I was shocked when I got into this industry, in other words, made by industry, chemicals that have never existed in nature and don't degrade in nature
This is how slow the water is running. It was never running like this
Gary, please, tell us about yourself and your expertise. So I'm Gary the Water Guy, and I simplify water filtration to help families learn more about water
filtration and conquer. I say conquer their crappy water. I've been in the water
filtration industry for over 20 years. I started the water store in Midland. Then I started
my YouTube channel, Gary the Water Guy, in 2011. On my YouTube channel, we've had 12 million views
We have 450 water filtration videos. And they're all about how it works, how to install, how to maintain that kind of thing
We have two e-commerce stores, watereastore.ca, for our Canadian customers and waterestore.com in the U.S
And I do a lot of work at promoting water filtration and explaining about water filtration a few weeks ago
I was on Good Morning America, sharing information about water filtration. with their viewers
Thank you very much. Wow, that's nice, such a big experience. And I also noticed you have a pretty nice background
It's like, it's somehow connected with your activity, with your professional activity
Yes, yeah, there's all kinds of different water filtration stuff that we have in the background here
So a lot of our customers are on city water, but a lot more are on well water
So they have their own private wells. So because of that, they often have problems with taste, smell, this coloration, staining
They're even worried about the safety of their water because often with well water or even lake water, the water has bacteria in it
So we need to make sure that we've got a solution that's going to make sure their water has been fixed for them
Got it. Got it, Gary. Okay. And I'd like to know what consequence is treating us if water becomes insufficient or people consume and use low-quality water for their everyday purpose
Yeah, so you can't make water. Okay, so whatever water was there at the beginning of time, whenever this planet was formed, is still there
So we keep processing that water over and over and over. So it makes sense that, you know, in North America we have lots of water and we're very fortunate that way
but we need to make sure that whatever we do, we're efficient with that water
Now, the problem is, because we keep processing that water over and over and over again
again, we have to make sure that that water is clean and clear and is not going to make anybody sick
And that's the primary concern. I mean, we've heard stories, Parkersburg, West Virginia, lots of other places where people have become more than sick
They've actually died from the water. The waters caused cancer in some folks
And that's why it's so important that folks are aware of the importance of water, but not just the importance of water, of water that's clean
clear and bacteria-free. Gary, tell me, please, how people, how can we check the water without tools
I mean, what are the red flags, like smell, taste, color, et cetera, so we can watch out
for water before using it? Yeah, so water should be clear, should be colorless, and it should be odorless
If any of those situations exist, then there's a problem with your water
And if you're on a municipal water system, like you live in a city or a town, you need to
to contact your water provider and find out what's going on because something just isn't right
You know, when we've seen, I heard stories about Flint, Michigan and other places
My youngest would tell me, mom, it's yellow and it's a filmy, gross, foamy thing, and it would smell like open sewer
You know, they had those signs. The water did not look right. It had color in it. And there was a problem
That's for sure. Now, again, if you're on well water, then you need to have it yzed
you need to have the water tested by someone to find out exactly what's in the water, causing those conditions
What's the worst thing that could be in the water? From your experience, what was it
Well, right now, we're hearing more and more about Pthos. And Pthas are a series of 5,000 artificially made
in other words, made by industry chemicals that have never existed in nature and don't degrade in nature
So one of the biggest things that we've heard about is Teflon
So the company DuPont made Teflon in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and their employees started getting sick in the 60s, 70s, and 80s
But the problem is that Phaas, those chemicals, is in the water supply
And they've done tests in the blood of people throughout the world. And 98% of the people throughout the world, including you and me, have some Phaas in their blood
So that's a big concern. If you have it in your water and you're ingesting on an ongoing basis
again, a lot of the folks in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and the areas around that DuPont polluted their water, they became sick
And so what happened, they ended up having cancer in their kidneys
cancer in their colon, and that's about the worst that can happen
Harry, and what are the best water purifiers? So in terms of making your drinking water super pure
I definitely recommend reverse osmosis drinking water systems. So basically those systems, they're a small system that typically are located underneath
the sink or if you have a basement, they can go in your basement. They fairly small And so how they work is they take your water and they force it under pressure through a membrane So the good low mineral content water goes through the membrane it stored in a small pressure tank so it available for whatever it time for you to use it
The bad high mineral content water gets flush to the drain. So the beauty of reverse osmosis is not only does it get rid of those Pphos that I mentioned a little bit earlier
it also gets rid of PPCPs, which are pharmaceuticals and personal care products
