Based on Steve’s passion for cooking, innovation and creating the best flavor in his recipes, he realizes that no ingredient is to be overlooked, including water. In 2012, Steve teamed with Kinetico to prove the notion that purified water is core to creating great-tasting dishes in his restaurant and in the home. Read more about culinary expert Steve Schimoler.

View this video on Kinetico's YouTube channel

As a chef, I’ve been very fortunate to work in various capacities within the restaurant and food arenas. My experiences have helped provide me with a unique perspective in the appreciation of flavor and product development. There are so many variables that can impact flavors during cooking, but it wasn’t until I started working with our Kinetico water filtration system that I fully realized how important our water quality affected the flavor in my foods.

After 12 months of testing and working with the different blends and levels of filtration through our system in the Crop Bistro kitchen, I have come to the conclusion that our best results were with our Reverse Osmosis (R/O) water. It seems so simple, but by using the R/O water that is absolutely pure, I was not competing with any off flavors or aromas that were interfering with the flavor of the ingredients that were being featured in the dishes we prepare. Just like painting, you need to start with a totally blank and clean canvas when cooking. As a chef, I go out of my way to find and procure the best ingredients, why wouldn’t I want pure water! Water can be the majority of so many recipes and if it’s not pure, my other ingredients suffer.

The minute I started to look at water when I was reducing or simmering sauces or soups it became so apparent that when the water contained impurities, I was concentrating them by as much as double or more. Not a good thing…

So now I’m hooked and somewhat obsessed with learning more about our most basic yet valuable ingredient.

In future blog posts, I will share more culinary insights that you can use in your own kitchen, including exploring the many benefits of purified water.  Stay tuned.

Another spring is here, a time of change and wonderment. The landscape changes, the types of birds one sees and the songs they sing change. Everything seems to burst with renewed life, including some water supplies!

For well water users and some municipally supplied water users, a change in weather can create a change in water. And friends, change is not always good. Well water may change with a rainy season, which can introduce materials to the aquifer that had not previously been there. Some municipalities change the source of their water supply with the changing seasons and weather conditions. Often times, the supply is from a well, and a different well means different water. Even two wells on the same property can produce two entirely different types of water.

In the spring and the fall, we can count on receiving calls from customers about this very thing. Common unwanted changes to the water include new colors, odors and tastes, which are produced by a variety of causes.

Irons’ reddish brown stains are probably the most familiar to us all. However, tannins—the result of rotting vegetation—cause staining very similar to iron. Shale, organics and manganese can result in black staining. These are just a few causes of color in water. If you find that you have any of these in your water supply, don’t despair; they can be treated.

Odor is another issue that can arise from the changing of seasons or weather. A concern we hear frequently is rotten egg smell resulting from sulfur. This can leave one wondering if an egg was missed in the Easter Egg Hunt. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple and we have to admit it is the water. 

Anything that alters the color of water can alter the taste. As an example, iron may produce a metallic taste. We frequently hear from people that grew up on well water and not only expect but enjoy the mineral or metallic taste. If it wasn’t present in your water before, though, it might come as quite a shock.

We even get calls from people with water softeners. Now, you may be asking yourself why your water softener is allowing these changes to come through. A water softener is designed to remove calcium and magnesium. These are the hardness minerals that create scale in pipes, appliances, sinks and tubs. Often times, however, staining and odor require a different type of treatment.

Color, taste and odor can become a permanent part of your water supply or they may be passing with the seasons. Rest assured; with proper testing and treatment, your water can be brought back to normal in no time. Your local water treatment professional can advise you based on their experience as to whether it may be passing or permanent and provide the perfect solution for you.

Contact Diana M.

Steve Schimoler
Executive Chef and Owner
Crop Bistro & Bar, Cleveland, Ohio

Steve Schimoler, owner of Crop Bistro & Bar in Cleveland, Ohio, is a culinary innovator with a focus on flavor. His popular restaurant has been named as one of America’s top restaurants according to Zagat and is a 2012 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence winner. Schimoler, 54, has also been featured on Food Nation with Bobby Flay and PBS’ Master Chef series.   

