Have you noticed how many new water treatment companies are popping up on the Internet?

Everywhere you look, there's another company selling water softeners, filtration systems, reverse osmosis systems, and the latest miracle device that supposedly solves every water problem known to mankind.

They have beautiful websites. Professional videos. Flashy advertising. Glowing testimonials. And, of course, they all claim to have the best water treatment equipment on the planet.

Some even claim to have reinvented water treatment.

Really?

I've been in this industry for more than 50 years, and I've seen companies come and go. Some were good companies. Some were poorly managed. Others were little more than marketing operations with a website and somebody else's equipment.

And here's something I've learned over those five decades:

It's relatively easy to start a water treatment company. It's a whole lot harder to stay in business, build quality equipment, solve difficult water problems, and stand behind your customers year after year.

I'm serious.

The next time you encounter one of these companies, click on its "About Us" page.

Then ask yourself a few questions.

Who owns this company?

Is there a name? A face? A founder? Someone who is personally accountable? Or is there simply a collection of impressive-sounding statements about innovation, sustainability, and revolutionizing the water industry?

How long have they actually been in business?

Not how many years of combined experience their employees supposedly have. How long has the company itself existed?

Where is their manufacturing facility?

Do they actually manufacture or assemble water treatment equipment, or are they buying generic products from another company, putting their name on them, and calling themselves manufacturers?

There's nothing inherently wrong with being a reseller. Many excellent companies are resellers.

But there's a difference between selling a product and designing, building, testing, and standing behind it.

And here's my favorite question: Who are you going to call five years from now when something breaks?

Will they still be around?

Will they stock replacement parts?

Will someone answer the telephone who actually understands water treatment?

Or will you discover that the company has disappeared and its website now sells something entirely different?

Here's one that really gets my blood pressure up.

Companies advertising "salt-free water softeners."

Let me make something perfectly clear.

A conventional salt-free water conditioner is NOT a water softener.

A water softener removes hardness minerals, primarily calcium and magnesium, through ion exchange. The result is water with substantially reduced hardness.

A salt-free water conditioner generally does not remove those minerals. Certain technologies can reduce scale formation under appropriate conditions, and that can be useful.

But scale control and water softening are two different things.

You can change the way minerals form deposits without removing those minerals from the water.

That doesn't make the water soft.

Yet some companies continue to market salt-free conditioners as softeners because consumers recognize the word "softener," and it sells, but it’s a lie!

So here's my standing challenge:

If you sell a salt-free water conditioner and claim it actually softens water, let's test it.

We'll have the untreated water tested for hardness by an independent laboratory. Then we'll test the treated water under the same conditions.

If your equipment genuinely reduces the hardness to soft-water levels, I'll pay for the testing.

But if the hardness remains essentially unchanged, please stop calling it a water softener.

This isn't complicated. It's chemistry, not advertising.

And chemistry doesn't care how attractive your website looks.

Another favorite marketing trick is the "Lifetime Warranty."

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

But whose lifetime?

The customer's? The equipment's? Or the company's?

Read the fine print. Sometimes the warranty covers only certain parts. Sometimes there are labor charges, shipping charges, exclusions, or conditions that make the warranty considerably less impressive than the headline.

And even a legitimate lifetime warranty is worthless if the company providing it is no longer in business.

I'd rather have a solid warranty from a company that's been around for decades than a spectacular-sounding promise from a company that might not survive its next advertising campaign.

A warranty is a promise. A company's history tells you something about its ability to keep that promise.

Let me tell you about US Water Systems.

My wife, Patty, and I started this business in our garage. We didn't have a private equity firm funding us. We didn't have a fancy boardroom. We didn't have millions of dollars to spend on advertising.

We had experience, determination, and a belief that if we built better water treatment equipment and treated customers right, we could build a successful business.

Twenty-five years later, we're still here.

Today, US Water Systems is a family-owned company that is the internet leader in water treatment, with more than 100 employees across our operations, including Indianapolis, Indiana, and Tampa, Florida.

Our son, Steve Timmons, is the President.

We're not hiding behind a corporate logo. You know who owns the company. You know who's running it. You know where we're located.

We design, build, assemble, test, and sell water treatment systems for residential, commercial, and industrial applications.

We serve customers across the country, and we have certified water treatment specialists who understand the science behind the equipment we sell.

We are the major, family-owned OEM manufacturer and direct seller in an industry populated by resellers, regional dealerships, national brands, and increasingly large corporate organizations.

And here's something important:

We're not for sale. We're not building this business to flip it to the next private equity company. We're building it to last.

Most companies will happily tell you what their equipment is supposed to do.

We take it a step further.

At US Water Systems, we offer a One-Year Guarantee of Satisfaction on qualifying, properly specified water treatment solutions.

Here's how it works.

We start by understanding your water problem. For applications covered by our guarantee, we review laboratory water test results. Our Master Water Specialists and Certified Water Specialists determine the appropriate treatment and recommend a system designed to solve the identified problem.

And then we guarantee that the recommended system will do what we say it will do.

If it doesn't, under the terms of our guarantee, we'll make it right or give you your money back.

Why would we do that?

Because we know water treatment. We know how to apply the technology. And we believe a customer deserves more than a salesperson's promise.

Read the details of our guarantee. Ask our people questions. Hold us accountable.

That's exactly what we want you to do.

The Internet has made it easier than ever to sell water treatment equipment.

Unfortunately, it has also made it easier to appear to be an expert.

Anybody can put together a polished website. Anybody can purchase a container of equipment from an overseas supplier. Anybody can invent a brand name and call themselves a manufacturer.

But you can't manufacture decades of experience overnight.

You can't fake technical competence when a customer's well water contains iron, manganese, hydrogen sulfide, arsenic, or other challenging contaminants.

You can't solve a complicated commercial reverse osmosis problem with a clever slogan.

And you certainly can't turn hard water into soft water simply by changing the words on the packaging.

Real water treatment requires real science, real engineering, real experience, and real accountability.

Before spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on water treatment equipment, find out who you're dealing with.

Ask who owns the company. How long has it been operating? Where is the equipment built? Who provides technical support? Are replacement parts readily available? What do its certifications actually cover? And precisely what happens if the equipment doesn't perform as promised?

If the company doesn't want to answer those questions, perhaps you should find another company.

And don't be fooled by marketing terminology. If somebody promises you a salt-free soft water softener, ask them to prove it with a hardness test.

It's your water. It's your money. You deserve the truth.

I've spent most of my adult life in the water treatment industry.

I've seen the fads. I've seen the miracle products. I've seen the companies that appeared out of nowhere, spent a fortune on advertising, and vanished just as quickly.

I've also seen good companies earn their customers' loyalty by doing the hard things right, year after year.

That's what Patty and I set out to build.

And it's what Steve and our entire US Water Systems family continue building today.

Twenty-five years in business. More than 100 employees. Family-owned. An industry leader. Real manufacturing operations. Real water treatment expertise. And a One-Year Guarantee of Satisfaction.

We aren't the newest company on the Internet.

We aren't the flashiest.

And we don't claim to have invented a way to make hard water soft without removing its hardness.

But we'll tell you who we are, where we are, what our equipment does, and exactly what we're willing to guarantee. In other words… we will tell you the truth!

Can the company you're considering say the same?

Ask the Water Doctor. Better yet, ask the company selling you your next water treatment system.