January 8, 2026 • 11 mins
Our friend Gary Sullivan joins us to talk about keeping your water healthy...and in the end it makes your happy.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight eleven here on the Morning show on seven hundred WLW.
We do this every single Thursday at this time we
get together. You hear him on better than two hundred
and seventy five stations syndicated nationwide, and we're happy that
his home base is right here in the Buckeye State
and Cincinnati, Ohio. Talking about our friend Gary Sullivan. Happy
(00:22):
New Year, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, happy New Year to you. Tom. How you doing
doing great? How about you? I'm doing really really well.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I hope your holiday went well.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It went great. Do you have a lot of family time?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I sure did, and it was a fantastic Hope you
did too, Yep, sure did. Okay, we've been talking and
a lot of people talk all the time about New
Year's resolutions, right, and we were talking the other day
that seventy nine percent of those has to do with
people getting in better physical shape.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, right, A lot about health right now, Yes it is.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
But look, there's also some New Year's resolutions you can
have with your home and talk about regularly. There is
no bigger investment for most of us out there than
what we invest in our homes, and so you want
to keep them in tip top shape. Let's start with
the most basic thing we need in life besides air,
and that would be water.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well, that ties into the health thing also, tom is
you know in a lot of parts and it's been
in the news over the years, you know, a number
of years back with flint, Michigan and everything. How safe
is our water? And I want to say upfront, some
of the most safe water in the United States is
right here in the Great six sinety area. It's wonderful water,
(01:39):
but it's very hard water. Lots of limestone, you know,
limestone's good for racehorses and bourbon.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
That's so good for our home.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, yeah, you're right about that. Okay. We hear all
the time about water softeners, right, and there are some
that you salt, there are some that don't.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Did you walk us through sort of the differences if
you're thinking about a water softener here in twenty twenty six, yep.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So there's three water quality products out there. There's salt
free water softeners. You may have heard it advertised. That's
very appealing to somebody that doesn't want to carry fifty
pounds bags of salt down into the basement.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Which I do all the time.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So do I And also there's parts of the country
now that have brine restrictions. In other words, that salt
flushes out the system, okay when it collects hard water deposits,
and that brine goes down into the sewerage system which
goes into the waterways. And there's some people different parts
of the country now I have some brain restrictions. So
(02:46):
that's one and I'll explain the difference between the two.
And the other one is the one you and I
are used to, the water softener that you put the
salt in the big salt tube.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
And away you go. Now, the whole thing what a
water softener is is it takes.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Out or eliminates hard water that's the minerals in the water.
So the salt free is not really a water softener,
so it's not really taking out hard water deposits. What
it's doing is the sult free softeners actually removed the
(03:27):
They change the molecular structure of the minerals in the water,
which allows it to pass.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Through you know, your water heater, your shower and everything.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And what they've done is they've charged the hard water
particles so that it does not stick on metal surfaces.
The salt free or that's the salt free, the salt type.
It starts kind of collecting those, Okay, it's not really
charging them. So when you put the salt in there,
(03:59):
it's removing the hard ware deposits. It's really the best
soft water. It's actually giving you soft water, good for
your skin, good for your clothes, good for your water here,
good for your showers. It's it's soft water. It's removing it,
and then the salt flushes it out.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Of the system.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Okay, a lot of people when they get salt in
a system, they're they're they're they're afraid that they're going
to be ingesting salt. It's not that's going down the
i'll say sewer, septic whatever. It's kind of removing it.
It allows the soap to lather better. It really is
eliminating the hard water. And again that's salt free. It's
(04:39):
just charging the particles in there. It's keeping the hard
water from sticking on glass, on metal. It's just allowing
that hard water to not adhere to something in your
plumbing system. It's going right down the drain, but you
don't get the benefits of the i'll say, good.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
For your skin, good for your clothes, your hair. Yeah,
that type of thing. So that's the two main differences.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Then there's a third one and it's not a water softener,
and that's a product. A lot of people get very confused.
They think, well, water softener is really bringing up the
quality of water, and it is from a hardness standpoint.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
But a reverse osmosis, I don't know if you have
one of those in your home or not.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Those are usually point of use, like underneath the kitchen
sink or in the bathroom. And what it does is
a company will come and they will test for chemicals
in your water. Like I said, in the Cincinnati area,
we got pretty good water. But you may be surprised.
