Why Do Fairbanks, AK Homes Urgently Need Water Softener Installation?
PROSPECTOR PLUMBING
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Why Do Fairbanks Homes Urgently Need Water Softener Installation?
In all of Alaska, Fairbanks has the hardest water. At a level of 142 PPM, its water has a destructive amount of calcium and magnesium. Homeowners in this city see the importance of quality water softener installation.
If you are a new homeowner, you can avoid massive losses by installing a water softener. Prospector Plumbing offers installations that fit your household needs.
Is Hard Water a Health Risk?
Hard water may not be a health risk, but it could lead to the discoloration of teeth. While you can use hard water and prevent teeth discoloration with proper dental care, hard water has other effects that could harm your welfare and finances.
If you’re not careful, hard water can cause your water heater to explode, so it’s best to err on the side of caution.
What Are the Signs of a Hard Water Supply?
Hard water contains high levels of minerals that cause rusting in your pipes and plumbing appliances. Hard water could even block pipes as calcium sediments build up on the inner surfaces.
You can tell your water supply is hard when:
- The water tastes salty. Hard water is not poisonous, but it tastes terrible. You may need to keep buying bottled drinking water.
- You observe white mineral spots. Hard water leaves white spots on utensils. If you boil such water, you’re likely to see white mineral suspensions forming.
- Soap doesn’t lather in the water. Soap doesn’t lather well with hard water. The minerals saturate the water, and the soap mostly forms scum.
- Clothes harden after washing. Hard water is not a fabric softener. It can make the fabric of your clothes feel uncomfortably rigid.
- Washing dries your skin and hair. Hard water is terrible for your hair and skin. Your beauty products are likely to backfire when used with such water.
- The test confirms it. You can always get a test kit if you want to know the concentration of minerals in your water supply.
- Your water heater loses efficiency and starts making popping sounds.
The calcium in hard water forms lines the heating coil in your boiler and keeps the water from heating. The calcium layer also traps air. Popping sounds occur as the trapped air tries to escape when the heater is working.
Can Hard Water Really Cause an Explosion?
It’s rare, but hard water can cause water heaters to explode. Residents in Fairbanks are at more significant risk due to the 142 PPM water hardness. So, how do water heater explosions occur?
Water heaters burst due to an intense build-up of pressure. When calcium insulates the heating coil, pressure builds. If you don’t flush the sediments, the pressure could escape in an explosion.
It helps to clear away the calcium sediments whenever your heater starts making popping sounds. You can always call on your favorite plumber in Fairbanks to flush water heaters.
However, the lasting solution includes installing a water softener. This prevents sediments from accumulating in your boiler.
Top 6 Benefits of Water Softener Installation
Water softeners remove hard minerals and make your water user-friendly. Make sure your entire supply goes through the water softener. You don’t want the hard water flowing into your pipes and appliances.
Water softener installation may also reduce household costs in the following ways:
1. The Amount of Soap You Use Will Reduce
Soaps and detergents don’t easily lather in hard water. Most of your soap gets wasted by forming soap scum. Softening the water will reduce waste. Your clothes will also feel softer and last longer.
2. Your Pipes and Faucets Last longer
Removing minerals in hard water reduces rusting in your faucets and metallic pipes.
3. You’ll Need Fewer Beauty Products
Softening your water supply means your skin and hair will become more moisturized. You won’t need to spend extra on beauty products. Additionally, your self-esteem will improve.
4. Your Water Heater Will Last Longer
Calcium build-up inside your boiler adversely affects its lifespan. Soft water installation reduces the rate of mineral sediments building in your water heater. Besides having a longer lifespan, your heater will work with increased energy efficiency.
5. Your Utensils Won’t Keep Staining
Homeowners with hard water are likely accustomed to the chore of replacing stained utensils. Because hard water stains utensils, softening water reduces the need to replace your utensils.