because our body will only absorb so much of the pills that we take, and whatever's left, we excrete
So that excreted pharmaceuticals end up in the water supply. So reverse osmosis will get rid of that
It'll also remove the chemicals from their water. The chemicals that they use for water treatment, they'll remove those chemicals, including chlorine, chloramines
It'll get rid of fluoride, which is, again, a highly debated topic right now
if fluoride should be in our water supply or not. And it'll also get rid of bacteria in the water
So in terms of drinking water, reverse osmosis drinking water system is definitely the way to go
Now, if your water is hard or you have a lot of chlorine in your water
you also want to get rid of that too for bathing and things like that. So there's automatic backwashing filters that kind of look like this guy back here
that will remove that from your water. And again, if your water is hard, you're getting those crusty stains everywhere
You've got those crusty streaks on your shower doors. Your glasses are looking kind of opaque because they've got this film on them
That's hard water. And for that, you would need a water soft. Okay. And how often do we need to change these filters
So generally speaking, we design systems so the filters can be replaced once a year
So we size it based on the concern. And that's the ideal situation
Now, the water filtration products that we recommend, I mean, you can do the maintenance yourself
We have YouTube videos that show you how to replace the filters. We actually have YouTube videos also show you how to install
and a lot more information about how they work too. But that's generally the goal
Now, if you have a water softer, you would be adding salt to that. And again, a modern high-efficiency water softer
It doesn't use a lot of salt throughout the year. They use five or six, 40-pound bags
It depends on how hard your water is and how much water you use and that kind of thing
Reverse osmosis drinking water system, a high-efficiency one, Like I say, those filters would need to be replaced once a year
What are there appliances people should have at home so they can be sure that they use
the high quality water? I mean, not really high quality, but good water that can be used for domestic purposes
Yeah, so if your water is hard, then you need a water softer because a water softener is going
to make your home a lot easier to keep clean, but it's also going to save your water using
appliances like your curates, your dishwasher, your washing machine, your hot water heater, all those
other things, because what they do is they get rid of the scale buildup within all those pieces
of equipment. And that scale buildup is going to shorten the lifespan of those pieces of equipment
and make them work much less efficiently. Also, one of the big benefits of a water softener
is you use less soap. So because of that, water softener will typically pay for itself in about
two or three years. So it's a very good investment in your home and for your family. It also makes
hard water is very itchy. Your skin becomes very itchy. Your hair becomes frizzy and those kinds of
things. So because of that, it also helps with your family. But really the biggest benefit of having a
water soccer makes your home much easier to keep clean. You don't get that scale build up all over the
place around your appliances anywhere that water touches. And that's a big factor. Now, if you have a lot of
chemicals in your water and you're finding that members of your family are getting rashes on
their skin and things like that. That's from the chlorine or the chloramines that's in your water
So chloramines are chlorine and ammonia added together. Those are chloramines. And a lot of folks
are finding that, especially if they have sensitive skin, that's very difficult. And again
you can get an automatic backwashing filter, something like this one here, that removes that
from the water. Now, the beauty of those systems is that there's no filters to replace
They just clean themselves once a week. And typically they last about 15 to 20 years before the stuff inside needs to be changed
So, and then now if you're on well water, it's a whole different ballgame or on lake water
Your water might be brown. You might have tannins in the water. So there's tannin filters that get rid of that
And again, if you're on lake water or well water, you need to make sure you've got something to make sure that the water's bacteria-free
Because if you don't do it, no one else will. You don't have the city looking after that for you
So because of that, you would normally need an ultraviolet disinfection system to make sure the water is bacteria-free after you've cleaned it up
Okay. And if we talk about buying a filter, what are the top water filter companies
And what's your recommendations? Yeah, so it gets a little bit more difficult when we start talking about brands
because you sort of have two ends of the market. You've got the big box stores. And I don't recommend buying the stuff from the big box stores
is because what happens there is that not only can you not get any good recommendations
because, of course, the folks that work there, they look after a whole bunch of different things
not just water filtration products. They have to know about electrical stuff and they have to know about, you know
cleaning products and that kind of thing. So you can't really get really good information
But the problem is a lot of the products they sell are a source from China or Korea
So because of that, they're not meant to last very long, only a few years
and it's impossible to get manuals, and it's even more impossible to get replacement parts
So if something goes wrong or you need a part or that kind of thing, you're out of luck
Then we go to the other end of the market where we get the brands like Culligan or Connecticutico
