Palm Harbor Local

Fred DeFelice Shares the Truth About Home Water and No-Salt Solutions

• Donnie Hathaway • Episode 206

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Growing up in a family plumbing business, building homes in PA, moving to Florida, why typical water softeners fall short, chloramine vs chlorine, slab leaks and copper pinholes, whole-home filtration and no-salt conditioning, under-sink alkaline options, maintenance tips, costs and environmental impact, and why the trades matter.

Highlights

  • Fred’s 60+ years in plumbing and homebuilding and how that shaped Water Science’s approach.
  • The Florida water reality: chloramine, hardness, and why “softened” ≠ “purified.”
  • How no-salt conditioning keeps healthy minerals while preventing scale (great for tankless heaters).
  • Whole-home carbon + catalytic filtration to address chloramine, taste/odor, and system protection.
  • Under-sink drinking systems that maintain alkaline pH and reduce micro-contaminants.
  • Practical home tips: flushing your water heater, checking drains when you smell “sulfur,” choosing copper types, and avoiding bottled-water plastic.
  • Lifetime warranty, 5-year media refresh, and why right-sized systems matter for larger homes.
  • Career message to young people: the trades are a high-opportunity path.

Connect

  • Water Science: waterscience.us
  • Follow the show on Instagram: @palmharborlocal
  • Join the newsletter: PalmHarborLocal.com

Stroll through the laid-back streets of the Palm Harbor community with this informative podcast, proudly brought to you by Donnie Hathaway with The Hathaway Group, your trusted guide and local expert in navigating the diverse and ever-changing property landscape of Palm Harbor.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Palm Harbor Local, the podcast dedicated to building community and sharing inspiring stories from the heart of Palm Harbor. I'm your host, Donnie Hathaway, and today we are joined by Fred DiFelice, who is the owner and founder of a company called Water Science right here in Palm Harbor. Now, Palm Harbor Local is all about spotlighting individuals and businesses who are making a difference, overcoming challenges, and fostering connections right here in our hometown. If you are passionate about growing together, getting involved, and celebrating the people who are making Palm Harbor thrive, you're exactly where you need to be. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how Fred got his start in the plumbing business. We'll also talk about what triggered him to open up water science when he relocated here to Florida from Pennsylvania. And we'll also touch on the difference between a water softener and a no-salt water treatment system. Now don't forget to connect with us on Instagram at Palm Harbor Local for behind the scenes highlights and join our weekly newsletter at Palm HarborLocal.com. Now let's dive in and build community together. Fred, welcome to Palm Harbor Local.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, it's so great to be here.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much. I'm excited to chat with you and just learn more about um your business and then your experience, like you were talking about. Like you've done so many different things kind of throughout your career and stuff. So let's start there and go back to you've been a plumber, like you the plumbing has been in your family for for Yeah, I grew up in the in the family business.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh started hanging around with my father when I was like 10 years old on the jobs, helping him, learning. And uh it was just great. I wanted to be with him. And where was my father? He was always working. So that's what we did. And uh as I got older, and my brother's three years older than me, uh weekends and summer, we worked with my dad. And not only did we learn our plumbing trade, my dad was always building his own uh rental properties and things like that. So at 13 years old, I learned how to mix mortar cement for the bricklayers. And eventually I learned how to lay block and really brick and uh trim out copper. I I became a good trim carpenter besides. So I could put indoors, uh trim, uh eventually I started making cabinets. Anything I I I just had an interest in everything, you know. But my love really was the plumbing business. Because when you did a job and it was amazing, we were we were tradesmen. We weren't just guys that installed pipes. So even though all our work was going to be covered over by sheetrock and plaster, when we were done, we could look at our job and all the pipes were straight. And the word plumber actually comes from plumb barb, because you you would use a plumb barb to make sure everything is straight when you did your work. Interesting. Okay. You know? Yeah. So uh, so you know, I tell people, you know, I have over 60 years in the industry. So you could say I've been in water most of my life, but somehow I'm always in hot water with my wife. You know, and uh people get a chuckle when I say that, but it's actually true. Yeah, I don't deny it. Uh but we've been married 55 years, and uh, you know, I kind of got used to her, so I think I'll keep her.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. 55 years, that's a long time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's a lot of work in itself. Yep. Um what what is it that you love about plumbing? That's a long time to be doing one profession. Um, you know, so so what what kept you around?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, as as I got older, uh my father taught us to be very observant, and it was amazing. All the very successful plumbers, plumbing companies, eventually became home builders. So we moved, uh, I sold my share of the business to my brother, and in 1973, we moved to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. I started a plumbing business there, and I realized the area really did need a good custom home builder. So we did that. We uh became realtors and we handled everything. You know, we sold a we sold them a lot, we built a home. Uh along with that, I uh I was certified by the Department of Environmental Resources of Pennsylvania, and I actually issued the permits for you to put in a well and septic on your property. I did this in two different counties, and uh I did that for about three years. And this is where I really learned how fragile our environment is and how easily you can pollute it. And so with all that background, um when we did come here to Florida back in 2000, we were shocked by how bad our water was here. And everybody I talked to, I said, What's with this water, you know? And everybody said the same thing. You need to get a water softener. I didn't know anything about that. Our water in Pennsylvania was pristine. We had our own well. The water was always 45 degrees, you didn't need ice cubes. And this was unbelievable to me.