6. Dish Washers and Coffee Makers Will Last longer
Dishwashers and coffee makers don’t last long when you use them with hard water. Rusting and sediment build-up ruin the heating function of these kitchen appliances. Don’t forget that your showerheads fit in this category.
Should There Be Water in Your Brine Tank?
There’s a reason why Prospector Plumbing doesn’t recommend DIY soft water installations. Most DIY installations fill the brine tank with excess water.
Never fill your brine tank with water. You need to contact us whenever the brine tank water level goes above the indicated brine line.
Your water softener loses effectiveness when there’s more water than the marked level. Always check the brine tank as you continue using your installation.
Best Plumber Fairbanks: How Much Do Water Softener Installations Cost?
Every household presents different complexities during installation. Water softeners serve entire households, so we always install them at the main water inlet.
Your house could need a small, medium, or large brine tank for the water softener. It depends on:
- The size of your house
- The installation of the main water inlet
- How much water your household consumes
Thus, water softener installation costs differ among households. Homeowners can always call for a free estimate. You can also contact us online via our website.
Water softeners immediately start working after installation is complete. Our plumbers always bring a test kit to make sure your house has access to soft water. We can even taste it to make sure you should be buying drinking water for your household.
Get in touch with Prospector Plumbing at (907) 322-5763 to get free quotes and fast service for water softener installation.
THERE’S A REASON WE HAVE
5 STAR REVIEWS!
Jobs done right and in depth. Ryland, Morgan, and Bobby were all skilled technicians who have been able to teach us more about our house and do a great job.
Ryland Ellis did a great job with our plumbing issues. Thank you for the great service
Service provided was boiler tuneup and maintenance. Professional quality service all around. Jared, our technician, was courteous and very detailed with his work. He also took his time to discuss and explain things and offered options. Company is responsive, with courteous communication. One thing to note is, you’re gonna pay for what you get. Service, parts and labor are very pricey!
Save your wallet and don’t use this company. I’ve used this company in the past, and they were great and fair, but my last repair was an absolute horrible experience.I had a problem with the furnace at my rental property not producing heat, so I called this company. They showed up promptly and their tech assessed the problem, and told me I needed to have certain parts replaced. Now I wasn’t at my rental property at the time to confirm the issue, I simply relied on their technician’s advice.Hours later, the tech had his parts and did the repair… only to realize what he thought was the problem, was not in fact the problem, MY NEST THERMOSTAT WAS DEAD THE WHOLE TIME! The tech then realized that was something he should’ve checked from the beginning and apologized for his inaccurate diagnostic, and left. I then had to charge my Nest thermostat and my furnace started producing heat!!!Now this company is attempting to charge me $952, FOR MY THERMOSTAT BEING DEAD! The tech that came to my home is clearly incompetent, as if he knew how to do his job correctly, the thermostat (of which was located directly above his head at the furnace) would have been checked before anything else.Now the manager is being completely unreasonable with adjusting my invoice to reflect what work SHOULD HAVE been done (a call out fee and parts) and also will not give me a breakdown of the charges for the work performed, just a total, and is continuously harassing myself and my husband for full payment.This should company understand that what they are doing is not right, and they need to make it right. Do yourself a favor and call a company that actually cares about their customers and has technicians that actually do their job correctly from the beginning.
Jared was so polite and very knowledgeable about his work. I definitely recommend.
I would recommend Prospector Plumbing and Heating. I cannot begin to describe how amazing this company is! My boiler completely shut off and blew soot EVERYWHERE in my house. The technician Ryland Ellis was prompt, polite, extremely helpful, and very patient with my many questions. He even cleaned up the boiler room and helped me remove the door to the room to ensure proper air flow at all times. Then after applying my member discount he worked with me to come up with an affordable invoice solution! I would highly recommend this company to anyone who needs them! Thank you so much Prospector Plumbing and Heating and Ryland!!! 12/10!
