From Problem to Business

On the Grit to Growth Podcast, RKIN Water Systems CEO Eric Kurbanov describes how installing reverse osmosis systems for coworkers eventually became an online water-treatment business. He left his quarry job around the financial crisis, then spent several difficult years getting established. One recurring sales obstacle helped shape the company's product development: buyers wanted RO water but couldn't install an under-sink system, and renters couldn't get permission to alter plumbing or countertops. Kurbanov says those conversations led to RKIN's Zero Installation Purifier, a countertop RO unit that users fill manually rather than connect to household plumbing. The design opened a market among households unable to use the systems he originally sold. The obstacle wasn’t demand for treated water. It was finding equipment buyers could use where they lived.

Water industry advisor Matthew Wirth examines where compact residential treatment devices work and where their size limits performance. His breakdown explains how shower filters, refrigerator cartridges, and under-sink systems still need sufficient media, contact time, and flow capacity to do their intended jobs. A cartridge certified at 0.5 gpm, for example, should not be assumed to provide the same contaminant reduction at a faucet flowing 1.5 gpm. In the same vein, fitting a cartridge into a standard housing doesn’t make it suitable for whole-house demand. Wirth also distinguishes a certification mark from its specific claim: certification for lead content in materials doesn’t establish lead-removal performance. Overall, compact equipment can work well, but advertised stage counts cannot substitute for verified performance under the home's actual operating conditions.

Stainless steel tubing and fittings cost more up front. Poly tubing and plastic fittings cost less, but need replacing more often as they wear.

In Specialty Sales' latest video blog, CEO Darrin Shillair explains the trade-off and the stainless connection options.

What It Means:

Read the blog: https://specialty-sales.com/blog/stainless-steel-vs-plastic/

Contact Specialty Sales or reply to this email for help choosing tubing and fittings for the job.

WC&P recently profiled United Water Services, a Washington treatment company serving two neighboring cities with different water needs. Portland's naturally soft supply brings requests for chloramine treatment, while Vancouver's groundwater creates hardness concerns, sometimes surprising homeowners who move across the Columbia River. The business originally expanded from equipment manufacturing into residential service after buyers began asking for installation help. United is also reaching homeowners through its local building industry association and a new Walmart partnership. That said, growth has brought regulatory costs as well: the team describes hiring a journeyman to meet Washington plumbing-license requirements as an expensive step that effectively added another division to the company.

ClearWater Industries, a commercial water-treatment provider, explains why a brewery's treatment plan needs to distinguish ingredient water from the water used in heating and cooling equipment. Brewing water requires control of minerals, alkalinity, and disinfectants that can affect flavor and batch consistency. Carbon filtration can address chlorine, while chloramine removal requires suitable media and sufficient contact time. Reverse osmosis provides a controlled starting point by reducing dissolved minerals, though the brewing water might then need mineral adjustment. Boilers have a different priority: reducing hardness that can form scale on heating surfaces, alongside corrosion control. And fermentation cooling introduces another maintenance requirement altogether. A system that produces suitable brewing water does not, by itself, address the needs of every other water-dependent process in the building.