SPEAKER_00:

So in Pennsylvania, is it mostly like I guess where you were living, it's mostly well and septic up in that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it was a rural, rural area. We were on five acres.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know. Uh and then actually what happened in that area, they build communities for people that wanted to have weekend places. Okay. And one of the big places was the hideout, was the name of it. And they would truck people in from New York and New Jersey, sell them the lots. Oh, yeah, there's gonna be a swimming pool here and a lake here and a ski lift. And they would buy these lots back then for like$30,000. Wow. You know, it was unbelievable. Wow. And eventually people started building. And we were the first builder. We we got a five-star rating from the power company because we were doing insulation, uh, and basically our homes were kind of uh passive solar, where we shaded the the windows for the summer sun, but let the winter sun in to heat up the house. Cool. So we had that rating, and I started to see it would take a year to build a house sometimes, and these were little boxes. So we were the first builder in the area to guarantee 90-day completion once the foundation was in. And we never, we always missed that target. I mean, we always made that target. So we were we were always inventive about everything, you know. Uh we were the first builder to use pre-cast concrete foundations. I mean, uh, it goes on and on. We we just were aware and we learned, and I gotta give a lot of gratitude to the people that just found their way to me and the opportunities that presented themselves. I wasn't even looking sometime and an opportunity came to me. Yeah. And uh, you know, I give all that credit to God because uh I I firmly believe if you do the right thing for people, it all comes around, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. So I totally agree with you. Yeah. So you so you did uh so you did you built homes up there, and then um water was never an issue. Water quality was never a good idea. Yeah, the quality of water was great. Yeah. So you come here, water quality is terrible. Like when you say when we say terrible or it's bad, it's not good, like like can you give me some specifics about that? Like what is bad about it?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, really the taste, and then the water softener, again, I had no idea what that was, but I figured out, and most people don't even know this. They they think is the same way I was almost led to believe that a water softener purifies the water. A water softener does only one thing: it removes minerals that make water hard. We're blessed that we're blessed that we have healthy minerals in our water, but it makes the water hard. Soap doesn't lather, all of this stuff. So for every action, there is a reaction, right? A water softener now goes through a process where it removes the minerals. Well, you probably heard that a water softener has to backwash like every four days or something. And what it does, it takes that salt that you put in that big barrel, it becomes a salt brine, and that flushes and washes over what we call the media inside the tank. Well, now what's happening, it's called an ion exchange. The minerals are replaced with sodium. Well, now you have sodium in your water. And that slippery feeling you feel in the shower, a lot of that is the sodium. Okay. So now they don't want you to drink that. Step number two, you need now reverse osmosis. You've probably seen that where you have a little faucet at the fauc at the sink, and underneath is all these filters and a little tank. Well, nobody ever maintains those. Bacteria happens to grow in that tank and people aren't aware. But the other problem, uh, reverse osmosis water is very mis uh very acidic. Once the minerals are out, it's so acidic and actually makes can make holes in copper. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's not good for the plumbing of the home.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. In fact, uh you hear all the time people say, Oh, I got water coming out through my floor, my slab. Yeah. It's known as a slab leak. And then many times you're spending, God knows, five, ten thousand dollars to repipe the whole house. Yep. Two things make pinholes in copper pipe sodium from a water softener, or the chloramine that the water company puts in our water. Chloramine is ammonia mixed with chlorine. And it's so acidic. I mean, it's so poisonous. So besides it can make pinholes in your copper pipe, when you're in the shower, your skin, your largest organ, absorbs that, and you're also breathing the vapors right into your lungs. Uh anybody listening to this podcast, I mean, they can look up online any of this stuff. It's all out there, or actually get in touch with me and I'll send them the reports. Yeah. But uh it's all true. This is what happens. Yeah. So um people don't even realize that California was the first state to ban the use of water softeners. And the main reason there, the areas where they ran into drought situations, these things waste so much water. The other thing, the uh effluent that came out of the backwash was allowed to just go on top of the ground, and now they're losing all their topsoil. Uh so um within a short period of time, five five other states have done the same thing. So not only is it California, it's Wisconsin, Minnesota, Connecticut, uh, altogether as six states. Yeah. I doubt it if they'll ever ban it in Florida because it's such a multi-billion dollar industry.

