Cleaner, conserved and refreshing water with Arizona Pool Water Recycling
By Tyler Hurst
For pool owners, short of building new or major remodeling, there are few expenses more time consuming and costly than draining a pool to clean it. There are the days or weeks of downtime, the expense of pumping in new water, and the knowledge that thousands of gallons of precious water are being swept into the sewer. With nearly 20 years in the pool business, Steve Ward of Ward’s Pool Service and Supply knows this well.
In 2014, after tiring of seeing full pool drains every other year as the default option for water cleaning, Ward found California-based company Pure Water Industries. Pure Water makes trailer-portable and high-pressure reverse osmosis filtration systems that can restore most pool water to bottled-water quality without downtime. He created Arizona Pool Water Recycling as a division of his existing company and introduced the system to the local market in 2017.
“If you take care of your water, you could potentially reduce the need to drain your pool to do an acid wash on it, because you’re keeping your water better balanced,” Ward said. “You could potentially keep the tile cleaning from needing to be done because you’re keeping the calcium level lower in your pool.”
Ward’s goal is to help keep pools clean with as few chemicals and with as little water wasted as possible. Four to five gallons of foodgrade sodium metabisulfite are used for dechlorination per pool, but his system does the rest. This system, hauled by a Ford F-250, can fit in most driveways or on streets in front of homes as long as it’s within
a couple hundred feet of the water. An averaged-sized residential pool, about 15,000 gallons, takes the better part of the day and sometimes the night to work. With 85 percent water retention, they’re able to service at least one property most days of the week, saving up to five million gallons of water per year.
“Pool stores have been telling you that you need to drain your pool all summer, but you can’t because it’s too hot. We’re an alternative,” Ward says.
The membrane filters in the trailer are cleaned by Tempe-based Falcon Water Tech, which often has recycled options from semiconductor companies that need greater than 99.5 percent purity. Ward happily uses the ones that barely miss that cut, further reducing waste.
Customers are happy with results. At around $500 to $600 per clean, it’s cost-effective compared to existing methods, often with better results.
“They’ll talk about the smoothness of the water. We get people that even comment and say that it tastes better. Everybody gets water in their mouth, and I’ve got emails that say, ‘The splash in my mouth doesn’t make me wrinkle up my nose anymore!’ It’s a refreshing pool,” said Ward.
One customer even saw his dogs drinking from the pool again after not doing so for months. For more information or to schedule an appointment, see arizonapoolwaterrecycling.com or call 480-826-2612.
