Water System Wars

I was very motivated to upgrade our home's water purification system after reading Don Colbert's 7 Pillars of Health chapter on Water. Some inquiries quickly revealed that this venture would be a significant investment that neither Shawn or myself were thinking about making. Shawn wants a new motorcycle one day and I really want completely finished decor in my home. We both want to pay off our mortgage and give more money to those who need it. Our water looks clean enough and tasted okay with the intro level charcoal water filter we were using so why spend money needlessly on such an elusive goal and possibly unnecessary system? We debated back and forth on this (some people might call it arguing but we call it a passionate discussion) and finally we were able to reach agreement. No emotional decision here. We would do the research, get the facts, and make a logical decision. In dealing with my husband, I have found that illogical approaches with tears and feelings do not work. I have learned the art of examining my motives and feelings and being patient enough to go through the process of creating logical arguements backed up by facts. This is my husband's language and often the key to reaching a mutually beneficial decision in our home.
My primary motivation for looking into a better water system was because there is a nuclear plant on the Detroit river along with many industrial plants. My perception is that many people in Windsor are combatting or dying of cancer...I don't know if this is more prevalent everywhere, but it seemed I rarely heard of people having cancer until I moved here. Shawn is 41 and I am turning 40 this year. In a decade we will be 50+ years old. I feel strongly that our lifelong choices will begin to show for good or for bad and that these next 10 years are a critical opportunity to make some much needed changes for the bettter. I felt this same urgency with our finances several years ago and it proved to be true when Shawn's job at Ford's came to an end and our income changed dramatically.
I had concluded that I wanted clean, soft, PH-balanced water (more alkaline would be even better). I was willing to wait another year to finish the flooring in our family room and office if it was necessary.
I bought a saliva/urine PH testing kit to measure our bodies PH levels. Many factors influence your body's PH with water being a small part of that equation. We all tested on the more acidic side, but not as bad as we could have.
I then had our water tested and found out that it was 170 (dissolved solids), 10 grains of hardness and was PH-balanced (I guess all city water is). Our filtered water tested at 160 (dissolved solids) so it was only removing a small portion of the dissolved solids in our water.
We then began researching soft water systems, reverse osmosis, and re-mineralizing options. One company wanted $4500 to set us up, another quoted around $2800 and yet another claimed $1500. We charted all the specs: regeneration time, salt usage, water usage, regeneration frequency, warrantees, filter replacement costs, customer reviews, and all sorts of other details that we thought of along the way. The salespeople we dealt with were varied in their knowledge of their own products and were not accustomed to our direct questioning. I think most people make emotional-based decisions when it comes to their drinking water and the salespeople are trained more on how to stimulate shock, fear, urgency and excitement than the actual specs of their systems. Our research showed that the $1500 system was actually less wasteful and less costly than the $4500 system, but even after a calm discussion with the dealer, he still claims we will regret our decision. The next time we walked by his display, he turned his back on us to avoid speaking. I guess we're not friends anymore!
In the end we paid much less than we could have and have a system that compares with the one Home Hardware uses. I know this because I visited the store, read the description of their water system and looked at the equipment. They only difference is that we never invested in the UV module that kills any bacteria (even in cyst form) that manages to get through the other filters. I wonder if we should have got that too...
Shawn is still of the mindset that city water is completely safe no matter how often I play the 7 Pillars DVD for him but he chuckles on how I managed to make him feel grateful for only spending $1500 by making him think it was going to cost $4500. What can I say? It's a gift I have. As for me, I hope he didn't fudge the data in favor of the cheaper model. Boy, do we ever have trust issues or what?
So, that was a major investment for us but the upside was that we were able to claim this on our tax return, we're enjoying our soft water and all it's benefits, and I have a little more peace of mind. If anyone wants an entry level charcoal filter (under the counter) or a couple whole house filters, let us know. Something is better than nothing. If you are thinking about making the water system investment, we'd be happy to share our collected data so you can make a good decision for your family too.