SPEAKER_00:

In Florida.

SPEAKER_02:

You know?

SPEAKER_00:

When so I I was thinking back to our house. Like we um the I think the previous owner, they they had a they had a water softener at some point. I don't think it was connected when we bought the home, but we they had the container outside, and we noticed that we've had we've re-plumbed our house. And one of the reasons we did that when we were moving a vanity in a bathroom, we had a pinhole link in our in our copper, in a copper pipe. It was just above the slab. And we had just gone through uh our house flooding from um a toilet valve cracking.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So at that point we saw another leak, and we're like, you know, we're we're done with this. We don't want to go through another issue, another flood or anything like that. So we we replened the house, but that made me I'm I'm you know, I'm I'm curious if if that's how long they had the water um softened for. Yeah, yeah. And and if that you know contributed to the to the copper leak. Yeah. Because you could see it. I mean, it was you know, a little square line.

SPEAKER_01:

And the other problem is they always use lightweight copper many times. Copper comes in three thicknesses, and it's M, L, and K. And uh type M is the thinnest, L is the more serviceable one, and type K, in fact, there is a place, uh, I forget what state it was, all the piping had to be type K, extra thick because of the water.

SPEAKER_00:

It makes sense, but from the builder's perspective, they're probably looking for like the cheapest product. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

What can we get in here?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so uh pretty much that's my story. But what happened once uh once I learned about California, because I'm you know, I wanted to know everything, and uh I talked to different people. Uh one one of the I talked to one engineer, he was actually uh aeronautical engineer, and he worked some somewhat on some of the uh space programs, you know. And um so I started doing a lot of research, but mostly what I did was collect different I put together some systems and tested in my own house. So we were the guinea pigs for all that. And uh over the years, and it took time, and you know, I wasn't working on it every day, uh, because I had other things going on. And uh sooner or later we got to the point where we were satisfied what we had, and then we offered them for sale. And then uh and even then, I mean, in the last really in the last five years, there have been many more improvements that came along. So uh so today uh we're right here in Palm Harbor, and uh we do all the design, assembly, and we manufacture several of the parts that go into our systems. So, for example, our whole house system, uh, and if people go on my website, they'll see the Model 3000, which is our most popular size. Um, incidentally, we do make sizes starting from mobile homes all the way up to estate-size homes. And mainly a water softener is a one-size fits-all. The way they get around to the bigger houses uh to make it work, they just have it backflush every day instead of every four. Oh, okay. Yeah. So the whole the whole uh idea of uh whole house system is based on water flow, not so much water pressure, but the amount of uh gallons per minute that you're gonna use all at one time on a maximum at a maximum flow. Yeah. So if all of a sudden you got a big house and you got three people taking a shower at the same time, we have to calculate all that. So uh therefore our systems really are custom designed.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So the um just like I guess taking a step back and looking at the different options one person has for filtering out their water in some way, right? You have a water softener, you have like what you guys are offering, and then I I've heard that like a whole house um filtration system is that is that a water softener in itself or uh no water softener, they can never use the the term filtration.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, because it's not a filtration. Uh yeah, but what we have is a whole house water filtration system or a whole house condition water conditioning system. And what's great about our systems, uh for example, uh let's take the typical uh Florida home with our Model 3000. There's two tanks, two cylinders that stand about 48 inches tall, about eight to ten inches in diameter. And the first one, the water flows through that through a special mechanism uh through carbon that's made from coconut shell. So they take the coconut shell, turn that into carbon, then they do a catalytic process. It's the only thing that will remove chloramine. A regular carb carbon filter really comes from bituminous coal. They grind that up, and that works great on chlorine, it will not take out the ammonia. Okay. So we have the only thing now really that'll take out the ammonia or the chloramine. So once the water passes through that, it's safe to go through your plumbing. And it's safe for everything else because it it removes so many different things. The second stage is uh a process where uh the minerals are staying in the water because they're healthy, uh get conditions so they don't leave scale. And it's a process that we've been using uh for the last 17 years, and all it does is take those minerals and put them into little crystals. When the minerals are separate and floating around in the water, that's when you get scale. So it it converts them into a tiny little bead, and that lets the water run through the piping and everything without sticking or leaving scale. It's the only thing, it's the thing that's really recommended for a tankless water heater. Tankless water heaters, if you don't have the right thing before the water gets to it, will actually scale up and can actually do damage to a tankless water heater.

