I allowed our water treatment company to use one of my towers as a trial for a system called uvox. It utilizes a uv light on a sidestream set-up. It has been in place all summer, we've used no chemicals and the tower water is so clean you would be tempted to drink it. I ran several dip slide tests on it and only one red dot grew each time. I was skeptical but so far I am very impressed.
I allowed our water treatment company to use one of my towers as a trial for a system called uvox. It utilizes a uv light on a sidestream set-up. It has been in place all summer, we've used no chemicals and the tower water is so clean you would be tempted to drink it. I ran several dip slide tests on it and only one red dot grew each time. I was skeptical but so far I am very impressed.
anything more specific? what is the payback for your system and how large is your system?
While I was browsing, I happened to find this site. I am a regional manager for Griswold Water Systems. We manufacture the SBC. It is similar to the Dolphin in concept (the Pulse-Pure is a reverse engineered Dolphin unit), however our implementation and approach is unique. If you want a competitive comparison see our website or email me (rob at griswoldwatersystems dot com).
The reason that I am joining the conversation is to answer some of the questions that were posted.
1. Basin Cleaning Pulse-Power based systems like the SBC, Dolphin, and Pulse-Pure cause calcium and other debris to flocculate out into the basin because that is where the water flows the slowest. As long as the flow everywhere else is 2ft/sec or more, the precipitant will stay suspended in the water. Use sweeper piping when possible or you may have to clean out the basin a little more frequently than you did before. Do NOT use a poor sweeper design because it will just make it harder to clean the basin. We design our own sweeper systems after seeing so many poorly designed systems in the field. Evapco (who is also a competitor) seems to do a better job with their sweeper designs than Marley and BAC, but any tower can have an effective sweeper system. The question is, is the tower large enough to merit a sweeper system?
2. Payback I have some return on investment tools that usually show a payback of 6 months to 24 months. There are too many factors for me to list right now, but with our system, the payback is there and usually it is pretty quick.
3. Throwing away money We will REFUND your money if we cannot get it to work in 90 days. No risk!
4. Chemicals work That is true. However, I have seen very few towers that have been treated by chemicals and have never had a single problem. Often, chemical water treaters get replaced because the owner does not think they are doing a good job. This may be due to a number of reasons (water source changed, operation changed, chemical ran out, valve stuck open or closed, poor service, unable to keep bacteria counts low ) With all of this in mind, chemicals usually work if tended very closely, but there are some places where chemicals just cant seem to do the job. It goes both ways though. Sometimes our unit (and our competitors units) need corrosion inhibitor.
5. Hard water Our hardware works great in hard water. If the water is too hard, it may simply limit the cycles of concentration, but it should still be better than chemicals.
6. Make up water We (not our competitors) almost always cycle the water higher than with chemicals. This means that you will lose LESS water with our system than you would with chemicals. Dolphin is hit and miss here (from my experience). Evapco does a limited analysis (better). We do a comprehensive analysis before determining the conductivity setpoint for the blowdown. Evapco walks away from a lot of jobs where we succeed, because they do not like the quality of the water. We will tell you up front if we may need some corrosion inhibitor instead of walking away from the job.
7. VRTX Feel free to look at it, but I think that you will see that it is not a major competitor for many reasons. I do not need to elaborate. Email me if you want more details (rob at griswoldwatersystems dot com).
8. Dolphin They actually work many times, but the implementation and maintenance is usually what kills them.
9. Water samples We also require a water sample before we installing our SBC. Good that Evapco is on the right path here. We also do not charge for this service.
10. Change in non-chemical thinking Yes, there has been a recent change in the industry. I have met with many engineering firms that will ONLY specify non-chemical water treatment. This is more the case along the west and east coasts than inland.
11. Simplest approach We make filtration and treatment hardware and package it together for simple installation and implementation. Our SBC unit only requires 110/120 power and draws less than 80 watts. No one else can touch that!
12. Low bacteria counts I have seen reports of 20 CFU/ML (drinking water is 500CFU/ML), but 1,000CFU/ML is common.
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Last edited by jpsmith1cm; 02-06-2013 at 10:13 PM.
Reason: non AOP member
This is the Ask Our Pro's forum. In order to post a response here, you must have verified qualifications and have been approved by the AOP Committee. You may ask a question by starting a new thread.
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Originally Posted by mattm