There may be maybe you're someone that doesn't want fluoride
(05:51):
in your water. Maybe in olders areas you have a
lot of lead pipes that will test for lead. You know,
you're receiving good water, but then as it goes through
an old plumbing system, by the time you drink it,
it's not so good. So they'll test for lead, they'll
test for fluoride, they'll test for chlorine chlorine, And that's
(06:12):
what a reverse osmosis is. It goes through like three
if you install one, it'll go through like three sets
of filter and it'll actually filter out those different chemicals.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
That are in your water.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So that's totally different from the water softener. So there's
really two that you need to pay attention to. One
is the water softener that's for hardness, like over in
the Milford area.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Very very hard water.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
A lot of heating elements go out because of the
hard water, and probably a lot of showers don't look so.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Good because of the hard water.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
But get your water tested and just see how hard
it is, and when you're there, do a test on
the actual chemicals in the water, and then you can
make a decision if you want to do one nune
or both of them.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So it sounds like, correct me if I'm wrong here,
But it sounds like if you're really interested in the
healthiest possible water just in one particular area, and you're
talking about this reverse osmosis, that would really be the
focal point. It sounds like, if I hear what you're saying,
where you might clean food and all those kinds of
things would be in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Right right, I would say probably ninety percent of them
are put right on the kitchen. Some of them have
to have another spout through a granite countertop. Yeah, a
lot of people don't like doing. I think it was
Culligan about seven eight years ago. They came up with
a system where it's bluetooth. There's a switch and it
literally shuts the water supply going straight up from the
(07:45):
pipes and it sends it through the osmosis system and
out the spout.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Bottom line there, not to confuse anybody, is you don't
have to drill through the countertop. Okay, so that, but.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
The kitchen areas certainly tom where you want to put it,
you know, And quite honestly, it's just like a breed
a water filtering system on steroids.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I want to get back to something you said a
minute ago about some of the stuff that would go
into say the sewage and then into some waterways. Most
people are on some kind of sewage system. There are
some of us who are septic. You touched on that
for a minute. If you are someone who has a
septic system, does this stuff mess that up?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well, it's so diluted, I would say no.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I mean, it's not really a reason to totally walk
away from the salt type water softeners. But I also
want to say it depends on how much water you
actually use. And again that's why it's really good to
work with somebody to do those studies. Like I was
in a home depot the other day and they got
(09:00):
a home water softener for a thousand bucks on the shelf.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Install it yourself, but I.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Really recommend working with a plumber or a professional where
they can really give you what's best for you. I
think that's what I want to give everybody a shout
out is let's do it right. Let's address all the needs.
Let's address the chemicals, Let's address the minerals. Let's address
how much water you're using. Let's dress how.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Long that water softener is going to last.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I've had both in my home and the ones over
the shelf. You're probably gonna get about seven years out
of just by the mechanics of it.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And maybe your better brands.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
You might get fifteen twenty years out of it, right,
and they're probably double the price. But I'll tell you
when I switched mine out, and this has probably been
about eight years ago, now, I could instantly.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Tell the difference. There's no doubt there was a pig difference.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
So really, I think the step number one is if
you're always complaining that it's so hard to clean the shower,
there's water deposits, there's water spots on the glasses, on
the shower doors, on this that get the water tested.
It doesn't it doesn't cost you anything. Just let's find
out what's in the water. And especially if you have
(10:18):
you know, you were talking like or I was talking
about over and over in the Milford area, right, very
hard water. But there's also some older century type palms,
and I don't know what type of service line of
water you have coming into that home.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I don't know what kind of pipes you have in
that home.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And if there are lead pipes, and there's still plenty around,
you may have some lead in those pipes, not coming
from the municipality, but coming from your own home exactly.
So let's find out what's in the water. It doesn't
mean everybody has to have one. We were talking about
New Year's resolution and healthy water.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
There it is. Let's find out what's in the water.
Let's do that. Let's find out what's in the water
and take some action. If it's bad news, it's great stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Gary, you are the best my friend again, Happy New
Year and thank you for your expertise. This is great stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Thank you, Tom. Look forward to next week.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Okay, buddy Gary Sullivan. You can hear him on fifty
five KRC Saturday and Sundays from nine until noon and
syndicated nationally on nearly three hundred radio stations across America
Eight eleven here on the Morning show on seven hundred WLW.
