Making a rare appearance
I’m not sure if I ever have written a blog post on a late Saturday afternoon but I guess there is a first time for everything. So the water guys showed up within 5 minutes of their expected arrival time of 10:30. I sort of thought they would need to start earlier as it seemed like a LOT of work needed to take place for this to happen. However they were coming all the way from Cape Coral so they had a 60 minute plus commute.
So two guys showed up, the main installer was named Tim with another guy that never told me his name. Tim seemed sort of quiet and reserved but evidently he is THE guy when it comes to installs. I took him out to the concrete pad where the old stuff was and where the new stuff would go. Tim seemed a bit concerned about space at first and clearance with the roof I recently installed. I told him the owner when he gave the estimate fully measured everything and said although it would be tight it all should fit. Tim said he will figure it out, he always does.
So the water to the house was cut off a few minutes later and remained that way till early evening. We made sure to do all of our water intensive activities before they showed up. During the day I used the toilet sans flush to pee and also visited a tree or two outside to help split things up.
One problem identified early on was the top outlet in my 110 circuit by the equipment did not work. It actually has never worked. I have simply gotten around it from the use of splitters. Tim said it would be best if both plugs were live for logistics. I removed the cover and looked at the receptacle. The tab that connects the two outlets internally was evidently broken. I hopped in the truck and grabbed a new receptacle at the nearby hardware store. I also made a mental note that I wanted to replace all of the outdoor outlet covers in that area with better ones. The low grade, builder installed covers were all falling apart. I am not sure if I ever replaced a receptacle before but it wasn’t all that challenging. Of course the most important part of the process is making sure you kill the power to the correct circuit ahead of time which I managed to do.
So other than replacing that outlet I had minimal interaction with the installers. We did have to talk about what to do about the drain for the system. Originally the owner talked about burying the drain and having it come out the same spot the existing one does by the corner of the fence. Tim said that may not be the best plan since RO makes a TON of waste water, three gallons to every one gallon clean H2O. He said that corner would get very water logged more than likely.
So after thinking about other options we came up with a better plan. Years ago I buried two drainage pipes by that side of the house to combat a terrible erosion problem we used to have. They exit down by the landscaped area by that side of the pool. It seemed like a great spot for it. The drainage pipe has holes all along it so it would help spread out the moisture. I figured I could throw down some fresh sod to act like a natural sponge to further assist absorption.
So right around 6 o’clock Tim was wrapping stuff up. The equipment was visually impressive. The main holding tank is massive, holding 300 gallons of fresh water. The majority of the rest of the equipment safely resides in a custom cabinet designed to protect it from the elements to help longevity.
As promised the owner showed up right around 6:30 to sterilize and flush the lines in the house. This process started with us opening up EVERY single line in the house simultaneously, including the two outside hose bibs. I was surprised the flow remained decent even with all of those faucets going.
Bleach was poured in the system to assist in the sterilization process. After letting the cold water run for quite awhile we switched over to hot water to help get as much of the old water out of the hot water tank as well.
A sort of gross part of the process was cleaning the toilet water tanks. Both tanks had a coating of brown slime in them. Our hands were actually good tools for dislodging the scum. The owner did the guest room toilet and I did the master bathroom bowl. The combo of getting that scuzz out and using super clean water should make water staining in the toilet a thing of the past.
So after all the bleach was out of the lines Rich did some testing of the water inside. He said it tested out very clean, on par with bottled water. He then took me outside to go over the system so I would have the basic knowledge to understand how the system worked and how to read certain key numbers. The water comes from the well and into a sediment filter that takes out bigger contaminants and sand. From there it goes into a membrane filter which does the heavy lifting as far as cleaning the water. From that point the water is dumped into the huge holding tank.
There is more work done to the water before it actually enters the house. From the tank it goes through a a large carbon post filter that along with removing any smell makes the water more alkaline which is better for drinking water. The final step is the water goes through a big UV light sanitizer that kills anything that would have happened to make it through the first three sources of filtration. From there the super clean water is delivered to every point in the house. It is pretty damn impressive.
After the tutorial I paid Rich and thanked him for the good work. Even though the system was more than $4000 I already feel like I am getting my moneys worth. The water from the tap is crystal clear and honestly tastes better than most bottled water I have tried. Showers are a very different experience. With the old system the water had a sort of slimy feel. You always felt like you had a residue on you. (because you did) An RO shower leaves you feeling squeaky clean. I also noticed after the bed of the Tacoma was rinsed out today there were no white water spots that used to accompany every single car wash with the old system.
So on Friday we were originally supposed to be driving to St Pete to a doctor appointment for Cindy but it was cancelled last minute. I used the day to get a head start on my weekend chores. Later in the afternoon we also used the time for Cindy to get more EUC training in, this time at North Collier Park. They have a boardwalk there as well so we thought it might be a good spot. The weather was not great with gusty winds in advance of an incoming cold front.
Cindy warmed up a little using the boardwalk rails as a support but after a little while she was free wheeling once again down the running/biking path. She had a couple times that she dumped the wheel over but they were “good bails” with minimal damage to her or the wheel. I am very impressed with just how quickly Cindy has gotten good at doing controlled and smooth mounts and dismounts. She is much better at it than I was at this point in the learning curve. I can tell she really is starting to enjoy riding her EUC because when we got back to the car instead of just throwing her wheel in the trunk she did a bunch more riding in the parking lot.
Last night Ali showed up to do an inverse dog sitting pick up. Instead of dropping off Sadie for the weekend she was picking her up to stay the weekend as her construction project is a weekday only thing. During the afternoon Cindy and I did a Home Depot run so I could pick up three heavy duty outdoor outlet covers. Installing them proved to be rather difficult since all the equipment was in front of them now. Two of the three were awkwardly installed while I laid on the lid of the RO equipment, no joke.
Late in the day I went to run one of the sprinkler zones and realized they weren’t working. Of course my immediate reaction was to wonder if the water guys inadvertently messed something up however I resisted the knee jerk reaction to send the owner an email. I dug into the problem some more and realized that somehow the shared ground wire connection for the solenoids half came apart. Maybe somebody bumped it hard but I redid the connection today in a more robust way, hopefully avoiding the issue in the future.
Even with the normal chores out of the way there was a lot of labor today. I did another dirt/sod load at HD to primarily cover the now wet drain field area as well as shoring up a couple other spots. I think the ample waste water should get soaked up pretty well by the sod.
I also attended to my weekly bill paying session. The addition of the RO system put a nice dent in my account balance which I hope to even out through less spending than what has become the norm. My monthly credit card balance, which I pay in full has been rather crazy for most of the last 12 months.
I hope to keep more work a low priority for my Sunday. We are heading out to go see Logan shortly, hope it’s epic.