Water treatment sales FAQ: the water test, honest claims, certification and pay

Usually hardness, chlorine, acidity (pH), iron and total dissolved solids, using drops, strips or a handheld meter. These describe how the water tastes, smells and behaves with soap and appliances. They are not, by themselves, evidence that water is unsafe to drink. Questions about contaminants that affect health need a laboratory test.

A softener removes the minerals that make water hard, which cause scale and make soap lather poorly. A filter removes other things, depending on its type: carbon filters reduce chlorine taste and odor, and reverse osmosis units reduce dissolved substances at one tap. Many systems sold in homes combine them. Know which problem each part of your system addresses.

Homeowners with hard water, water that tastes or smells of chlorine, staining from iron, or a private well. Renters rarely can, because the system is plumbed into the house. Canvassers are sent where the water is known to be hard or where homes are on wells.

Not on the strength of a demonstration test. Homes on a public water system receive a Consumer Confidence Report: the Environmental Protection Agency requires community water systems to send customers a water quality report each year by July 1. Ask to look at it together. It lists what was detected and how that compares with the legal limits, and it is the right starting point for any claim about safety.

Source: EPA: Consumer Confidence Reports, information for consumers

Nobody tests it for the owner. The EPA says the quality and safety of water from private wells is not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and that well owners are responsible for their own water. That makes a real laboratory test more important, not less. A rep should recommend one and should not present a demonstration kit as a substitute.

Source: EPA: private drinking water wells

No. The EPA's consumer guidance on lead in drinking water points people to filters evaluated by an accredited third-party certification body against NSF/ANSI Standards 53 and 42. So the honest statement is which standard your product is certified to, for which contaminants, and by which certifier, with the listing to show for it.

Source: EPA: consumer tool for filters certified to reduce lead

California has one. The State Water Resources Control Board says any claim that a device reduces a health-related contaminant requires certification and registration of the product in California. Devices sold only for taste, odor or chlorine do not have to be registered. If you sell in California, check that the model is on the board's list before you make a health claim.

Source: California State Water Resources Control Board: water treatment device registration

For selling, it depends on the state's home improvement rules. For installing, some states license the installer: Texas requires a water treatment specialist license for anyone who, under contract, installs, exchanges, connects, maintains or services water treatment equipment. If your role includes hooking up or servicing equipment, ask the company which license covers you.

Source: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: water treatment specialist license

In 2024 the Federal Trade Commission announced an action against Aqua Finance, a company that financed home water treatment systems through door-to-door dealers, saying the dealers frequently misled people about the financing terms. Its advice to consumers was to resist pressure, get the financing details in writing and check their credit report. A rep should hand over those details before the customer has to ask.

Source: Federal Trade Commission: Aqua Finance consumer alert (May 2024)

For most sales made at the home, yes, within three business days under the federal Cooling-Off Rule, and the seller must give a written cancellation notice. Companies normally install after that period. Commission on a cancelled sale is not paid, or is charged back if it already was.

More: Chargeback

Source: Federal Trade Commission: Cooling-Off Rule (16 CFR Part 429)

Usually after the system is installed and, for financed sales, after the lender funds the loan. Until both happen the sale can still fall through. Ask whether commission is a percentage of the sale price or of the price after financing costs, and how long a sale can be charged back.

More: How door-to-door pay works

It suits people who like presenting. The sale takes an hour in a kitchen, not two minutes at a door, and there are fewer sales in a week than in fiber or pest control. Starting as a setter who books the tests is the lower-risk way to learn it.

More: Setter vs. closer

Ask what the test kit measures and what you are told to say about the result. Ask which certifications the equipment holds, who the lender is and what the customer signs, how many sales cancel, and when commission is paid. A company that is vague about the test or the financing is one to avoid.

More: How to vet a company