Lime in plumbing causing problems

[Robert Wade]

Good afternoon all,  I have a 6 unit apartment building in a small rural town that has issues with lime in the water.  It is causing problems with what seems to be just one unit in the building. Is there anything besides putting in a softner in that may eliminate lime making its way thru the pipes?

[Jason S.]

The most cost effective option is in my opinion also the best option . I’ve installed over 100 of these in Houston Tx and I know for a fact that they work well to eliminate the problem your having. It’s called Aquios. Now they market it as a water softener but I think that’s misleading and wrong. I refer to it as a water conditioning system because it does not soften the water. It uses a food grade additive called Polyphosphate/siliphos. It keeps the hard water from sticking to and tearing everything up. If you have a hardness of say 388ppm and you install this hoping to have soft water well your test will come back 388ppm. That’s why I don’t refer to it as a softener. It does work however. It will clean up existing scale in the system. There’s no salt to lug around, no backwashing, no electricity. I typically see filter changes 9months to 1 year depending on the usage and how bad the water is. For a fraction of the cost of a softener with the same overall results it can’t be beat. I’m in no way affiliated with aquios and there are others out there I’m sure but I’ve only installed aquios because I have proven favorable results from it. It runs about $450 if your just getting a single unit.