse health effects are likely to occur.  Currently the EPA regulates 81 different types of hazardous contaminants that can be found in our drinking water supply; they monitor chemical, physical, radiological and biological contaminates and set a maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) for each.  One such contaminate that has found itself in the news recently is benzene, which has a MCLG goal of zero parts per million.
As we saw in the LA Times, officials from California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources  admitted just last summer that they have inadvertently allowed oil companies to inject wastewater from oil production operations as well as fracking into hundreds of disposal wells in protected aquifers around the state for years.  High levels of Benzene is just one of the byproducts that have shown up in the contaminated water.
Benzene is a volatile organic chemical (VOC) that is naturally found in oil, gasoline and cigarette smoke.  It can also be formed from natural processes, such as from forest fires, as well as industrial processes.  It is commonly used to manufacture plastics, rubber, synthetic fabrics and resins and as a solvent in paints, printing and dry cleaning.  Benzene is a known carcinogen and when ingested from drinking water can cause anemia, a decrease in blood platelets, and an increased risk of cancer, particularly leukemia.
Gasoline and cigarette smoke are the two main sources of benzene exposure; however, while for the majority of the population, the exposure to benzene from food, beverages and drinking water is not as high as it is from the air, there is still a significant risk.  Benzene has been detected in some bottled water, liquor and certain foods as well as from contaminated well water.  Water wells can become contaminated with benzene from leaking underground gasoline storage tanks, leaching from landfills and other hazardous waste sites that contain benzene products.
Considering that the EPA recommends a zero MCLG level for benzene, it is important to choose a water filtration system that can filter out this hazardous chemical.  Water softeners will not remove benzene, however activated charcoal or granular activated carbon filters rated to remove VOC’s will be able to remove benzene from your drinking water.
Rayne’s LINX Drinking Water Systems as well as our reverse osmosis systems are both equipped with a carbon filtration unit intended to filter VOC’s.  It is important to make sure your family is drinking water that is as pure and safe as possible, so if you are wondering about the safety of your drinking water, it is highly recommended to have it tested.  Knowing what is in your water will help you choose the right filtration system for your home and provide the safest drinking water possible.

The Best Water Filter for Nitrate Reduction

Posted by Rayne Water

 

*Reviewed by Ken Christopher, Senior Vice President at Rayne Dealership Corporation

Contaminated drinking water is widespread in the United States and throughout the public water system; the highest degree of contamination is in the Midwest, Texas, the Pacific Northwest and California.

Water wells contamination statistics

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that as many as 52 percent of community wells and 57 percent of domestic water wells are contaminated by a measurable amount of nitrates and nitrites. In Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley of California, it is estimated that one in every three domestic wells are contaminated with levels well over the EPA’s recommended guidelines for ground water. As a result, water softeners in Los Angeles and other Southern California areas are becoming increasingly popular as a solution to hard water and contaminants in tap water.

Get started today! We specialize in providing the purest water possible!

 

Why is Nitrate contamination dangerous

Nitrates and Nitrites are not all bad, in fact we need them to some extent to stay healthy, however excess consumption from elevated nitrate levels can cause serious health risks. Infants below six months of age are especially susceptible to nitrate contamination. The EPA states that if they consume water containing nitrates in excess of the maximum contaminant level, they could become seriously ill, and if untreated, may die from nitrate poisoning. Symptoms include shortness of breath and blue baby syndrome.

How to remove nitrates from water

Wondering how to remove nitrates from water? The only way to remove nitrates from drinking water is through a water filtration system. Many water treatment companies promote Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems as an immediate solution to provide nitrate and nitrite reduction. RO systems do in fact reduce nitrate levels, however even the best RO system can only reduce them by eighty percent. The most typical systems only have a sixty percent reduction rate. This sounds pretty good doesn’t it? Well in some cases this reduction rate is just fine, however not all water has the same level of contamination. The EPA recommended guidelines for nitrates are a maximum 10 parts per million (ppm). Let’s say for example that your water has 30ppm nitrate contamination, a sixty percent reduction would only bring it down to a 12ppm nitrate level – still more than the recommended guidelines. At eighty percent reduction it would be 6ppm, which does falls within the guidelines, however there are only a select few RO’s that have an eighty percent reduction. Now let’s say your water starts at a 60ppm contamination level, even at an eighty percent reduction rate it would only bring it down to 12ppm, which is too high and can cause some health complications.

Most effective nitrate reduction solution

The LINX Drinking Water System is the best solution to nitrate pollution. It doesn’t matter how much nitrate contamination your water has, 200ppm or 20ppm, it still reduces it down to non-detect levels – every time. These reduction rates are far superior to a traditional RO water filtration system for nitrate removal. This superior nitrate filter has earned them the WQA Gold Seal for Nitrate / Nitrite Reduction as well as being certified and approved for nitrate reduction in the state of California.

If your water has a problem with elevated levels of nitrate contamination, don’t take the risk of being exposed to excess contamination, install the one and only water filtration system that can reduce your high nitrate levels to non-detect levels and create safe drinking water. 