Kevin provided high quality service.He is very knowledgeable and explained the necessary repair with meThank you. I will certainly use your company for future service
Good service. Price was reasonable. Fixed my issue within a day. I recommend them
Ryland was very informational and knowledgeable about the specific fix and possible future system upgrades.
Kevin was amazing! Very professional and informative! He was willing to answer any of the random silly questions I had! And it got the work done super quick! If I could give more stars I would 1000/10
Efficient, willing to take the time to teach, and answers questions. Great service
Showed up ..cleaned and refurbished my furnace!! Very affordable!!Totally awesome job!! Thank you !!Have been a customer for 3 or 4 yearsWill continue to be loyal!!
Best plumbers in Fairbanks. These guys really know what they’re doing! Amazing new boiler installs.
Tony came out to service our boiler and we had him fix our dreaded drippy kitchen sink, and fix a previous repair in our shower. The last tech switched the hot and cold nozzle which was annoying when we had guests, or gave the kids a bath for that matter. They would be waiting around for hot water that wasn’t coming because it had to be on the cold setting. He explained the membership thoroughly and answered all our questions where as in the past the techs would rush through the membership talk which made it not appealing. He also gave us 3 options on fixing our sink, where as the previous tech had told us we would have to replace the entire faucet, which would be our last resort. Tony was the best, we will be requesting him by name from this point forward. He deserves a raise too! Thanks again Tony, so so happy my sink is fixed and it’s not a constant fight when I try to turn off the water!!
What a hero! I had to be at my son’s party in 30mins and Nick came by and just got the job done in a amazing time. I appreciate his efficiency and hard work.
Fantastic service. Our tech Nick was the best. Our wiring was a nightmare and nothing worked. Real diagnostic technicians at prospectors.
We have been using them over the last couple of years and they do great work. With 15 units the get the job done in a timely manner. Always up-front with an estimate before they do the work. Would recommend them to anyone.
I would give Nick ten starts if I could. Just far exceeded our expectations in every way. We look forward to working with him on future projects and will highly recommend to all we know!
Kevin was professional and very thorough. Very personal and able to answer all my questions.
One of the few services in Fairbanks worth every penny. Great service and great people.
From the scheduling team to the technicians who come out, we have never had a bad experience with prospector plumbing and heating. We have seen Andrew, Jared and Ryland and have never received anything short of superb service. They always go above and beyond to make sure their customers are well taken care of. Thank you!
Job was done very professionally and timely. Morgan was polite and professional.
Andrew’s a total pro – thought through and discussed with me many different options for solving some very tough and worsening issues with a failing water heater. Highly recommend his work, and also the Prospector team/org!
Great experience with Prospector. They are our first call with an heating or plumbing issues.
Prospector is one of my favorite and few companies to use in Fairbanks. They are so kind and professional. All the techs are great and the girls in the office are outstanding! We really appreciate them and their hard work.
Ryland did an awesome job accessing the situation and explaining his approach and observation. He was very professional and knowledgeable.
Very communicative and helpful during the process. Every time someone comes out they walk me through the process and make me feel very comfortable with everything they are working on!
Did everything they promised, in the time frame and cost that they promised. They’re not the cheapest in town, but so far are proving to do the best work and are great to deal with. And are incredibly patient with all my dumb questions!
Bobby was very nice, quick and clean. I will go through this company if I have any other plumbing needs!!!
Bobby is very efficient and explains the problem like I am an intelligent person, which is great as a woman.
We had a great experience with for our time using Prospectors and look forward to use them again
Help out a lot and he was good at what he does and good at showing and talking you through it all
Ryland was very thorough and knowledgeable dealing with our problem.
Nice professional young man. Very excited to explain things. You are lucky to have him
Ryland was outstanding in the support he provided. He explained the issue and worked on the job until completion. He was profession in every way.