In addition to his visible role as an executive chef, Schimoler has an impressive business career in product innovation and development. His Rolling Fire Enterprises consulting firm serves a variety of leading consumer food, beverage and equipment companies. Much of this work is supported by a state-of-the-art research kitchen located in space below Crop Bistro.

Schimoler’s move to Cleveland in 2005 from Vermont came when he assumed the position of Director of Innovation and Development for Nestle North America. After serving in that role, he fell in love with Cleveland and decided to get back to running his own businesses.

A history of innovation

When he was just 23 years old, Schimoler launched his first Long Island restaurant. Within three years, he was running four businesses…a bakery and gourmet shop along with a café and his flagship restaurant, The Black Walnut. The Black Walnut received three stars from New York Newsday critics, and helped position him as an up-and-coming New York chef.

Other ventures have included the development of intensely flavored butter products for Cabot Creamery in Vermont and the launch of the firm Chef Stuff with several chef colleagues which created signature menu items produced in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. That venture was followed by the founding of the online firm Chefex.com which distributed artisan ingredients to chefs nationally—a business he eventually sold to SYSCO, the world’s largest food distributor. At that point, he assumed the position of General Manager of Culinary Business Development for SYSCO. 

Schimoler has also been a regular contributor to industry publications and has served as two terms as president of the Research Chefs Association.

Steve Schimoler and Kinetico Water

Based on Steve’s passion for cooking, innovation and creating the best flavor in his recipes, he realizes that no ingredient is to be overlooked, including water. In 2012, Steve teamed with Kinetico to prove the notion that purified water is core to creating great-tasting dishes in his restaurant and in the home. Steve is a guest blogger on The Kinetico Better Water Blog exploring purified water’s impact on cooking and restaurant operations.

In one of my previous blogs, I talked about currently owning a home in a semi-rural area after living in the suburbs for most of my life.  I had always had city water and sewers and never gave a thought about where all the water (and other stuff) went after I used it. Since the county our house resides in requires a septic inspection after a property transfer, we found out exactly where it was going. Most of it was going into an old septic tank buried in the yard. From there it traveled through pipes in the ground, across an adjoining property we don’t own, and poured out next to the road. Understandably, this was not an ideal configuration, and after the inspection, we were notified that we were required to replace the entire system.

We were told we needed an aeration system. To those of you familiar with a septic system with a leach-bed, this is not one of those. I did not get the opportunity to ask why it was we needed an aeration system. But, when the inspector was out to the house, I explained to him that along with our desire to save the mature trees on our property, we were still carrying two mortgages because our previous house had not sold yet. At the time, money was tight for us. Plus, when looking over the soil type maps available on our county auditors website, our soil appears to be poorly suited for septic tank absorption fields. The volume of soil over the bedrock is not enough to filter the effluent adequately. Whatever the reason, a conventional septic system was apparently not an alternative.So now we have an aeration system which the installer explained to me is basically a “mini waste-water treatment plant.” Hmm, that sounds like a nice thing to have in the yard doesn’t it? I learned a lot about waste-water treatment during the investigation for a new system. The main difference between an aeration system and a leach-bed system is that like our previous system, an aeration system drains water out above ground instead of letting water leach into the ground beneath the surface. This system has a septic tank like a typical system, but there is a pump pushing air into the liquid in the tank 24 hours a day. The air speeds up the bacterial process that breaks down all of the “stuff” that is mixed with the water we get rid of. This is how the system can do the job without a leach bed. Following the aeration tank, we have a lift station that pushes the water from the aeration tank to sand filters, which are basically large concrete boxes filled with sand and gravel with a drain at the bottom. Following the sand filters is a chlorinator, then a holding tank to give the chlorine time to do its job, a dechlorinator to remove the chlorine from the water as it exits the holding tank, a sample well which is just a convenient place for someone to collect a sample of the water for testing, and finally, once again, the water runs out into the ditch next to the road. It all sounds pretty complex, but in reality, we pay to have it inspected annually (a county requirement), and other than having the company doing the inspections fix anything that might be amiss, all I need to do is occasionally have the solids pumped out of the tank (which any septic tank would require) and keep the chlorinator and dechlorinator filled. Both the chlorinator and dechlorinator are nothing more than pieces of vertical pipe with a plastic canister inside that holds the tablets and allows contact with the water flowing through the horizontal pipe run at the bottom. It is a little unnerving knowing that I’m personally responsible for systems that are so important and that I’ve always just taken for granted, but so far it hasn’t been too bad.