SPEAKER_00:

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh so it covers so many bases that uh and you know, we're just so proud of it. Uh and the idea is to get people to know more people know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So how long did you how long did it take you to kind of develop this or or create this this system?

SPEAKER_01:

We uh believe it, it it took over five years. Yeah. And like I say, we weren't working on it every day. Right. But it was always there in your mind. Let's look into this, let's look into that. And uh, like I say, I was fortunate the people that I've met along the way uh who were able to help. Uh being California was one of the first ones to really start getting involved in this technology. So they uh they kind of plowed the way forward. Yeah. You know, and then the space program.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. How does how does your system compare to like um another whole home filtration system?

SPEAKER_01:

There are you can there are things you can buy on online. Uh from what we can determine, most of it, they all come from China. And we refuse to get anything like that. So all our all our uh components are made in the USA. And uh and of course everything we do right here. Uh so yeah, you can buy systems on the market, but uh are they filtering out the same components? Well, they they don't really ever claim the chloramine, they will claim chlorine.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. And they're using that differently.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um but um and water softeners you can buy dirt cheap because they all are made in China. But people um really need to be educated on it all. And that was what my intention was originally. I had to tell people about this, you know. I had to warn them. And over the years I've met with uh county commissioners, I've met with Swift Mud, that's the South uh water district of Florida, and uh they weren't interested in what I had to tell them, you know. I was the first one out there talking about fluoride, and we did develop systems to remove fluoride, kind of expensive, and thank God now we're not worried about fluoride here in Florida.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they eliminated that. Yeah. So yeah, so it's it takes you five years to to kind of build this this system. Um, and so once it's installed in the home, like can you you can drink water from the tap? Like you okay. Investing is extremely important, but it can also be somewhat confusing with taxes, asset allocations, stocks, bonds, and funds. To know what to do with all this could be overwhelming. Jacob Wade is a financial coach and will work directly with you to put together a roadmap for your money, for life. Jacob has built a name for himself as a finance expert, and you can find his writings in places like Forbes Advisor, Money.com, Investipedia, and Time.com. But he has a passion for helping people create a clear and simple investment roadmap to buy back their time and retire with confidence. If you could use a financial coach on your team, then simply go to palm arborolocal.com backslash roadmap to book a call with Jacob today and see if hiring a financial coach could help you crush your 2025 goals. Don't wait to have that same feeling next year of not hitting your financial goals. Connect with Jacob today and let's make 2025 your best financial year yet.

