Water & Air – Filter Systems News

Photo by Steven Miller

Pictured (L-R) Heather Quinn, Filters Fast Local Service Division Manager, Allison Audet, Indian Trail Elementary School P.E. Teacher, Dee Rubina, Filters Fast Marketing Manager, Candice Boatright, Principal of Indian Trail Elementary School and Kym Moore, Filters Fast Brand Marketing Lead

On Tuesday February 14, 2012, the subsidiaries of Filters Fast LLC (FiltersFast.com, W3 Project: Work and Walk for Water and Filters Fast Local Service) surprised the teachers and staff of Indian Trail Elementary School, in Indian Trail, North Carolina with “Thank You for Being My Valentine” gifts. The company treasures the importance of what our hardworking teachers and administrators contribute to the growth and development of our children. Often, these hardworking professionals do not hear or receive our gratitude for what they do five days out of the week.

This is a critical time where we find so many of our schools suffering for basic core necessities due to budget cuts for the fiscal year. Many teachers have to use their personal money to provide these basic and much needed items for their students. For Valentine’s Day, Filters Fast wanted to reach out and simply say thank you to the hard working professionals at Indian Trail Elementary School. We hope that at least for one day, we were able to put a smile on their faces and let them know how very special they are to our community and the educational system.

Filters Fast wants to extend a special thank you to the following staff members from Indian Trail Elementary School who were instrumental in helping us to pull off our Valentine’s Day surprise and for working with us to help them with upcoming projects to benefit the school:

Candice Boatright, Principal
Kelly Ransbottom, Bookkeeper
Allison Audet, Physical Education Teacher

“Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.”
– Anthony J. D’Angelo

Photo Courtesy of myrecipes.com

The cold month of February is the perfect time for couples to cuddle up under blankets by the fire. Valentine’s Day also falls in February, so it is no stretch that this month is also known as Chocolate Lover’s Month. Even donut and coffee chain Dunkin’ Donuts is celebrating by introducing new donuts such as the Chocolate Chip Bagel Twist and Reverse Boston Kreme. Dunkin’ Donuts is also featuring heart shaped donuts for you and your sweetheart!

When it comes to chocolate, I usually prefer to eat it rather than drink it. However, every once in a while, a good cup of hot chocolate does just the trick. Nothing feels better than wrapping my hands around a warm cup of hot chocolate after being outside in the snow and wind. The following products will help get you that perfect cup every time:

Everpure EverHot Hot Water System with Chrome Faucet

                This complete undersink hot water system will provide you and your family with the highest quality water possible.  This system comes complete with a chrome faucet and can be installed under any sink. This system is also ideal for commercial applications. The maximum temperature of the Everpure EverHot is 190 degrees Fahrenheit, but can easily be adjusted lower. Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate as well as soup, oatmeal, pasta and more!

Everpure Solaria Instant Hot Water Dispenser

                This under sink hot water system will instantly provide you with hot water up to 190 degrees Fahrenheit. This hot water dispenser is also ideal for commercial applications. If you want to quickly and easily make a cup of tea or hot chocolate, than the Solaria Instant Hot Water Dispenser is for you!

Klean Kanteen Wide Mouth Insulated Bottle

                Need something to take that delicious hot chocolate with you on the road? The Klean Kanteen Wide Mouth Insulated Bottle can store up to 12 ounces of hot liquid including soup, stew and hot drinks.  This canteen is dishwasher safe and is made from food-grade stainless steel. This insulated bottle is the perfect accessory for a romantic stroll through the park on a cold night!

So whether you prefer to eat or drink your chocolate this month, get out there and celebrate Chocolate Lover’s Month!

Did you know that heart disease is the number one killer of American women? In order to raise awareness for heart disease and prevention, today has been deemed National Wear Red Day. Along with the American Heart Association, companies and individuals across the United States will be showing off their red. Here at Filters Fast, many of us came into work ready to paint the town red in our coordinated outfits.

Meet some of the members of the Filters Fast Marketing, Accounting, Purchasing and HR departments:

 Some of our awesome customer service team also participated:

Finally, Jennifer represented the Filters Fast Local Service team:

 So get out there and don your favorite red sweater, shirt, or dress today and raise awareness about heart disease!

Fracking. This controversial topic has made it to the headlines of many news centers across the country. Whether you are for or against it, the debate surrounding this hot topic issue is sure to be important now, and for generations to come. For those of you who are new to the issue, fracking is the process of pumping water and sand underground in hopes of freeing natural gas from underneath the rocks where it is trapped.   Small fractures occur naturally underground, allowing some of this natural gas to be extracted; however, fracking accelerates this process. Opponents of fracking argue that it will contaminate groundwater as well public drinking water systems.

Most recently, the fracking debate has heated up in New York.  Surprisingly, executive chefs, bakers, and restaurant owners are jumping into the frontlines of the debate. Many are making it their mission to raise awareness about the negative effects fracking can have on New York’s cuisine (Farley, thirteen.org). The organization, called Chefs for the Marcellus, has drawn the attention of some big name chefs, including the Food Network’s, Mario Battali. Battali’s four star restaurant, Del Posto gets much of its produce and meats from the farms in upstate New York, where the Marcellus Shale lies, and where Governor Cuomo would like to introduce hydrofracking.

