We replace low-end water systems for a living. Recently though, we have been replacing a lot of online and big box store water systems that were actually expensive for the homeowner to purchase.
Online water companies like pelican, nuvo, Halo, and Aquasana have built a business out of making everyone’s water quality fit their narrow range of products through sexy advertising that uses very selective wording. Depending on your water quality and water source this can be a good or very bad thing.
We are finding more and more that in Northern Nevada, these systems just don’t cut it. We are also finding this to be an expensive learning curve for the homeowner.
In the picture below are 4 Nuvo Water Systems and an Aquasana Rhino water system. All totaled, they cost 3 homeowners $7500, and not a single one worked as promised.
But what about the warranty? In my experience, it’s never the water system’s fault that it’s not working. With Nuvo, homeowners are told that they ought to replace the filter more often (convenient when you’re the one selling the filters). With Aquasana, homeowners are told that the buildup that you continue to see is “the rest of the minerals in the water, and not the calcium”. As someone who looks at hard water spots and soft water spots everyday for a living, it is obvious that the buildup people see after the Aquasana is in fact hard water buildup because it is hard as a rock, and does not come off easily.
Most recently, we were scheduled to replace a Life Source water filter that wasn’t even close to being the right system for the private well it was installed on. The homeowner was told that their water quality must have changed and that is why the system was not producing the promised results (an easy out for online retailers when dealing with customers on a private well). On the day of installation, the homeowner asked if, instead of replacing, we could add our system to the Life Source and leave the Life Source hooked up. They said they just couldn’t stand the thought of disconnecting something they spent $4800 on less than a year ago. My eyes popped out when they told me how much they had paid, but since the Life Source wasn’t actually doing anything I knew that it wouldn’t affect our system’s performance and I agreed to leave it in place.
When a low-end system doesn’t work, it’s kind of a “oh well, it was worth a shot” situation. But when homeowners spend 3 or 4 thousand dollars and it doesn’t do what was promised, I genuinely feel bad for people and feel like we need to do a better job of marketing to get in front of people when they’re doing their research.
I want everyone to be a Pure Water Systems customer, but what we really strive for is to make you as informed as possible. So whether or not you ever become a customer, you don’t wind up spending $5,000 on something that doesn’t do you any good.