SPEAKER_01:

Our whole house system we carries a lifetime warranty that's transferable. You people are always selling their homes and moving, right? So that that gets transferred. I have many customers who insisted that we take the system with them to the new house. Oh, okay. So we take it away and reinstall it. And uh on our whole house system, there's no maintenance for five years. So you don't have to do anything. Nothing.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just it's installed and that's it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. Uh and all our systems are professionally installed. Um the other thing we have is the under sync system.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

You no longer need RO reverse osmosis. So our system that we're using now, there's a whole laundry list of all the contaminants it removes, the pharmaceutical drugs, microplastic particles is a real big thing that people are learning about. Uh all your bottled water is loaded with plastic particles, right? So um, so we have two under sync systems. Um one, because we're maintaining the natural minerals, it provides a natural pH of above 8.5. And then we have a second one where we're adding an alkaline cartridge, which brings it up to 9.5, and it also makes the water hydrogen. So it's the greatest thing in the world. Uh, we do work with uh wellness chiropractors mainly, and they're always preaching about uh how toxins, toxins are building up in your body, they don't just go away.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So you got to be careful what you put in your body.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So if someone has like the whole home filtration system that you guys have, do they need the under under sync one as well?

SPEAKER_01:

That's we leave that as a choice, but most people want it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. When you look at the list of the contaminants that is so it does something different than what the whole home filtration system does.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the whole home provides really good, safe water for everything. Yeah. Showering. And you can you know, showering and uh you know, it's the best thing for your skin and your hair. Uh and that's the first thing women tell us how great their hair feels in their skin, you know, compared to a water softener, or worse yet, compared to no treatment at all. Yeah, right. You know, then it's night and day. Yeah. Uh so yeah, that's about that's about our story. And uh you know, we love educating the pub people. Uh we don't have salespeople. We're family business, you know, we do everything. I'm coming to your house, I'm gonna test your water. And uh if you like what we show you, you you know, we'll set it up a day to install it. We'll come, uh we're gonna be in your house maybe three hours, and while we're there, we're gonna flush your water heater. And that's a tip I want to give your listeners to. People forget that they should flush their water heaters no matter what you have in a system. And uh it should really be done every year. Once our system's in, we're gonna flush everything, flush all the pipes in the house, and then ask you to just flush your water heater in three months. And if you're not able to, we'll come and do it. And after that, you'd be surprised that water heater is always clean. Because people don't realize uh everything that accumulates in that water heater, when you're turning your shower on and you're running the hot water, the cold water pushes down into the tank and drives all the hot water up, and all that junk that's at the bottom of the tank is coming out in your fauc in your shower head.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

So, you know, you think you're getting clean, but you're not.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And so that's where you get like the build-up right around the faucets and the shower head and all that kind of stuff. So that that goes away with with this whole home system. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Um are you seeing like any builders install this like in their homes to move their for their own personal use, they are, but you know, these big these new big communities they're building.

SPEAKER_01:

You you can't break in and talk to those. Uh their main office may be in California or somewhere else. Right. Um But we have a great following with uh with our customers always recommending us. Yeah. And that's what we like. We like to be recommended. Uh we we do, we have a great presence now. My son-in-law has joined us and he's doing all our IT stuff and Facebook stuff. And uh on our website we have a whole big uh portfolio showing all of our happy customers with our system. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um so so it it only takes a couple hours to have it installed. How long do the systems last?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, the whole house, our whole house system is lifetime warranty. So if any part goes wrong, yeah, we we supply the parts at no cost. There would just be a slight labor charge if we have to install something.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh maintenance every five years. And um, you know, we have a system that tells us when that five years is up. And in fact, uh uh this whole next week, uh, I think we have about 12 of them that reach that five-year mark right now. So we're going back and taking care of that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. What is what is that? What do you do for the maintenance on it?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh what we do is we uh we extract what's called media from both tanks, clean the tanks, and then replace everything with new new media was what we call it. And uh while we're there, we're flushing your heater again and doing anything else. And uh yeah, people uh, you know, they're surprised that five years has gone by so quick. Yeah. But boy, it has. And uh and you know, we always test our system before we do it, but you know, five-year mark, we need to change it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know. How long does it do you are you able to you come out to the house and you can test the water and get results right right then and there? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And um basically uh we found the easiest thing is a a swimming pool tester. Rather than strips, it's the one that's liquid, and you could see the color. And people are amazed to find out there's four times more chlorine in their faucet than in their swimming pool. Interesting. That's a fact. Yeah. Um a commercial swimming pool needs one part per million of chlorine. Yeah. Your faucet has between four and five parts per million.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's because of the water company is is putting it in there to clean it out.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Twice a year they they take out the ammonia part and they'll run for a couple of weeks straight, strictly chlorine, and they put extra. And that's when you go in the bathroom and turn the faucet on and not you over practically.