or the bigger national brands. So these products are very expensive They typically fairly good products Not that they not good products but typically you pay about double what you should be paying for water filtration products when you go with those national brands
But that's not the worst part. The worst part about going with those national brands is that their products are all proprietary
So what that means is if you need a replacement part, you need service, you need a manual, you need anything, you have to go back to them
So because of that, they can charge whatever they want. And they do. They charge a premium for that
And if their local service provider gives very poor service, you're stuck because you can't go anywhere else because they have their own protected areas
And so that's not something I recommend either. So there's a huge sweet spot in between
And that sweet spot is for independent water filtration companies and companies like ours that are e-commerce stores that ship the product to you
So what happens is in the industry, the valve, the part of the top, that's the key part
of water filtration, water softners, backwashable filters and things like that. Well, there's only
about three or four companies that actually make these valves. So because of that, you'll see
companies like mine that use this valve. So this valve is made by a company called Clack Corporation
which is a company in the U.S. that manufactures these valves and ships them worldwide. But these
valves are totally non-proprietary. So what happens is we sell them on our Hume water filtration products
water softens, that's our private label brand name, Hume, but so do hundreds of other companies
So they buy these clack valves, they have a company assemble them onto their water filtration
equipment, and now it's a great product at a very reasonable price that's totally non-proprietary
that'll easily last 20 years. And that's really what the consumer should be looking for
is that they ideally source water filtration products and water softners that use the clack valve
or another competitor's Fleck, F-L-E-C-K. That makes a pretty good valve. This is a better product, but that would be a close second
So I would check with an independent company and ask them who makes their valves
And it might seem like a peculiar question to ask for the homeowner, but for the company, they'll know exactly what you mean
And they'll also know that you kind of, you know, you're pretty savvy about what you're doing
And so they know that they have to be careful when they're speaking with you as a consumer
When it comes to reverse osmosis drinking water systems, like this one over here, for example, always look for something made in USA
And it'll be difficult to find because 95% of them aren't made in USA
Again, they're made in China or Korea. and I've tried the Chinese ones
We've had problems with them in the past. We've had problems with the leaking. And again, we're dealing with water in people's homes
So because of that, I definitely suggest you do a little bit extra homework
to find the Made in USA products. We handle two different brands of Made in USA
reverse osmosis drinking water systems. We've had great success with them. They last a long time
But the second thing you need to look for is what I spoke about a little bit earlier was non-proprietary
Again, there's a lot of proprietary companies out there. So a system like this uses non-proprietary filters
So the annual filter change, the cost of the four filters that need to be replaced once a year
is about $50 to $60, something like that, for all four filters
Where if you go with a proprietary system, you can easily be paying two or three times that
And, of course, the other big problem with the proprietary systems is, keep in mind, these things are meant to last 20 years
So if they change their design in five or ten years from now and stop making those proprietary filters, you're out of luck
You have to throw away the system because you can't service it anymore. So because of that, non-proprietary is definitely the way to go
So from what you just said, I think, I understand that keeping water filters at home, it's not that expensive, right
So you may charge once per installation and then whenever you need to change it, to clean it, there is another additional fee
And basically that's it. They don't really break down, right? So water filtration products are relatively inexpensive
So high efficiency made in North America, reverse osmosis drinking water system, which I believe every homeowner should have, is usually in the range of about $500 to $600
So it's not all that expensive and it's easily service. So you can service it once a year
A filter change is $60. And again, we have YouTube videos that show you how to do it
And so do other brands out there. But if you want to have somebody come in and do the work for you, they may be charging
something like $100 or something like that. A water softener, again, made in USA or made in North America water softener, like one of these
that used the clack valve, like our Hume water softener. for example, they're anywhere from $13 to $1,500 in and around that range
They might use about $100 worth of water salt a year, water softener salt a year to maintain them
And that's pretty much it. It's going to last you 20 years. And you'll get good service for those 20 years
So really, water filtration isn't all that expensive, especially when you consider how important it is to your family
And as I mentioned earlier, a water softener for a family of four will pretty much pay for
yourself in about two to three years with the amount of money it saves on soap and your water
using appliances. So definitely a good investment for every homeowner. What should consumers keep in
mind about costs and water waste with water filters? So we should always look at a system that's
highly efficient. That's very important. And over the years, water softers and other water filtration
