Water Treatment

AB&R Plumbing now offers water treatment to all our Orange County customers!



I won't even ask if you are spending too much on bottled water. If you are buying bottled water, you are spending too much. Can you believe more than $1.50 for 12 ounces of water!? And you don't even know if the water is any good or not!



When you are talking about drinking water, you usually measure what is called Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in Parts Per Million (PPM). TDS is basically a measurement of everything dissolved in your water, that is not water. It can't tell you how much of it is lead or sodium or phosphorus or iron, it just tells you the total. An easy way to think of PPM is, if you had 1 million ounces of water, at 500 PPM, 500 ounces of that water would not be water. Typical Southern California tap water is between 350 and 500 PPM.

So, what do you do? You can buy bottled water! That's expensive, you have to lug the bottles home from the store, you end up throwing away 9or hopefully recycling) a lot of plastic. You can't even be sure if you are getting good quality water! One of the major brands of water sold in stores today (it was VERY trendy a few years back and it's one of the more expensive brands) tells you right on the label that they have 309 parts per million of dissolved solids in their water!

This stuff is almost the same as your tap water, and they want you to pay more than $2.00 a liter for it!!!!!

Talk to your friends who have them and you will find that a home reverse osmosis system, installed under your kitchen sink, gives you bottled-quality-or-better water for only pennies a gallon.

Many of the major water bottlers use reverse osmosis to purify their water and then they sell that water to you. You can cut out the middle man, spend a lot less than $6.00 a gallon, and get clean, fresh, purified water right at your kitchen sink.

Contact us today for more information about a home reverse osmosis drinking water system or whole house water softener today

We are going to be increasing our content on our website to include more information about reverse osmosis and water softeners. Keep an eye out for that info and, in the meantime, if you have any questions, just contact us.



Now a little bit about your author (that's me!)

I have been in the water treatment field for more than 20 years. I started out in Boston with a company that is now (I believe) the largest privately held home & office water treatment company on the east coast. (My brother owns it, so I'm kind of proud!)

After Boston, I moved to a more central part of the state and started my own home & office water treatment company. After 3 years, I sold that company (to my brother) and moved to California.

In California, I helped a friend start a third water treatment company in Santa Ana. I left after about 5 years.

I am now working for AB&R Plumbing. We are using their expertise in plumbing, combined with my expertise in water treatment, to bring the best of both worlds to you.

So, since I lived in the Boston area for all those years, can you guess what my favorite baseball team is? That's right! The Pittsburgh Pirates! (Just kidding, it's the Red Sox!) Any other baseball fans out there? Keep it clean, especially you Yankee fans!

Sesame/Ellu Chikkis

Sesame seeds/Til/Ellu comes in white and black. While googling found it comes in a tan color too,but that is not popular. Anyways, I am used to white and black only. In my house, I have seen more of black than the white. Ellu has religious significance too for Hindus. On most of the poojas, laddus or other sweets made of ellu and jaggery is offered as Neivadyam.

Amma always makes ellu urundai (sesame balls). For a change instead of making balls, I tried making chikkis of it. Either black or white can be used. I had some black sesame seeds left after being purchased for a pooja. Using black makes the cleaning process a bit messy.

Some nutrient info on Sesame seeds

Sesame seeds are a very good source of copper and a good source of magnesium and calcium. Not only are sesame seeds a very good source of manganese and copper and calcium, but they are also a good source of iron, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc and dietary fiber. In addition to these important nutrients, sesame seeds contain two unique substances: sesamin and sesamolin. Both of these substances belong to a group of special beneficial fibers called lignans, and have been shown to have a cholesterol-lowering effect in humans, and to prevent high blood pressure and increase vitamin E supplies in animals. Sesamin has also been found to protect the liver from oxidative damage. Rich In Beneficial Minerals.

(Source:WHFoods)

Before you get bored and stop reading this, I shall go the recipe now.

Sesame seeds/Ellu/Til - 1 cup

Powdered jaggery - 1/2 cup

Wash and soak the seeds in water for half an hour. Drain and let it dry on a kitchen towel for 10 minutes. When using black, the skin will come out on soaking. So you will need to wash 2/3 times to discard the skin that has come off. Dry roast the sesame seeds in a kadai till you can smell the flavor. Also as it gets roasted, the seeds will start crackling. When you hear more of the crackling sound, remove from fire.

Boil with jaggery with 1/2 cup of water. Strain to remove any impurities.

Take a kadai, add the strained jaggery liquid. Jaggery syrup should be thick and it is called 'thakkali paagam'. Thakkali/tomato is used to signify the color of the syrup. To test for the consistency drop a spoon of syrup in cold water. You should be able to roll into a ball and when dropped from a height, you should be hear the sound of it hitting the surface. With the amount of jaggery mentioned, this stage will be reached quickly.

Slowly add the roasted seeds to the jaggery syrup. Mix well and cook for few minutes, till it come together. Transfer to a greased plate and press down with a spatula. When warm, mark the pieces using a knife. Dip the knife in cold water as you mark to avoid sticking. I got 12 pieces with this measurement.

When cool, it will be crunchy. Store in an airtight container.

This goes to Mythrayee, who is celebrating the sweet series with chikkis and laddus for the current month.

and to Sangeeth, who has called for Calcium rich food

Great TOH Post on Finding a Contractor

There is a great new post by Sal Vaglica on This Old House Online called How to Use Contractor Referral Websites that is a perfect adjunct to my article on finding, interviewing and selecting contractors on my web site.

Sal's article details how to use the services such as Angie's List and Servicemagic to find a contractor when you don't have the usual resources like coworkers, friends and family to ask for referrals.

I tried a couple of the services myself (Servicemagic and its predecessor, ImproveNet), years ago, to market my services before I discovered the (wonderful) world-wide-web.

I found that paying for "leads", when the service was unwilling to include detailed budget questions in their questionnaire, was not very fruitful for me.

My clientele tends to be a small percentage of the overall population of consumers looking for kitchen design services. They are mostly middle class people with difficult kitchens that require a lot of remodeling and a designer with a "fresh eye". They also put more dollars into their projects than the average because of their complexity. Thank GOODNESS the web came along!

I think the referral sites work better for contractors though. It gives them a chance to connect with new potential clients who aren't friends of friends, or are new in town.

I also think Angie's List is well worth the cost because you get to read other consumers' thoughts on working with the individual or company AFTER they have had the experience...and the comments are unsolicited.

It is certainly de rigeur to ask a contractor, or anyone else you are contemplating hiring, for references; however you must understand that those references are going to be among their happiest clients.

I like to ask for a reference who had problems on the job as well. That way I'll learn how the individual performs under adverse conditions and problem-solves.

So, if you (and all your friends) are new to remodeling and looking for a contractor, try Angie's List. I bet you'll be glad you did.

Peggy