SPEAKER_00:

But they have to do it. Like the sulfur smell, like of coming out of a faucet?

SPEAKER_01:

Sulfur smell, that's another issue. And uh even on city water, we have a couple of areas.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh what happens is Most of like Tampa Bay, most of the water comes from the Hillsborough River and reserve there's reservoirs here and there. But with Swift Mud, you know, the electrical grid, they tell you they can pull electric from North Carolina, from here, from there. Same thing happens with water. There was a time when certain areas were running out of water. So they got together and they made it so that you're in trouble in yours, and we'll turn the valve and you'll get some of our water coming to you. So up in Pasco County, um the one area particularly is uh uh what is it? Um what's the ranch name of the stocky ranch?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, sometimes they pull water from a deep well, right, to augment their supply. Okay. And that's when they're getting sulfur. Oh, okay. Because you'll find well water, you got sulfur coming up. Okay. You got iron, you got iron bacteria, you got all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

So if if you have a sulfur smell, it's because they're they're pulling from a well somewhere. Because my wife has noticed that at our house. Where do you live? In Palm Harbor.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. The only um well, I tell you, where do you notice it mostly? Can she have a say?

SPEAKER_00:

I I think it might be like the bathroom faucets, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. What you're gonna find is that your drain under that in that faucet in that sink is loaded. And the easiest thing, pour some chlorine down there. Yeah. What actually happens when you turn the faucet on, the little bit of water that goes down just pushes that smell up. It's not coming from your water, it's coming from your drain. So that's a good tip for your listeners right there. Interesting. And uh if you have the kind that you can take out and get rid of all the hair, but the the very the trap at the bottom is where it's loaded. Okay. If you're handy, you can take that apart, yeah, clean it out. But you'd be surprised that's where you're gonna find it.

SPEAKER_00:

Interesting. So it's not the water itself, but okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Now, first thing in the morning, if you want to take a glass and fill it up, take two. Fill one with hot and one with cold, and smell it. If you're not smelling it there, it's not in the water.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

So interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So what do you what do you see here in Pinellas County when you're when you're testing water? Like what are some of the harmful things that you're seeing a lot of?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, um without doing an actual uh an actual test, which can be.

SPEAKER_00:

You're just testing for certain.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we just really want you to see. Now we do go by the uh water company's reports because they have to keep that accurate.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Um the things, uh two things they cannot treat at the water plant. They cannot remove um pharmaceutical drugs, they cannot remove microplastics, and they cannot remove forever chemicals. Well, right now there's a whole big thing going on about that where uh government is getting involved with with maybe imposing some restrictions or the water companies where they're gonna have to deal with this stuff. Because now everybody knows about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And before they didn't.

SPEAKER_00:

So uh So how how are the drugs and and stuff like getting into like getting back to the water, right? So someone flushes it down the toilet?

SPEAKER_01:

Flushes that plus it passes through your body. Everything we do winds up in the water. Yeah. In our waterways.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Uh so the water's going back into the to the to the city or to the county.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, from the sewage treatment plant, right? Once they purify that, they have to put that somewhere.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And that goes in the river.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So And we're pulling water from the river. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And and you know, I gotta tell you, the water companies, the all of the processes that they use, they're really doing the best that they can. Yeah. They're aerating the water, they're putting it through sand filters. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it. But my my opinion is that it's incumbent upon us, the homeowner, to take the water that they give us and then make it so it's good for us. You can't if if they were to sub if they were could supply you the water that we're giving you with our systems, you wouldn't be able to buy it. You wouldn't be able to afford it. So it's really cheaper in the long run to take care of it at your own house.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And it's it's crazy. And and m most people don't even know. They don't know. Don't even think twice about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they don't know. Uh I have people tell us, oh, yeah, um, my father told us we used to drink from the hose. When I was a kid, we drank from the hose too, but we didn't have to worry about anything back then. You know?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Uh yeah, I think um my wife and I, we've we've talked about getting some sort of filtration system for a long time and have never never really pulled the trigger, but I think I'll have you come out and we'll take a look at our system.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, we are offering uh to your listeners uh and what we've we've made every effort wherever we can is to give you give people a trade in if they got a water softener, we'll give them five hundred dollars to help them get rid of that. Oh, great. And and apply that to the the cost of the work. Uh we we just we just need to see those go away. Yeah. Yeah. And uh and we're happy to do that. Uh and uh and generally people uh learn about us and uh they want to get rid of. I mean I mean just imagine never having to buy another bag of salt or bottled water again. You know? I have customers, no lore to lie, spending a hundred dollars a month on bottled water. They just did it, they didn't think any further. I have to laugh, right? You go to 7-Eleven, I don't want to pick on any particular store, but you go to gas up your car, right? And while you're pumping the gas, you look over towards the front of the store. Cases of bottled water out there in the sun.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. Hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