However, there are a few things we don’t like about the system. First off, it is ugly. The sand filters are extremely big, and could not be buried, so we have these huge concrete bunkers up near the road. Plus there are several concrete riser pipes sticking up over the tank, lifting station and holding tank with concrete covers on top of each, right in the middle of the side yard. There also is definitely an odor in the yard near the system. It is not an offensive odor, but not exactly pleasant either. Given the fact that there is a pump pushing air into the system, obviously there is an equal amount of air coming back out and that air has a smell to it. Then, to top it off, it appears that my electric bill went up about $30 per month after installing the system. After all, that pump is running 24 hours a day.

So, while it is not as convenient as having sewers where all the waste is just delivered somewhere else, for someone else to deal with, it does appear to do the job it is supposed to do. And hopefully things stay that way considering that just 100 feet away from the outlet pipe of this system is the well where we get all of our water from. I’m okay with reusing our water as long as nothing but water comes out of the tap.

Contact Brian L.

There are many benefits to owning a water softener. Cleaning is made easier not having to scrub iron stains and soap scum build-up (not to mention no need for harsh chemicals), water using appliances last longer and are more efficient and clothes, towels and sheets last longer. Another benefit of soft water that people enjoy (and it’s not just ladies, we receive calls from men too) is softer skin and silkier hair.

Each year, starting around October, we begin to receive calls from home owners concerned their water softener is not working properly. After spending time in a discovery process conversation, we find the caller has based their concerns on dry and/or itchy skin and sometimes even ‘fly away’ hair. Typically the problem is seasonal dry air—when temperatures have changed and humidity levels have strongly reduced. Couple the dry air with furnaces and space heaters and homeowners may experience dryer than normal skin, even with a properly functioning water softener.

An easy way to spot check your water softener, to ensure its supplying soft water, is to wash your hands. If your hands feel squeaky when rinsing, this is an indication of hard water which is the result of hardness minerals clinging to your skin. Slippery feeling water when rinsing is the result of feeling the natural oils your skin produces.

If you’re still not sure your water softener is working properly, a technician can be scheduled to come to the home and test the water. Or, perhaps you can take a water sample to your local Kinetico dealer for testing.

There are wonderful, natural and affordable skin products on the market that can assist your water softener in getting you through the dry season. My personal preference is olive oil soaps and lotions. I’ve even found how-to articles and videos online that walk you through a step-by-step process on how to make them.

Contact Diana M.

Friday morning as I was about to step into the shower, my wife informed me that the water did not seem to be as hot as it should be. During my shower, I concurred. So before heading off to work I made a quick trip down to the basement just to make sure the circuit breaker hadn’t tripped or that the water heater wasn’t leaking.

That evening I decided I should look into the issue and my multimeter proved my initial theory correct. The lower heating element had failed. No problem, that is an easy item to replace, and it does not cost much. The longest part of the job is waiting for the tank to empty (well that, and getting my boys out of the home improvement center after bringing them along). I had the element swapped out and working that night. So it did not impact my weekend much.

While I was working however I got to thinking about all of the water heater issues I’ve had in the past. Sure, I’ve had a couple elements give out, and that, I assume, is to be expected, as they do spend a lot of time cooking. But what is concerning is how many tanks I’ve actually had start to leak. Including both houses I’ve owned, in fifteen years of home ownership, I’ve already replaced three. Typically the tanks seem to last about five years before springing a leak. This is with both gas and electric heaters. And yes, I do use relatively inexpensive home improvement center type water heaters, but the more expensive “sold to professionals only” heater that was in the house when we moved in also began to leak about five years after it was installed.

Now I do know that it is recommended to check the anode rod periodically and replace it if necessary to keep the hot water from attacking the tank, but honestly, I have never seen a sacrificial anode rod that is easily accessible. In fact, I just assumed there may not even be one there. If they are there, they are buried under foam insulation and I’d rather not go digging all that out. My thought is if the manufacturer wanted me to check the rod, they would make it accessible. There’s also the fact that the water heater is under the basement stairs and I’d have to drain and disconnect it just to get the rod out to look at it. Considering the fact that I’m able to get a replacement tank under warranty without checking the rod, and I can replace the water heater myself at no cost, why bother with the additional work?