We do this every single Thursday at this time we
get together. You hear him on better than two hundred
and seventy five stations syndicated nationwide, and we're happy that
his home base is right here in the Buckeye State
and Cincinnati, Ohio. Talking about our friend Gary Sullivan. Happy
(00:22):
New Year, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, happy New Year to you. Tom. How you doing
doing great? How about you? I'm doing really really well.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I hope your holiday went well.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It went great. Do you have a lot of family time?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I sure did, and it was a fantastic Hope you
did too, Yep, sure did. Okay, we've been talking and
a lot of people talk all the time about New
Year's resolutions, right, and we were talking the other day
that seventy nine percent of those has to do with
people getting in better physical shape.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, right, A lot about health right now, Yes it is.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
But look, there's also some New Year's resolutions you can
have with your home and talk about regularly. There is
no bigger investment for most of us out there than
what we invest in our homes, and so you want
to keep them in tip top shape. Let's start with
the most basic thing we need in life besides air,
and that would be water.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Well, that ties into the health thing also, tom is
you know in a lot of parts and it's been
in the news over the years, you know, a number
of years back with flint, Michigan and everything. How safe
is our water? And I want to say upfront, some
of the most safe water in the United States is
right here in the Great six sinety area. It's wonderful water,
(01:39):
but it's very hard water. Lots of limestone, you know,
limestone's good for racehorses and bourbon.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
That's so good for our home.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, yeah, you're right about that. Okay. We hear all
the time about water softeners, right, and there are some
that you salt, there are some that don't.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Did you walk us through sort of the differences if
you're thinking about a water softener here in twenty twenty six, yep.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So there's three water quality products out there. There's salt
free water softeners. You may have heard it advertised. That's
very appealing to somebody that doesn't want to carry fifty
pounds bags of salt down into the basement.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Which I do all the time.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So do I And also there's parts of the country
now that have brine restrictions. In other words, that salt
flushes out the system, okay when it collects hard water deposits,
and that brine goes down into the sewerage system which
goes into the waterways. And there's some people different parts
of the country now I have some brain restrictions. So
(02:46):
that's one and I'll explain the difference between the two.
And the other one is the one you and I
are used to, the water softener that you put the
salt in the big salt tube.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
And away you go. Now, the whole thing what a
water softener is is it takes.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Out or eliminates hard water that's the minerals in the water.
So the salt free is not really a water softener,
so it's not really taking out hard water deposits. What
it's doing is the sult free softeners actually removed the
(03:27):
They change the molecular structure of the minerals in the water,
which allows it to pass.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Through you know, your water heater, your shower and everything.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And what they've done is they've charged the hard water
particles so that it does not stick on metal surfaces.
The salt free or that's the salt free, the salt type.
It starts kind of collecting those, Okay, it's not really
charging them. So when you put the salt in there,
(03:59):
it's removing the hard ware deposits. It's really the best
soft water. It's actually giving you soft water, good for
your skin, good for your clothes, good for your water here,
good for your showers. It's it's soft water. It's removing it,
and then the salt flushes it out.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Of the system.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Okay, a lot of people when they get salt in
a system, they're they're they're they're afraid that they're going
to be ingesting salt. It's not that's going down the
i'll say sewer, septic whatever. It's kind of removing it.
It allows the soap to lather better. It really is
eliminating the hard water. And again that's salt free. It's
(04:39):
just charging the particles in there. It's keeping the hard
water from sticking on glass, on metal. It's just allowing
that hard water to not adhere to something in your
plumbing system. It's going right down the drain, but you
don't get the benefits of the i'll say, good.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
For your skin, good for your clothes, your hair. Yeah,
that type of thing. So that's the two main differences.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Then there's a third one and it's not a water softener,
and that's a product. A lot of people get very confused.
They think, well, water softener is really bringing up the
quality of water, and it is from a hardness standpoint.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
But a reverse osmosis, I don't know if you have
one of those in your home or not.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Those are usually point of use, like underneath the kitchen
sink or in the bathroom. And what it does is
a company will come and they will test for chemicals
in your water. Like I said, in the Cincinnati area,
we got pretty good water. But you may be surprised.