Customer service top notch through and through Tonya, Nick, and Natalie! Can’t say enough kudos for them. Just amazing service all around!! Thank you to the folks at Prosecutors!!! 🤗
I had the pleasure of working with Nick as my technician. You can tell this team is working hard as winter approaches. Despite having been hunkered down in crawl spaces all day, Nick had a great attitude about addressing our boiler in yet another crawl space. He was friendly, and communicated extremely well what was happening with the heating system. He provided his recommendation but also offered other options at different price points. I felt very informed when making my decision!
Bobby showed up on time, assessed the issue and was able to work resolution all within an hour. I appreciate Prospector Plumbing and Heating employees. Always appreciate the timeliness of response and effort to help solve issues. Thank you!
They were awesome. A lil behind for the scheduling but work happens. They took great care of us. Jarrod was awesome, very friendly.
My Wife and I are extremely pleased with the service performed by Mr. Tony Juneau representing Prospector Plumbing. His knowledge and willingness to take a moment to discuss the procedure with us was a breath of fresh air. Thank you
Very knowledgeable and personable. Informed me on how things worked and recommended preemptive maintenance with the reasons behind it that made sense to me. 10/10 would recommend.
I always request my heating technician Andrew, since he is honest, very knowledgeable, and trustworthy. Someone I trust in my home. He has always been thorough in the job and explanation.
Ryland did a great job on our annual check and tune-up. We’re very happy with Prospector.
Nic is always a Professional . Explained what he was doing as he was performing the repair. Up front with no surprises. Fast and efficient. Have used multiple times and Will use Prospector Plumbing and Heating in the future.
Nic was great. He identified each problem, explained to me what needed to be done, and then did it. I highly recommend Nic.
Nick was great. Explained what was going on and advice on some issues was amazingly helpful. Will use again.
Ryland was professional and informative. He explained all costs up front and talked us through our system, providing some advice and tips we’d not been given in the past. We will be using Prospector going forward.
On time, on target. Explained everything well and ensured the area was thoroughly cleaned up afterwards. Thanks!!
Bobby came to my home to address my clogged kitchen sink. He explained what was going on, how he was going to fix it, and even gave me a little history of the homes in the area and what causes similar issue that I was having. Bobby also showed me how to personally fix a few smaller things around my house before he left. A true professional that I will use again!
Technician showed up on time, was very helpful and knowledgeable, and gave me realistic expectations of what my situation needed. I signed up for the membership and have another appointment scheduled for later in the month. Bobby was friendly and fun to talk to!
Nick Ely is truly a master mechanic. He was able to fix a cantankerous fuel line leak in a tight spot for our old house. When one thing didn’t work, he tried another and then another until he solved the problem. Nick always does this with a smile. He’s both talented and nice. Thanks for the excellence all around, Nick. You’re terrific!
Bobby was EXCELLENT! He showed me everything he was doing and explained everything as he went along. I was kept in the loop on everything! It’s an extensive job and he waited to give me the estimate until he knew what was involved.I greatly appreciate the service and I would highly recommend them!
Edit*****After leaving what I felt was a fair and honest review about my experience, I was contacted by their customer support team who was genuinely interested in hearing my side and seeing what they could do better as a company. He was very professional, and went above and beyond to make sure that my total experience with the company met my expectations.*****Their tech, Ryland, gave my system 2000 a tuneup. He was knowledgeable and professional and made sure he answered all my questions.I did have some snags with the company that were unexpected. I had selected Prospector Plumbing due to their high rating despite their comparatively high price. We set up an appointment for the 8-10:00 timeframe, and I drove home from work to start waiting at 8:00. After not hearing anything by 10:20, I called their receptionist, who said they would reach out to the driver. When they called back, they said they were at least another hour out, and I decided to reschedule the appointment. They were apologetic and offered a 5% discount on my service.On the morning of my second appointment, I got a text at 8:40 introducing my driver and saying he was on the way. He arrived at 9:00 and started on the boiler. He did a thorough job, and I had no problems with his work.When it came time to pay for the $600 annual plan (cheaper than the stand-alone tuneup cost), the tech said the 5% off wouldn’t apply. When they offered the discount, there was no mention that it wouldn’t apply to the annual plan. Since the annual plan is cheaper than a stand-alone tuneup, it is expected that people just get the annual plan, which is what the receptionist had recommended. This would have made a difference whether I just went with another company or gave them another chance with a second appointment.Ryland, if you’re reading this, I would totally hire you to come back and work on my boiler again, but my experience with the “company” side was less than I expected for the price point.