Expert Reviewer – Ken Christopher

5 Signs You Need a Water Softener

Posted by Rayne Water

The quality of our water is dependent on several factors; where we live, the type of water filtration system it goes through and whether or not it is supplied from a municipal water supply or an underground well. The most common water problem here in the United States is that it is often hard water. Hard water is simply water that has a high mineral content. Not all minerals are necessarily harmful for you to drink, however these minerals can have a negative impact in the home and on the body as well. The following signs can help determine if you have hard water in your home.
 

  1. Spots on glasses
    Most hard water contains magnesium and calcium; when the water is heated, as it is to wash dishes, the magnesium and calcium precipitate out of the water and adhere to the surface they are on. This mineral deposit is called scale and it manifests itself as the spots on dishes and the white crusty deposits around the faucet.
  2. Soap scum in the shower / bath
    Once again it is the magnesium and calcium that are at the root of bathroom soap scum. The calcium and/or magnesium ions in hard water produce a chemical reaction with they come in contact with the fatty component in soap which results in the gray nasty soap scum you see around the bath and shower.

 

  1. You pay too much electricity to run your water heater
    Hard water has been proven to decrease efficiency in appliances; water heaters, in particular, tend to be at an even greater risk due to their constant contact with water. Scale builds up on the heating elements causing it to work harder and longer in order to heat up the water. This extra work load also causes the water heater to wear out much sooner than it should.
  2. You have limp dry hair
    If you notice that your hair is constantly limp or dry and frizzy all the time, the culprit is most likely hard water. Shampoo is technically a soap so you have the same chemical reaction going on in your hair as you do inside your shower or tub. The excess filmy shampoo reside will leave your hair looking limp and rather dull. The additional minerals in hard water can also dry out your hair which leads to the dreaded frizz.
  3. You have dry itchy skin
    The excess minerals in hard water can also cause some severe dry skin which leads to irritation and scaly looking skin. In fact there have been studies done showing that hard water can trigger eczema due to the intense drying out of the skin.

 
If you are one of the millions of households that have to deal with hard water on a daily basis, you might want to consider investing in a water softener or salt free water conditioner.  Both of these products will help to eliminate the problems associated with hard water, while saving you money over the long run in appliance maintenance, plumbing repair and even on soap and detergent expenditures.

5 Home Water Problems You Need to Fix

Posted by Rayne Water

<![CDATA[Your home’s water affects nearly every aspect of your daily living. Sure, we all know we need drinking water and water to bathe or shower in, but a home’s water goes way beyond that. From a home’s plumbing and fixtures to how your clothes and bedding look and feel, water has a significant impact. Let’s look at 5 different ways your water can have a negative impact on your home and how it can be fixed.

  1. Laundry: Hard water can be damaging to your clothing and bedding. Soap scum is created when the calcium or magnesium ions in hard water react with the fatty component of soap. This soap scum attaches itself to fabric fibers which not only give a grey or yellow appearance to fabrics, it also causes the fabric fibers to become brittle, shortening their durability and lifespan. A water softener will remove the mineral deposits in your water therefore not allowing the formation of damaging soap scum.
  2. Kitchen: Water is a solvent and as such can easily pick up impurities. When we use water for drinking or cooking, we are ingesting not only the water, but any contaminants it contains as well. Water can, and often does, contain Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) which includes minerals, salts or metals dissolved in it. TDS’s can affect the taste and appearance of water as well as cause some serious health concerns if it contains nitrates, arsenic, lead or chlorine to name a few. Drinking water systems such as a RO system or a LINX® Drinking Water System can filter out TDS’s in your drinking water, making it safe and healthy to drink and cook with.
  3. Bathroom: Do you notice that gray ring around your bath? How about the discoloration in your toilet? Does your sink constantly have white spots on the faucet or counter? Odds are, you have hard water. The minerals in hard water can cling to surfaces, causing them to become stained over time; iron especially can cause some really nasty staining. When hard water comes in contact with soap it creates soap scum (remember from the laundry) which clings to the tub and shower and requires a serious scrubbing to remove. A water softener or salt free water conditioner can help with this problem.
  4. Skin and Hair: Studies have shown that eczema can be triggered by hard water. The magnesium and calcium in the water causes the skin to dry out leading to irritation. In order to get a nice rich lather going in hard water, more soap and shampoo is necessary which can also aggravate eczema. Hard water can play havoc on your hair as well, causing it to become dry, frizzy, easily damaged and can even change the color. Installing a water softener or salt free water conditioner can help alleviate these issues.
  5. Plumbing and Appliances: Pipes, hot water heaters, washing machines, dishwashers and icemakers are in constant contact with water. When a home has hard water, scale is produced inside the pipes, hoses and even the appliance itself which can cause a host of problems. Pipes and hoses become clogged, which significantly decreases water pressure and can even cause them to burst. Heating elements can fail if there is an excess scale buildup and can cause leaks or breakage if valves and gaskets are damaged. Overall, hard water has been proven to decrease efficiency in appliances and shorten their lifespan. A water softener or salt free water conditioner can prevent scale buildup and lengthen the life of your appliances while keeping them running at full efficiency