Ask The Water Doctor

QUESTION

Below is the claim from LifeSource: “Think a water softener is the best choice to solve hard water problems? Think again! You can alleviate hard water problems without using a salt based water softener. A water softener merely exchanges hardness minerals with sodium. Instead of hard water problems you’ll have salt water problems.

LifeSource Whole-House Water Systems are the clear alternative to common water softeners. Our Systems are Tested, Certified and maintenance free.

Finally you’ll have clean great tasting water for your entire home from a single long-lasting, maintenance free system. You’ll also notice fewer problems caused by hard water without using salts or chemicals. “

Please give me your advice about this system.

Is it the same with GreenWave salt Free system that you have on your website?

I am looking  a system that can get rid of the hard water problems, skin itchy problems, and safety for kids with special medical condition.

Thank you for your time. – Huyen Pham

THE WATER DOCTOR REPLIED:

An acquaintance of mine reported this about the BEOTRON Water Conditioning Component of the Lifesource system:

This was once hyped as a device for treating water that employed strange and almost-magical forces, but the current promoter has now toned down the hype. A 2008 engineering publication describes the “dissection” of this unit, revealing it is a worthless deception: “The Beotron unit is a PVC tube capped at both ends and filled with sand and a copper wire running down the center. The water does not flow through the tube, and none of the water comes into contact with the sand and the copper.”

The Lifesource unit is a carbon filter.   That’s it.   Nothing more or less.  You can buy a GreenWave Ultra Carbon Filter for 1/3 of the cost of a Lifesourse system.  My opinion of Lifesource is that it is nothing like what they hype it to be.  It’s a good product, but way overpriced.  Carbon filters are for the purpose of removing chlorine, chemicals, tastes and odors from the water.   A GreenWave Ultra does that just as well as any other carbon filter, including Lifesource.

Some of the advantages of a GreenWave Ultra whole-house carbon filter are:

• Reduces or removes the chlorine and chemicals for better-tasting, high quality water throughout the home – you don’t just have one faucet to drink from – you have quality water anywhere.
• Some people say that they don’t want to drink chlorinated water, but then turn around and take a shower in that water, not realizing that they absorb more chlorine through their skin and inhale more from vaporization, than they could ever drink in a day.
• Chlorine attacks faucet, toilet, appliance and plumbing parts that have rubber, dramatically degrading it.  With de-chlorinated water, you home will run smoother, longer and with less maintenance.
• 9 out 0f 10 dogs and cats prefer chlorine-free, chemical free, great-tasting water.  The 10th one?  We won’t go there….