Hoping to appeal to peoples stomachs, Battali and his chef comrades are insisting that fracking will impact the quality of their food. Executive Chef Brooks Headly of Del Posto is also extremely concerned about the effect fracking can have on New York’s eateries,insisting, “NYC is the greatest city of pizza, and a lot of people say that’s because of the water. If we destroy the water supply, we destroy New York pizza” (Farley,thirteen.org).

So, what do you think of the fracking debate? Do you oppose it because you believe it will contaminant groundwater and isn’t environmentally friendly? Are you for it because you believe it will decrease the price of gas and create jobs? Or, like Mario Battali, do you oppose it because you believe it will negatively affect the world-class cuisine found in New York City? Here at Filters Fast, we want to know what you think, so post your thoughts to our comment section or Facebook Page!

2011 is quickly drawing to a close, which means that 2012 is right around the corner. With the start of a new year we often think about what personal improvements we can implement to make our lives better or to leave a stronger footprint on the world. Have you thought about what resolutions you’d like to make? If you’re unsure, then USA.gov has listed several of the most common New Year’s Resolutions, which include:

Drink Less Alcohol; Eat Healthy Food; Get a Better Education; Get a Better Job; Get Fit; Lose Weight; Manage Debt; Manage Stress; Quit Smoking; Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle; Save Money; Take a Trip; Volunteer to Help Others

At Filters Fast, we can help you get started on achieving your New Year’s Resolutions.

Getting fit and losing weight is one of the most popular resolutions and with repeated trips to the gym you’ll need to make sure you stay hydrated. That’s why you’ll need the Vapur Anti Bottle Water Bottle – Blue 16 oz., a reusable Vapur water bottle that features a revolutionary space-saving design. Vapur water bottles are extremely flexible and almost entirely collapsible. They are designed to fit where ordinary water bottles do not, and when empty they will easily fit in your pocket, backpack, purse, briefcase, etc.

Quitting smoking is a difficult and rewarding task, so you want to make sure you remove all temptation and all remnants of the smell. That’s why we recommend the Filters Fast MERV 8 Odor Killer Odor Filter 6 Pack, which is the perfect replacement air filter to eliminate smoke odors, cigarette odors, pet odors, gases and other contaminants from your indoor air. While many standard activated carbon odor filters or charcoal odor filters remove odors from your air, the Odor Killer uses Gray Matter, an activated granular carbon material impregnated between two sheets of MERV 8 filter media.

Eating healthy food is sometimes difficult when you’re busy or always on-the-go, but the Klean Kanteen Wide Mouth Insulated Bottle – 12 oz. makes things much easier. The Klean Kanteen 12 oz bottle features a wide mouth to accommodate ice cubes, soup, stew, fruit, and much more, while the extra insulation helps to keep your drink cold or your food warm – it insulates hot beverages and food for up to 6 hours as well as cold beverages up to 24 hours. Now you’ll always have the option of carrying healthier items.

Is your home prepared for the upcoming snow, ice, sleet, and frost season? December 21st marks the first day of winter and it is only a short 15 days away.   As temperatures drop, your house will need a little more TLC to keep it running smoothly in the winter months. Here are some easy steps that can help prepare your home for winter:

A quick and easy solution is to change your furnace filters frequently. You will be using your heating system more often, and more air will be blown through the filter, leaving more particles behind. A clogged filter will not only restrict air flow, but will make your heating bill higher as the HVAC system will be working harder to push air through the filter. Consider the Filters Fast 6 Pack of MERV 13 filters. Keeping replacement filters in your home will keep your HVAC system working at its best, and the MERV 13 rating of this filter will keep mold, pet dander, mites and other allergens out of your homes air.

If you’re interested in further lowering your heating bill, consider a heat recovery ventilator, or HRV. These systems work with your HVAC system to provide fresh, warm air. Advances in home construction have improved insulation to the point where they are not properly ventilated. In the winter months, opening a window for ventilation will let your warm air escape outside and keep your heating bill sky high. The GeneralAire 8220 will supply fresh heated air into your home and works with your HVAC system.

If you like to have a little extra heat during the cold winter months, consider the Crane EE-6490. This attractive space heater for small rooms features an ultra slim design, automatic shut off, whisper quiet operation and electronic control with touch sensor buttons. This ultra quiet personal heater also has a remote control and is perfect to help you keep toasty warm in bed.

Prepare for the winter months with these easy solutions!

If the title of this blog post sounds familiar, it’s because we did one similar to it a few months ago, specifically on Brita and Mavea brand water pitchers. But that post was more about how to choose a water filter pitcher based on certain criteria. Once you’ve made your choice, you should know the best way to go about actually buying one. We recommend following these simple steps:

1. If you haven’t done so already, read our post on “How to Choose a Water Pitcher Filter.”

2. Organize the three considerations listed at the bottom of that post (contaminant removal, affordability, and design) by order of importance. Which of these is most important to you when deciding which pitcher to buy?