Nick was great, he got all problems diagnosed and fixed, he was kind and genuinely seemed happy to do it!
Very friendly, professional and respectful. I will definitely use them again!
Ryland installed two Toyo heaters in our house. He did a very professional job and we are more than satisfied with his work.
I had a great experience with Prospector Plumbing. The person that came out was very nice and professional. They worked quickly and explained what they where doing and why in a way that I understood without making me feel like I am an idiot. The few times I contacted the office the people on the phone where very friendly and efficient. It is easy to make appointment that works around my schedule. I would recommend this business to anyone that needs any work done on their furnace.
This young man was courteous and professional. I was very impressed with his knowledge of furnaces and the house well water system. He got us up and running in a short amount of time. Now our furnace is good to go for this winter and our water system is better than it ever was I highly recommend prospector.
Good service in uncommon in Fairbanks.We have been happy with Prospector for work on our propane range, home boiler, and garage Toyo boiler. Morgan and Andrew did excellent work.We have lived in Fairbanks for over 30 years and Prospector Plumbing had refreshingly excellent service, excellent communication, and a good value fixing our shower leak. (Excellent service is rare in Fairbanks) Also used them for boiler tuneup ($380). Most recently our boiler shutdown due to recirculating pump failure. As promised, they were on site the next morning to fix the problem.We had another Fairbanks company quote much higher for our toyo boiler repairs.
Ryland did a very good and quick job with my plumbing needs. Thanx.
Great service very reliable and the Plumber Bobby was AWESOME, communicated what he was doing every step of the way and was very thorough with his work and the place was spotless when he left.
I called late last week with a residential problem and was able to expect a visit at the start of the week. Very professional and capable Kevin Smothers arrived right on time and corrected the situation is short order. Very impressed with the service all around. I’m a 50 year Fairbanks resident, outfits like Prospector have always been hard to find. Great experience.
Plumber Kevin came to my home to work on the lift station pump and did an outstanding job! He explained everything thouroughly and gave estimates before the work any work was done. He got the job done in a timely manner! It was a costly repair, but one that needed to be done. Prospector was the only plumbing company in Fairbanks that responded in a timely fashion. All of the other companies wanted me to wait from four to three months to fix the problem and Prospector realized the urgency and got the job done in just a few hours. I highly recommend them.
Professional. Wanting to genuinely help. Far as I can tell, great service. Answered many questions.
They were very professional, did a great job and were on time. Did an excellent job.
I am always impressed by their highest quality of work, efficiency, and especially responsiveness. Thank you, again!
Came out to inspect failing heating system, diagnosed a very critical problem knowledgeably and pointed me in the right direction to getting it fixed. Very helpful and intuitive
Found the issue got a quote before work began. And once everything was fixed there was no mess left behind.
Jared was professional, kind, and quick. The pricing seemed quite expensive, though.