So, I started wondering if it is our soft water that is making the tanks fail so quickly. I have seen and heard references to that very thing. After thinking it through for a while, the conclusion I came to is that although soft water may accelerate the corrosion process, it is the tanks that are at fault. In fact, considering that when I remove an element, it is clean and looks almost new except for a pit where it failed and when I drain the tank nothing but perfectly clear water comes out, it seems to me that soft water in the water heater is a good thing. There is no build up of scale and minerals like what the DIY magazines show should be in there. Every water heater I’ve seen is supposedly glass lined to keep the steel of the tank separated from the water to prevent the inevitable corrosion when the two come together.  So my thinking is that if the glass lining is doing its job, the water will never touch the steel and therefore the tank should not rust from the inside out, no matter what type of water is in there. Therefore, if the tank is rusting out quickly, the problem must be that the glass lining is not keeping the water away from the steel. After all, if the soft water was at fault, the manufacturers of water heaters would not be replacing my tanks under warranty would they?

Contact Brian L.

Drinking and thinking… It’s not as maudlin as it sounds.  I sat down with a cool glass of water and my thoughts drifted backwards.  It hit me that I’ve been talking about water for 20 years!  Immediately my thoughts went to how boring I must sound to my friends and I quickly decided to go back to pondering the depth of the water topics rather than a lot of self analysis (much safer ground!).

How can there be enough about water to talk about it for 20 years? Some subjects are frequent, common topics and of course there are always new concerns cropping up regarding water quality.  One of them is sodium. 

Many conversations have revolved around the amount of sodium in the water supply from a water softener.  The fact is that most of the sodium is sent to the drain, not to the house.  Regardless of the water softener brand being used, there’s an easy calculation (see infographic to the right) to let a homeowner know how much sodium ends up in their water. There are also easy solutions for removing it, such as filtration.

So yes, I’m aware that there’s concern about sodium in softened water. But what about the sodium that occurs naturally in ground water or the sodium we take in from the foods we eat?  As an example, an apple contains one or two milligrams of sodium.  That’s pretty insignificant in the overall plan of less than 1500 mg per day. But the thought of trying to find all the sources of sodium makes my blood pressure go up even higher. Who knew apples had any sodium at all!?  On the other hand, sodium is required by the human body, so much so we have taste buds to detect it.  Ever crave potato chips?  I have found that peanut butter cups are the perfect blend of salt and sweet. 

I live in a rural area of northern Ohio.  Salt is commonly used as a de-icer for the roads in the winter.  How much of this salt makes it to my well water supply?  Lake Erie is famous for the salt mine under the lake.  How much salt is naturally in the ground around my home?  I do have a water softener contributing some salt to my water supply and I like apples. When I stop to think about how much sodium is all around me, I guess it’s a good thing I’ve learned to cook using herbs as replacements for salt.

The Mayo Clinic has an excellent Q&A regarding the amount of sodium water softeners add. They state, “The majority of sodium in the average diet comes from table salt and processed foods. Thus, the best way to decrease the sodium in your diet is by cutting back on table salt and processed foods.”

Here’s a recipe for an herbal salt replacement that you can mix up and use on most anything.  Mix it up and keep it stored in an empty spice jar:

• 1 Tbsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
• 1 tsp dried savory
• 1 tsp ground mace
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried sage

This can be altered to your taste.  I leave out the mace, cayenne pepper and onion on chicken.  For beef, I usually leave out the sage and thyme.  Cloves and/or caraway go well with pork. These are all great to use in soups and stews in place of salt, as well. Play with it and make it your own. It's a fun way to eliminate sodium, that is, if you like to work in the kitchen.  I’m getting hungry...

Contact Diana M.

When my wife and I bought our house in a semi-rural area, we discovered a number of things we had never dealt with before, many of which involved water. I had grown up in the suburbs. I’ve always had city water and sewers, so I never really gave too much thought to where water comes from, or where it goes after we’ve used it. It was always there. Just turn on the faucet and water comes out, whatever water ends up in the sink, goes down the drain, never to be seen again.