3. Check out our Buyer’s Guide on Pitcher Filters and click on the recommendations listed throughout the article for more information on each one.

4. Decide which water pitcher is best for your needs, go to the Filters Fast website, and add it to your shopping cart.

5. Complete the checkout process at FiltersFast.com. Be sure to go ahead order some backup compatible replacement filter cartridges while you’re at it!

There you have it. It’s that’s simple, folks.

Okay, so now that you’ve made it to the end of this post, we have a confession to make. Our main motive for writing this was to let you know about our Buyer’s Guide on Water Filter Pitchers. The only real difference between choosing and buying a water pitcher is step #5 – where you buy it from. In any case, we hope our Buyer’s Guide was able to point you in the right direction toward an informed decision. Until next time…

Water treatment scams are on the rise for the second time in Florida, despite decade-old efforts to crack down on swindlers. Scam artists like Jonathan Yacketta use false scare tactics to trick elderly women and other vulnerable people into buying expensive water treatments, claiming that their water is toxic and undrinkable. But Florida is not the only victim. Water treatment scams are common all over the world. You may recall a post we did a few months ago on a South Korean professor charged with fraud after claiming to invent a device that could turn regular tap water into “holy water.” (Professor Kim’s water treatment scam earned him over $1 million before he was finally arrested.)

So how do you avoid becoming the victim of a water scam? Here are five simple actions to ensure that neither you, nor your 83-year-old grandmother, get swindled:

1. Avoid contact with door-to-door water treatment salespeople.

2. Avoid unsolicited offers for a free water test. Instead, consider purchasing one of our drinking water test kits.

3. If concerned, have your water tested by a certified laboratory.

4. Don’t fall for the bottled water scam! Most bottled water is nothing more than filtered tap.

And last, but not least…

According to a recent article in Tampa Bay Online:

“Most dealers in the $3 billion-a-year industry, its representatives say, are honest sellers of equipment for removing chlorine and minerals and softening water from public utilities or private wells. They say rogue operations selling equipment at inflated prices through scare tactics and misleading information are the exception.”

I’m sure all of our customers could testify to the fact that we are the exception, rather than the rule. So, here is our final piece of advice:

… 5. When in doubt, buy your water filters from FiltersFast.com.

The Facebook giveaways are drawing to a close, but before they end, we want to hear from all of our Facebook fans:

What will you do with the $250 Visa gift card grand prize? (That is, if you win…)

We have launched a new poll (to the right) where you may cast your vote. The options are:

1. Pay your water bill.

2. Buy a new water filter system (from Filters Fast, of course!)

3. Buy an air purifier

4. Give it away to a water charity

5. Other

Of course you don’t have to do any of these things. These are just our suggestions. We have included “other” as an option, in case you have a better idea. All we ask is that if you choose “other”, please specify what you will do in a comment on our Facebook page. We have also given you the option to choose more than one answer – in hopes that your water bill is significantly less than $250 (as it should be, if you’re doing your part to conserve and take care of our planet!)

If you have read this far and have no idea what we’re talking about, click here to see how you can enter to win $250 and more with Filters Fast!

Happy polling!

Wild Island Family Adventure Park in Sparks, Nevada is proud to be the first outdoor water park to have all its pools equipped with UV filtration. Though many water parks are beginning to implement UV filters, they are not installed in all pools, because this type of filtration is significantly more expensive than the traditional chlorine method. For the officials at Wild Island Park, however, the system is worth the high investment.

UV filtration eliminates parasites and microorganisms that are resistant to chlorine, such as cryptosporidium and giardia. Chlorine reacts with microorganisms in the water resulting in dangerous byproducts like chloramines and trihalomethanes which can cause allergies and other, more serious respiratory problems. Chlorine itself is also harsh on skin and eyes. The UV system destroys all bacteria in the water that passes through it, preventing microbes from re-entering the pool. Moreover, UV light has a photo-oxidation effect that destroys chloramines and other harmful byproducts of chlorine without the addition of more chemicals. Thus, the UV system cuts down on the use of chlorine as a disinfectant. Water park visitors have claimed that they could “feel the difference” upon exiting the pool. 

Chlorine is not just a problem in swimming pools. Since it is a common disinfecting method used by municipal water treatment plants, chlorine is often present in the water you drink and use for bathing. Chlorine in drinking water often causes water to have an undesirable taste and odor and can be toxic in large amounts. Many refrigerator filters, faucet water filters and undersink filters reduce or remove chlorine. Showering in chlorinated water can also result in dry, itchy skin and upper respiratory problems, especially when the water is hot and you breathe in the vapors. Shower water filters can also cut down on water chlorine levels. For healthy drinking water that is not treated with chlorine, or that is contaminated with parasites that are resistant to chlorine, Filters Fast carries several UV water filters to suit your needs.