Working with Prospector Plumbing has been one of the absolute best business transactions I’ve ever had in my life.When we moved up from the lower 48 we didn’t know a thing about boiler heating systems or heating oil. I read a lot about them on Google to gain some understanding but they’re totally foreign to our family. The boiler in our house we bought was older and had been “piece mailed” together a few times and we knew it was one of the first major things we would handle after getting settled. We did a lot of research on the natural gas vs oil topic and ultimately chose to convert the entire house to natural gas.We called a few companies out to get a feel for the companies, get quotes, ask questions, etc. It’s not that the other companies weren’t nice or knowledgeable but there is a very obvious difference in the level of care and passion that Nick and Prospector Plumbing bring to the table. Like a night and day difference. We had some locals tells us we should work with a different company because they would “be cheaper” but no matter how you do it, this was a HUGE project that wasn’t going to be “cheap”.Once we met Nick it was a done deal. We knew we were converting to natural gas and we knew we wanted to put every appliance we could on natural gas — we figured it made the most sense to get all the work done up front and hopefully reduce the electric bill some, minimize our carbon footprint, and in the long run save a ton on heating oil. Like I said, a huge project.Considering the cost of this project was like buying a new car or small truck I had about billion questions and Nick never lost his patience with us and was more than willing to educate us and answer ALL of the questions. Nick must have come to our house 5 or 6 times to rework quotes every time we had questions, other thoughts, and provided us about every possible way to complete the project, and even suggested several ways we could save money if we wanted to not do certain things. The transparency and honesty was refreshing.Nick Ely is an absolute fantastic human being and is worth his weight gold to Prospector and I hope they realize the value he brings to the company and what an asset he is.To summarize, the work in total took about 10 working days (which is what we had estimated), the quality and craftsmanship of the work is phenomenal and we are truly appreciative off all the hard work that was put in and will be a lifelong customer to Prospector because of the great service we had. I would 11/10 recommend anyone to use this company services!The only thing we regret was not taking the time to paint the garage while everything was removed ha!
Ryland was on time, efficient and professional. He had everything he needed and went to work right away. Extremely courteous, answered questions about the system and took only a few moments to diagnose the issue. He went over an itemized bill, and performed work only after authorization was given. Excellent service can’t say enough great things about Ryland and prospectors as a business. In fact I’m on their annual service plan now.
Every aspect of my interaction with Prospector Plumbing was outstandingly good.Natalie on the phone was clear and helpful. She was able to schedule me within a day during a busy time.Morgan is the best boiler technician I’ve ever had in the 33 years in this house. He was able to troubleshoot the problem and fix it in a workmanlike fashion. He explain what he did clearly and patiently. He answered questions I had about other parts of the piping and hardware in the boiler room.This is the first time that I have employed Prospector, and I expect that they will be my primary outfit for boiler and plumbing problems in the future.
Our water pump failed. It was so old that they no longer make parts to fix it. Prospector came out the same day and installed a new style pump that is quieter and low maintenance. Yes it was expensive, but we really needed to have the water back and reliable. You pay for what you get and we got great service!
We are new to the area and with our new house needed some help with a couple of issues and with understanding the system. Andrew came out and was on time, thorough, professional and the follow up we received from the office was considerate and caring.We will be using Prospector in the future when the need arises. Great to find a company that has quality performance and a follow through attitude. Refreshing!
Nick Ely just installed a new boiler and water pump for me. The quality of the install is amazing. Every part of the of the new set up was laid out way better than what was in my little room before. He took the time to explain every option I had and answer all my questions. I can’t say enough good things about Nick.Everyone at the office is friendly and helpful as well, so Prospector is the only plumbing and heating service for me.
I can not say enough about the service I have just received from Prospector Heating And Plumbing. Andrew and his helper were on time and very courteous and professional. I had my old pressure tank removed from my yukie crawlspace and a whole new setup in my garage. Which this was a major plumbing project. They were able to get my old system working long enough for me to get a shower which was awesome since my pressure tank went down on Friday. Their work was awesome. I don’t think even took a lunch break. They finished at about 515 pm. I now have more water pressure and my new pressure tank work perfect. This company get a five star rating for customer service from the receptionist to the plumbers. I don’t have to worry about going down in the dark hole ie crawlspace again. Plus they took my old pressure tank out and took it to the dump for me.
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FAIRBANKS, ALASKA