There may be maybe you're someone that doesn't want fluoride
(05:51):
in your water. Maybe in olders areas you have a
lot of lead pipes that will test for lead. You know,
you're receiving good water, but then as it goes through
an old plumbing system, by the time you drink it,
it's not so good. So they'll test for lead, they'll
test for fluoride, they'll test for chlorine chlorine, And that's
(06:12):
what a reverse osmosis is. It goes through like three
if you install one, it'll go through like three sets
of filter and it'll actually filter out those different chemicals.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
That are in your water.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So that's totally different from the water softener. So there's
really two that you need to pay attention to. One
is the water softener that's for hardness, like over in
the Milford area.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Very very hard water.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
A lot of heating elements go out because of the
hard water, and probably a lot of showers don't look so.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Good because of the hard water.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
But get your water tested and just see how hard
it is, and when you're there, do a test on
the actual chemicals in the water, and then you can
make a decision if you want to do one nune
or both of them.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So it sounds like, correct me if I'm wrong here,
But it sounds like if you're really interested in the
healthiest possible water just in one particular area, and you're
talking about this reverse osmosis, that would really be the
focal point. It sounds like, if I hear what you're saying,
where you might clean food and all those kinds of
things would be in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Right right, I would say probably ninety percent of them
are put right on the kitchen. Some of them have
to have another spout through a granite countertop. Yeah, a
lot of people don't like doing. I think it was
Culligan about seven eight years ago. They came up with
a system where it's bluetooth. There's a switch and it
literally shuts the water supply going straight up from the
(07:45):
pipes and it sends it through the osmosis system and
out the spout.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Bottom line there, not to confuse anybody, is you don't
have to drill through the countertop. Okay, so that, but.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
The kitchen areas certainly tom where you want to put it,
you know, And quite honestly, it's just like a breed
a water filtering system on steroids.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I want to get back to something you said a
minute ago about some of the stuff that would go
into say the sewage and then into some waterways. Most
people are on some kind of sewage system. There are
some of us who are septic. You touched on that
for a minute. If you are someone who has a
septic system, does this stuff mess that up?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well, it's so diluted, I would say no.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I mean, it's not really a reason to totally walk
away from the salt type water softeners. But I also
want to say it depends on how much water you
actually use. And again that's why it's really good to
work with somebody to do those studies. Like I was
in a home depot the other day and they got
(09:00):
a home water softener for a thousand bucks on the shelf.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Install it yourself, but I.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Really recommend working with a plumber or a professional where
they can really give you what's best for you. I
think that's what I want to give everybody a shout
out is let's do it right. Let's address all the needs.
Let's address the chemicals, Let's address the minerals. Let's address
how much water you're using. Let's dress how.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Long that water softener is going to last.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I've had both in my home and the ones over
the shelf. You're probably gonna get about seven years out
of just by the mechanics of it.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And maybe your better brands.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
You might get fifteen twenty years out of it, right,
and they're probably double the price. But I'll tell you
when I switched mine out, and this has probably been
about eight years ago, now, I could instantly.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Tell the difference. There's no doubt there was a pig difference.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
So really, I think the step number one is if
you're always complaining that it's so hard to clean the shower,
there's water deposits, there's water spots on the glasses, on
the shower doors, on this that get the water tested.
It doesn't it doesn't cost you anything. Just let's find
out what's in the water. And especially if you have
(10:18):
you know, you were talking like or I was talking
about over and over in the Milford area, right, very
hard water. But there's also some older century type palms,
and I don't know what type of service line of
water you have coming into that home.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I don't know what kind of pipes you have in
that home.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And if there are lead pipes, and there's still plenty around,
you may have some lead in those pipes, not coming
from the municipality, but coming from your own home exactly.
So let's find out what's in the water. It doesn't
mean everybody has to have one. We were talking about
New Year's resolution and healthy water.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
There it is. Let's find out what's in the water.
Let's do that. Let's find out what's in the water
and take some action. If it's bad news, it's great stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Gary, you are the best my friend again, Happy New
Year and thank you for your expertise. This is great stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Thank you, Tom. Look forward to next week.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Okay, buddy Gary Sullivan. You can hear him on fifty
five KRC Saturday and Sundays from nine until noon and
syndicated nationally on nearly three hundred radio stations across America
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.