ST. LOUIS -- When asked to identify which industrial water treatment services were most important to their business, industrial and commercial businesses from across the United States routinely ranked water softening as number one. Water softeners use an ion exchange process to remove harsh calcium and magnesium from water, eliminating the ions responsible for hard water spots and lime scale.

Eliminating other unwanted minerals through filtration also ranked highly on the list, followed by complete sterilization and disinfection of water. Those businesses not concerned with complete sterilization ranked the removal of anions from water, such as nitrates and sulfates, as least important to their business.

The biggest industrial and commercial needs identified by the survey are as follows (listed in descending order of importance):

· - Softening Hard Water – 43 Votes

· - Preventing Lime Scale Deposits – 41 Votes

· - Eliminating Unwanted Minerals – 31 Votes

· - Complete Sanitation/Sterilization/Disinfection – 30 Votes

· - Filtering Bacteria/Microorganisms – 27 Votes

· - Filtering Dissolved Solids – 25 Votes

· - Reducing Anions (i.e. Nitrates and Sulfates) – 16 Votes

Hard water minerals and lime scale buildup can result in a significant number of problems for industrial and commercial businesses, including reduced efficiency of boilers and cooling tower equipment. When hard water is an issue, other dissolved solids and minerals are often present that impact the quality of the final make up water. For this reason, a water filter is often used in combination with a water softener, as part of a total industrial water treatment system.

The complete sterilization and disinfection of water, such as for use in laboratory settings, also requires the removal of bacteria and microorganisms. Depending on the purity standards that must be met, water may be treated with reverse osmosis, followed by ultraviolet filtration.

About This Survey: The statistics above were gathered from a May 2014 Industrial and Commercial Filtration Needs survey that was conducted by a third-party on behalf of Culligan Industrial Water – http://www.CulliganIndustrialWater.com The survey was open to industrial or commercial businesses of all sizes. To be eligible to participate, respondents were required to work for an industrial or commercial business located within the United States and be familiar with their water treatment needs.