southwest water - straight answers ?

[shocker]

I have been trying to contact south west water who are the mains suppliers at my temp address in Bugle near St Awful . However ,on the website the only way I can find is to follow links to their set questions or others that they have answered before and follow THAT link and so on.....I cannot find a way to just e mail them and ask for a water mineral load breakdown . When I phone the helpline they say -"Oh ! Thats unusual !You will have to e mail that !" and so it begins again . After several dozen times round on this ride I feel dizzy and want to get off .Or kill myself , either would do .

There is ,however ,a vague coloured in map of the region with no waypoints , towns ,lakes ,rivers or indeed anything (except the nice colours) , to tell you what areas are "soft" or moderately soft .Good to know but since the map is small and the region large , and the fact that you have to approximate locations from the shape of the coastline , not really definitive .

Now thats being picky ,I know , but since there is nothing else its a little disappointing . I have pH meters and ppm meters from previous water based embroglios....or is that embroglia ? Or am I just making things up again ?

What it boils (ha!) down to is that I was interested in the specific mineral content of the mains where I am now . I have a fair idea where its coming from and can test some things as previously mentioned but ,though not essential t'would be nice to know .

Has anyone else been here before me ? Or rather ,which one of you was here etc etc

thanks all

shocksi :hmm:

 

[markp]

Ring the help line again and ask to be put through to the lab or ask for their direct number.....it's far too easy for them to just fob people off when it's something they are not used to dealing with....and lazy.

If they won't do that; ask to speak to the supervisor on duty and ask what their complaint procedure is

If you can get through to someone in the lab, they will be more than helpful I'm sure.....they love all that scientific stuff and anyone who is keen enough to take an interest in what they are doing. That was my experience anyway.

 

[Good Ed]

You'd be best off getting a Salifert kit to test the alkalinity of your water. I got a sheet here from South Staffs Water stating an alkalinity of 232mg/l; the first test I did in January was 140mg/l and the brew I did this week it was 103mg/l; so water reports are not reliable.

All I do is test the alkalinity with the kit and adjust the CaCO3 with CRS, and then I use the alkalinity value x 0.40 to give the calcium level and then adjust that as necessary with CaSO4 and/or CaCl, unless you water is lacking in other trace nutrients you shouldn't have to adjust for anything else, but if you like you can use Brewpaks Dry Liquor Slats(DLS).

You may find this useful http://www.brupaks.com/brewing-aids.htm

:

ps also campden tablets to get rid of chorine, 1/2 tab/5 gall

 

[aneray]

Has anyone else been here before me ?

Shocker.

Been there, done it, gave up.

Its a pretty **** service considering our water bills are the highest in the country.

I'm not Cornish, but the missus and kids are. When visiting relatives up north there is a massive difference in the quality of drinking water from the tap. Down here its a lot better to drink.

 

[Staz]

That's p*ss poor from SWW. I enquired by email to Bristol water this week and had a full analysis emailed me in 24 hrs.

SWW have to publish this data by law surely :hmm:

 

[shocker]

Im sure ,but their system is so convoluted that they will be able to show that there IS access ,but in reality it is next to impossible to get . I left feedback on their site about this and guess what ? No reply !