The Business
Water is a basic necessity, but people don’t often think about whether or not they are drinking good, clean water. Business Water Solutions (BWS) has been educating people about clean drinking water and providing businesses in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee with clean, fresh-tasting water since 2017. But for George and Mike Barron, brothers and co-owners of BWS, the company is not just about the product.
“We based our company off of the service that we provide, not necessarily our machines,” George says. According to Mike, BWS works with customers to serve their specific needs. “Our ability to customize to each individual business’s need is what makes these systems so great,” he says. “We can do reverse osmosis systems, we can do ultra-filtration systems, just kind of depending on what the customer is trying to accomplish and what their challenges with water quality are to begin with. Our ability to have a breadth of offerings depending on what we need to be able to accomplish for that customer is a great flexibility to have because everybody’s scenario is a little bit different.”
BWS offers a range of bottle–less water coolers to fulfill their customers’ hydration needs. As George explains, BWS coolers pull from a business’s existing water supply, and five filters rid the water of any harmful contaminants while also restoring important nutrients to the water before it is dispensed.
“It’s the best water in the world,” George says. “It’s the cleanest, best-tasting water, and it’s maintenance-free.”
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- BWS Water Filtration System
The Filtration
From water system to cup, the water goes through a 13-stage filtration process. First, a sediment filter removes large contaminants. This does the work of most basic water filters, clearing the water of sediments, rust, and more. A pre-carbon filter then removes undesirable chemicals such as chlorine and pesticide residue before a reverse osmosis filter removes other harmful molecules copper, lead, and mercury.
The next nine stages of the filtration process focus on adding beneficial vitamins and minerals back into the water. Coral sand (a composite of calcium and magnesium), quartz, hematite, tourmaline, zeolite, silver ions, hydroxy apatite, and ZEO-Z1 supplements give the already clean water health benefits as well. Bone growth, heart health, immune system benefits and improved hydration are just a few of the health benefits detailed on the BWS website, which provides a detailed list of the 13 steps of filtration and the benefits of each.
After vitamins and minerals are restored to the water, a twelfth filter regulates its coliform content, which eliminates the risk of waterborne diseases. Lastly, a final polish ensures that the water being dispensed is as clean and healthy as possible.
Water Quality
“Rome’s water is not too terrible; it’s about 150 TDS, which is total dissolved solids,” George says. “After our third filter, it’s got zero TDS, it’s basically distilled water. We pump back in between nine and 15 TDS, and that is the vitamins and minerals that we pump back in with our biosure filter.”
However, clean, nutrient-rich water is not the only benefit to water coolers from BWS.
Water coolers that use disposable five-gallon jugs have a negative environmental impact, George says. They result in plastic waste and require transportation to deliver the jugs. These coolers are also inconvenient to businesses because the heavy bottles must be stored and changed. Coolers from BWS provide a solution. Because they do not require single-use bottles and draw from existing water supplies, BWS coolers are environmentally friendly. George and Mike agree that this is one of the biggest benefits to their systems.
“You see a lot of plastic waste,” Mike says. “You have a lot of fossil fuel involvement in getting those bottles to an individual user. It just has a really high carbon footprint that we’d like to avoid if we can.”
Hygiene is another benefit to BWS’ water coolers, and it is one that has been at the forefront of customers’ minds in recent months. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many school systems and medical facilities are opting for BWS because of their hands-free dispenser options. Many of the coolers BWS offers operate with a foot pedal or another hands-free option, making them a more hygienic alternative to a traditional water fountain or cooler. These coolers also store water in self-sanitizing stainless steel tanks, meaning that both the inside and the outside of the dispensers are sanitary.
Water Dispensers
“Having a sanitary way to dispense drinking water became very top-of-mind awareness for a lot of people,” Mike adds.
While BWS offers six models of water coolers that provide solutions to a variety of hydration-related problems, there is one commonality between all of the company’s operations: customer service. BWS owners and employees all strive to provide outstanding customer service, and they all agree that this is what sets them apart. Part of this service includes being readily available to provide necessary machine maintenance.
“Every client that we deal with has my cell phone number,” Ryan Somerville, sales representative, says. “We have a 24-hour guarantee of service, but normally we’re there within a matter of an hour… We try to go out of our way to make the customer feel comfortable.”
George, Mike and the rest of the team appreciate the opportunity to meet people through the business. “We’re not in any specific industry,” Mike says. “We’re in carpet mills, we’re in chiropractic offices, we’re in schools… It takes some creativity to figure out how you’re going to solve their specific problem. You get to go out and learn about a lot of businesses that you wouldn’t otherwise know anything about, so that’s been a lot of fun for us.” People are an important part of BWS’ operation, both within the business and in their customer base. Jase Thompson, who performs maintenance and installs for BWS, says that the team is like family to him. “I kind of think of everyone as friends or family,” he says. “Everyone does everything for everybody. It’s the best place I’ve ever worked.”
This commitment to helping people extends to BWS’ commitment to their customer base, and according to Chattanooga-area sales representative Ryan Shrum, it shows. “We haven’t had a single customer that hasn’t been satisfied,” he says.
For more information on BWS, their products and their services, visit businesswatersolutions.com, or follow them on social media for updates on their latest installs.