Why would anybody go in there and buy that bottle of water? They take it from there and then put it in the ice cooler.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Uh so So is this so you do you fill up glass bottles or oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We uh we give our customers a couple of bottles like this. Oh, cool. Yeah, there we like people to drink out of glass. Yeah. Uh we actually buy these from IKEA. Okay. Yeah, they come with this little carp top and they have bigger ones. Yeah. And then we supply them with a little cozy. It's good heavy glass. You drop it from a high enough point, it'll break. Yeah. Even with this on there. Yeah. But uh people love having this. And uh yeah, we just encourage people, get rid of plastic wherever you can. You know. And you know, and the other thing, um, in the beginning, we were talking mainly about protecting the environment. And I could see a guy, I'm telling you this, and you're saying to yourself, I'm one guy. How am I gonna help the environment by doing this? Yeah. So instead, our approach now maybe is explaining how much less expensive it is in the long run.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like I say, I had a guy showed me he was paying a hundred dollars a month on bottle buying plastic bottles.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh in the long run, this is the best deal you can ever get.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. It's cheaper in the long run. Right. Buying plastic, as I'm drinking a plastic water bottle, um, is not not uh healthy for you if you're trying to be and most bottled water is reverse osmosis. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So when I come to your house, yeah, let's see what you're drinking, and we'll test that water, you'll be shocked to see how acidic it is. So um, you know, balancing the pH in your body now, uh, you know, I know, I understand that you have different pH numbers throughout your body. Yeah. Your stomach is very acidic, your blood has one thing, your urine is another. So your body can does regulate the pH, but you don't want to be starting out with everything that's so acidic. Yeah. And uh so that's about yeah, it's about our thoughts on the whole thing, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I like it. I like what you guys are doing. So um, like I said, we'll we'll have you come out to our house and take a look at our our stuff. And um, but if if someone's interested in in doing the same thing, having you come out and test their water. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh and there's no, like I say, there's no pressure. Yeah. I mean, it may sound nuts, but I don't care if I make the sale or not. You know, I just want if you if you like what we have, we'll do it. If you don't like us, that's fine. You know, it's uh it's not my loss. And uh yeah, and and uh we're happy and anyone can come and visit our facility. Uh we're right off of uh Orange Street and Florida Avenue. It's a road that turns right over the trail, and there's a little industrial park back there, and we have a nice little setup. Yeah. And uh people are welcome to come and uh buy, you know, make an appointment, of course, and take a look at what we do. Uh and and uh the one thing we we have a good supply of inventory so that normally uh we're about a week turnaround. Okay, you know, so we're not you don't have to wait, we're not having to order it, we have it, you know. And uh uh we're very careful with our quality control. And I gotta tell you, my sons, uh I mean, they're so straight and narrow with everything, you know. Uh I never have to worry about anything with them. And uh and you know, we're just happy. I mean, it's part of my name, D. Felice is Felice is happy, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So uh I love it. And your website is water science.com.

SPEAKER_01:

Waterscience.us. Okay. You can also find it on uh water scienceus.com. And then uh I have I have several other domain names that we're just holding on to for future use. Yeah. Uh and the other thing I should mention is that uh we are uh we are expanding our dealer program. So I do have a couple of dealers that are small. Uh you know, we're not looking to uh uh to set the whole world on fire, but little by little, we we want to offer this opportunity to the right people, you know, because uh that's that's the best way we can expand and get the information to more people.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh we always like to give a tip to uh young people out there, men and young men and women considering maybe going to college and maybe winding up with a degree that's not gonna get you a job, and a ton of uh uh debt, really start looking into the trades.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And um who's the guy with dirty jobs? I forget his name.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh Mike Rowe.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

He put together a foundation where helping people and learning to get into the trades. And I watched them do an interview with a young gal who became a welder. And she says they're making uh they could easily are making 200,000, 300,000 a year a welder. That is probably the one trade now that's shortest of all. And think about it, all the bridges that have to be done, yeah, worked on and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00:

I was so last week I had a uh uh another plumber on um blue-collar home services. No, is he a um they do um AC. He's not he's not a plumbing uh, he does electrical and AC. And AC. But we're but same conversation about the trades, right? Like getting people, he's big on educating and and helping people learn their craft and stuff. But the opportunity like you know, the opportunity to um have a great career in the trades is is right there for for anybody, you know. Um and then and then you uh add on top of that, like being your own business owner. Oh, you can start your own company.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, over the years, um years ago, I mean, way back, if you were a tradesman, you had all these trade secrets that you held to your vest. You didn't share them. In fact, when you were doing a certain part on the job, you told the helper to take a walk. You didn't want them to see. I had the opposite approach. I wanted to teach you everything. And I I can I know for certain guys, young guys that started out with me as helpers, three of them are still in business today. They started their own businesses. That's cool. And I never held them back, you know. And uh and I think that's it. Um I I have no problems with sharing my knowledge. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the way it should be, right? Yeah, the next the next person, the next generation, like all trying to get better.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. But um my desire really is uh really to get more people to know how serious the situation is and how easy it is to correct it. You know. Um we've really got this, everything is so fine-tuned now, you know. And uh and there have been advances that came along, and we've adapted them right away, you know. So um, you know, and um we get all the reports, there's a lot of stuff going on. There's a new um, I don't know if I brought it, but there's a uh it's the Healthy Drinking Water Affordability Act. This is something that just came in. And this is gonna mainly deal with uh situations where people have their own wells. Okay. And uh I think what's gonna what they what they're trying to do, and they're probably gonna assist uh homeowners, is where they can put in the proven technologies to give them some good pure water. So uh I'm excited about this. Yeah, it's good. Uh there's just so much uh I love the fact that uh the fluoride is out and all of that stuff, yeah. People think the fluoride is good. So I just uh the fluoride that's in our water, that's been in our water, isn't something that is a natural thing. It's a waste product from the aluminum industry, the aluminum industry.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's so toxic, you cannot get a federal permit to bury it. You know, they always put stuff in 50-gallon drums and bury it in the ground. Yeah, you can't bury this in the ground. So somehow our colours Alcola spent millions of dollars with their uh scientists to prove to the government it was safe to put it in the water.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

So think about it. I have this waste product. Yeah, I can't get rid of it, I can't bury it, but you're gonna buy it from me and put it in the water.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Boy, did I take care of my problem. Yeah. Well, what they proved, um, especially for young kids, it causes fluorosis, little brown spots on your teeth. So it's not a natural product. The other thing, most people are using crest toothpaste, right? Look on the warning label and see what it says there. If you swallow a certain amount, call poison control immediately.

SPEAKER_00:

So uh thank God it's out. Yeah, it's very interesting. So small improvements, right? Small wins. Right. Yeah. Well, Fred, thanks for being here. Oh, this is so great.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Uh I just love the fact that you do this for our local people here in Palm Harbor. Uh you know, there's something said about buying local, you know. Our reputation, our word is our bond. My family is here, we're family. Uh all my career, I've never had to worry about anything. You know, um, and uh, I gotta tell you, I firmly believe if you do what you love, you'll never work another day in your life. Yeah. And uh I just love it. So here I am. There you go. So my phone number uh is 727-804-4562, and that comes right to me. That's my cell number. And of course the website is water science.us. Yep. And uh everything is on there. And feel free to uh email me, text me, any information you want, I could tell you where to find it. Um I have volumes and in books of all the different things that came along. Uh this whole essay on bottled water, for example. And uh it just goes on and on. It's all out there. But I save, I'll save you all a lot of trouble. I've done all the research.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's not good, so I should get rid of this, is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Cool. Well, thank you, Fred. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I loved so thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Palm Harbor Local. We are incredibly grateful for our sponsors who make this show possible. So let's keep supporting these small businesses and keep building community together. Until next time, stay connected, stay involved, and let's keep making Palm Harbor an awesome place to live.

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