equipment like our reverse osmosis of drinking water systems have become a lot more efficient However you still see some of the older designs like some of the reverse osmosis drinking water systems that I see advertised on Amazon we purchased one of those and we compared with how much water they waste compared to the made in USA high efficiency ones
They wasted five or six times as much water to give you the same drinking water as our high efficiency ones
So definitely that's important. And the same with water softens and other water filtration equipment
Make sure you look at something that's a modern design, like the Clack valve one that I'm referring to over here, because they waste far less water than the older design, the ones that have been, you know, there's water softners still sold out there that were designed 50 years ago
Well, they are super inefficient. Yeah, they're cheap, but they're super inefficient
And that's something that definitely everyone should avoid. Okay, and talking about getting rid of bad chemicals, as you mentioned before, is there a risk that when filtering, you can get rid of healthy and good essential water properties
like in the water. I mean, you can get rid not only of the bad ones
but of the good ones as well. What is the risk? Yeah, a very common question we get
about reverse osmoser drinking water systems is don't they remove everything from the water
Don't they remove all the good stuff and the bad stuff from the water? Well, first of all, they don't remove everything from the water
They remove about 90% of the minerals from the water. But the minerals they're removing, yeah
definitely they're removing a lot of the bad stuff, things like salt, PPCPs, the Pthas chemicals, things like that
That's definitely the case. But keep in mind, we get 95% of the minerals that we need in our body from our food
not from our water. And like I'll do a comparison. Like the people talk about calcium
So reverse osmosis does remove calcium from the water, but people need calcium in their diet
Absolutely, I agree. The thing is, one eight ounce glass of orange juice has the same amount of calcium as a bathtub
full of water. So since no one's drinking a bath tub full of water every day, but if they need
calcium, they're better off to drink one glass of orange juice. So in terms of what reverse
osmosis removes and the benefits that gives you far away the small amount of minerals that reverse
osmosis removes that are good for you. But keep in mind, the trade-off is definitely tilted toward
removing the bad stuff. What is the key message to consumers? And what tips could you give them to make easy their water filtration
So if you have a concern, where do you go to start looking at fixing it? Well, the first thing is discuss with your family what concerns you about your water
Because sometimes people, different members of the family are concerned about the smell of the water, the chlorine
Like I say, they might have sensitive skin and it's giving them rashes and things like that. So discuss with your family what concerns you about your water
Once you know what concerns you about your water, a little bit of research. Go on to YouTube, go on to Google
and find out some more information about what remedies that are available
Again, what concerns you about your water. Then from there, get a water ysis done
Now, if you're on city water, all you need to do is phone up your water provider
and say, hey, my family is concerned about the scale buildup. We're getting from our water
It's hard water. We'd like to know how hard our water is or our family's concerned about the mineral content in our water
We want to know what's the mineral content of our water. Once you've got that information, then you go and you search for someone that does water treatment
Now, if it's something you want to have done locally, you search for someone that does water treatment locally
And again, again, Google's your friend. Just go online and start searching for water treatment professionals
So I'm a certified water specialist. I always recommend that you, so I'm certified by the Water Quality Association
So that's a really good place to start. The WQA or Water Quality Association, they have a website and they list all of their members, both in Canada and the U.S
And so from there, that might be a good source of finding someone that can help you with your solution
Once you're talking about a solution, then you need to know that whoever is addressing your concern that they look at your water ysis
either they come and they test your water on site or they look at what the city's provided you
Now, if you're on well water or lake water, you'll definitely need to have that water tested
So either someone will test it locally for you or you'll send in a water sample to a lab and have it tested at the lab
So for people that don't have anybody nearby, so we have our e-commerce store, so we get people sending us water ysis all the time
And with that water ysis and a few more questions, we can put together a water filtration package for you
We ship it to you. We offer free shipping. Then you have a local plumber do the installation
But when you're considering about investing in water filtration equipment, definitely look for made in North America
That's huge. Because again, you know, products like this and products like this, you can find them made in North America
But build quality is much better. Again, also look for non-proprietary products
so you can get parts and you can get service. The beauty of non-proprietary is that there'll be all kinds of YouTube videos
that offer troubleshoot shooting help, maintenance help, installation help, if you want to install it yourself, and a lot of great information along those lines
So it's time to check out the filters. That's right. Great. Thank you, Gary, and have a nice day then
Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity