Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Handy Mac, aka Don MacAlister, is our expert on household DIY issues
KIEYAM asks:
Q:
You mentioned spending R6 000 to use wellpoint water for the pool and a further R7 000 to use it for washing.
Please advise what equipment and chemicals you had to buy and outline the cleaning process.
A:
I am unwilling to give you an absolute guarantee about what you need as it depends on the state of your water and what you want to do with it.
There are many chancers out there, doing cheap jobs to earn a buck, whose systems don’t work. Conversely there are the rip-off artists trying to sell you a system for R100 000, which is overkill. You can have your water tested at a cost of between R150 and R1 500.
Of course, this is all governed by what we are going to be allowed to do with the water under our properties. The goalposts are moving by the day. Who knows what the next edict from the council will be?
The council’s main concern, and I really believe this, is that we are going to poison ourselves or, if any “bad” water gets back into the general system, we will poison others. The two main points are you must have non-return valves fitted so there can be no leak-backs and you must not drink the water unless it has gone through a three-stage filter system and an ultra-violet process, to kill off the nasties.
Last week I recommended Sam’s Irrigation. I have been in and out for the past week getting my stuff for installation. He’s bending over backwards to help, but is wilting under the pressure. He remains my go-to guy, but you are going to have to be patient. The supply of tanks is drying up fast and I have had to change from 1 000 litre tanks to 2 500l tanks because of supply problems.
In my case, the equipment consists of two 2 500 litre tanks, an air pump, air stone and submersible pump, plus another pump to pump the water out of the second tank and a pressure switch to control the pump when you open a tap.
The basic process is water is pumped into tank one and aerated, then passed to tank two to be treated and to adjust the PH. The chemicals will vary with water type, but basically it’s done with alum and soda ash.