Now all of a sudden, we have this little structure behind our house a little larger than a doghouse. This, we were told, is the well house. It’s where our water comes from. When I opened the door, after sliding aside a few boards and some obviously mouse infested fiberglass insulation, I was surprised to see that the house sits on a deep foundation. At the bottom, about five feet down was a pump, some piping and a pressure reserve tank. My first thought after looking again at the boards and insulation is “I wonder if the pipes in here ever freeze?” We do live in northern Ohio after all, and there’s no heat in this little building. Then I started thinking about all of the other ways that our “new” water supply might not prove to be as reliable as what I’m used to. Top it all off with the realization that the water is pumped out of the ground and straight to the tap without any treatment at all and I was starting to get a little uncomfortable with this situation.

Well, it’s been almost nine years since my first encounter with the well house and I can happily report that after replacing the boards and mouse nest insulation with rigid foam, (not to mention, cleaning and painting the outside since we have to look at it everyday) the pipes have never frozen; at least not yet. I guess there’s enough heat five feet below grade to prevent that. But I can also say we have had a fair number of system failures and have also made a few other water infrastructure improvements, the details of which I can share with you in future posts. 

Contact Brian L.

L. Heiden has been in the water treatment business for more than 25 years. Currently, she is a National Account Executive for UL and is an active member of the Water Quality Association.

Before my 25 years working in the water treatment industry, all I knew about water was that it was wet and I liked to swim in it. As a child I lived several different places but the one I called home was my grandparent’s house in a small village in Northeastern Ohio. This was the home that my father and his siblings grew up in and eventually where I spent my teenage years.

As a teenage girl I took lots of showers. I remember we always used a beauty bar soap which was supposed to be made with “¼ moisturizing cream.”  Funny, but I also remember my skin feeling tight and dry and because of that, I always felt that this was bogus advertising.

As a young adult with a husband and new baby, I lived in the same house in the small village that I grew up in.  I finally got to choose which soaps I wanted to buy and use. I knew one thing; it would not be that bogus soap with the cream in it.  Well, it turned out that no matter what soap I bought, I always had that dry tight feeling after showering. To try and combat this, I’d pour on the lotions and goop up my baby girl with baby oil. This was only a temporary fix.

Eventually, my husband and I bought a house in the country, about fifteen miles away from the house in the village where I grew up. The water in the country was very different. Instead of that dry tight feeling, I was left with a sticky, filmy residue after showering.  It was at this time in my life when I was first introduced to water treatment.  It was like a light clicked on in my head when I started working at Kinetico. I finally learned why there was such a difference in my water when I lived in the small village versus the water in my home in the country. The house in the village was on a city water supply which took water from seven different wells (not always the same ones) every day and chlorinated it to make it safe to drink and use.  This chlorine was the source of my dry tight skin when I lived in my family home; the same feeling you get after swimming in a pool! The water in the country was supplied by a private well on our property. This water was not chlorinated so I did not get that dry tight feeling. However, it was loaded with iron and had a lot of hardness made up of calcium, magnesium and other minerals. The hardness in the well water, along with the iron, I learned, was binding with the soaps and creating a soap curd which clung to my skin and created that nasty sticky feeling after showering. A water softener to get rid of the hardness along with a prefilter ahead of it to trap the red iron and sediment was the cure. I was now able to enjoy my showers and guess what, I could even use that moisturizing soap and realized that the advertisement was not what was bogus it was my water quality!

Now as a mature adult, I’ve come full circle and once again live in the old family home in the village which is now considered a “city” as the population has grown to a whopping 5,000 people! When I first moved back there was an issue with the water meter. The city water department sent a technician to check it out. While he was working on the meter I told him how disgusting I found the water in our village to be. He was surprised and a little shocked.  He informed me that most people felt the water in our village was great.  I am not sure he understood the difference between people thinking the water was great and people not realizing how much better it could be. I’ll admit it …. I am now a water snob after becoming accustomed to dechlorinated - iron free - soft water thanks to my Kinetico equipment. It happens to the best of us. Once you have water without chlorine, minerals, iron and odor, it is difficult to go back to what you previously thought was “great” water.

Contact L Heiden