Brampton Guardian - Water Purity Serious

BRAMPTON - When it comes to household pipes, Brampton plumber Roberto Luongo wants to make clean as many of them as he can. That's why his company, Bossco Plumbing, has expanded to include water purification systems. He wants to free pipes of grime and gunk and make water more potable for customers.

"We're in people's homes every day and what is happening is we are finding hardness in the water. We are finding contaminants in the water," Luongo said. In recent weeks, a lot of attention has been paid to the potential harm posed by lead piping in older homes throughout the GTA. Luongo, whose company has teamed up with EcoWater Canada, a firm that manufactures water softeners and reverse osmosis (RO) filters, said his business has boomed as a result of people wanting to guard against contamination.

Purifying Water

In addition to offering standard residential plumbing services, including the replacement of lead piping, Luongo's business installs purifiers that remove contaminants and calcium-magnesium from the municipal water system.

"In a home that is prior to 1955, you are definitely going to have lead in your water system. Also, the solder joints before 1990 were filled with lead, which can be very harmful," Luongo explained. "We can reduce those by the RO system, not allowing any lead through potable water."

Many subdivisions in Brampton are comprised of newer dwellings but Luongo said pipes in homes that are less than 15 years old are not exempt from wear and tear. For instance, in order to remove bacteria and harmful pathogens from the water supply, municipalities add chemicals like chlorine.

However, in doing so, municipal water systems dispense enough chlorine to eat away at fixtures.

Luongo said the products he installs could prolong the life of fixtures by five to 10 years.

"Basically we have a lot of repeat business, which is good for us but not good for the customer," Luongo quipped. "And a lot of that repeat business we get is because of the hardness in the water. Hard water deteriorates appliances and rubber gaskets in fixtures are being eaten away with chlorine, which means homeowners are getting more leaks. The hardness of the water is beating up on fixtures and we want to help that."

The technology used is a type of RO, which is essentially molecular filtration.

Only pure water molecules pass through the filter making it "soft" and thereby removing any calcium magnesium build-up and chlorine taste. Commercial RO units vary in price and technology and therefore it is best to research the product thoroughly before going ahead with a purchase. "The drinking water is handled with our reverse osmosis system. It's anywhere from a three to five stage membrane technology system...membranes separate and dissolve solvents, minerals and metals from the water supply. They get flushed out and you're left with pure quality drinking water," added Sal Schillaci, EcoWater national sales manager. "Basically we bring the water back to what nature gave us: H2O to begin with, not H2O plus Ca (Calcium) and Fe (Iron) so on and so forth. It's just pure drinking water."

Water hardness, explained Schillaci, is measured in grains per gallon.

Most of the water in the GTA is eight grains hard or the equivalent of having two aspirin tablets dissolved into your water supply. For customers interested in the water treatment system, Luongo said employees perform a number of tests to determine the water quality. "Then we offer two solutions: one is a softener, which will reduce the hardness and the other is an RO system, which will take the contaminants out of the water," Luongo said. I've done a lot of research on products and nothing compares to the quality of this system."

For more in formation on the water filtration products call Bossco Plumbing at 1-888-888-1108 or visit online at www.boscoplumbing.com or EcoWater Canada at www.ecowater.ca.

Reviews:--
Just a note to tell you how pleased we are with our RO water treatment system. I will be writing a more formal thank you soon, but I thought I would start with a quickie e-mail.
The system does an amazing job of improving the taste and smell of our over-chlorinated town water. It is quite compact and very tidy under our sink. I was very impressed with the contractor who installed the unit---so, thank you to all!
Sheila

I just wanted to send you a quick note letting you know about the great service we received today. Both technicians were professional, efficient, courteous and very knowledgeable. Please let the owner/operator know we would definitely use your services again and recommend Bosco to others in need of similar services.
Lesley and Mike McNamara

I just wanted to say thank you for the good work that Mathew did in my home today. He was courteous, helpful and efficient. I appreciate working with a company that makes one feel confident and at ease and that has been my experience from the first phone call to the work done.
...Eva
Thornhill, Ontario

I just spoke to Rob and he is very pleased. Matt showed up when he said he would assessed the situation and fixed it.
I am going to send out an email to our Woodbridge, Concord and Bradford plants saying that if you have plumbing requirements call Bosco.
It is a pleasure to work with a company that truly understands the importance of customer service.
Regards
Paul