HELPING family farming businesses - "the salt of the earth" - improve their water quality on-farm, inspires the Hydrosmart team at Parkside. For more than 25 years, SA-born and bred Paul Pearce, creator of Hydrosmart, has run the oldest water shop in Adelaide, while prior to that he worked in Australia's oldest water shop in Sydney. He said after moving back to Adelaide, the principals and theories behind the Hydrosmart technology began. "After working in water for so many years, I believed it was definitely something everyone needed - good, clean water," he said. "I started some good partnerships with scientists and we have a biologist and electrical engineer in the team and found we could add value to water by using frequencies and a little bit of electricity, without any filters or consumables, and no waste streams. "We had seen the waste output and power being used with reverse osmosis (desalination), so I thought there must be a better way and we evolved from that." The Hydrosmart water conditioner makes water "more usable". The technology disrupts and weakens bonds of minerals by putting an ionising charge onto water molecules. To do so, they use a computer chip and several meters of pipe often shaped into a product with a unique 'U' bend to electronically improve problems caused by the minerals in water. Hydrosmart ‘excites’ water molecules in turn this impacts elements in the water’s ionic charge and can improve saline irrigation issues by moving salt downwards and away from plant roots, provide calcium scale removal and prevention, and magnesium and iron scale removal and prevention. These minerals and salts can often be found in high amounts when using Australian groundwater. "In the beginning, the technology was very suited to viticulture, we had clients such as Hardys and D'Arenberg, but we have since grown into other industries, with agriculture now our biggest market," Paul said. "Farmers are using it for irrigation blockages in viticulture; wash down build ups in dairies; stations are using it to address saline borewater for their stock and domestic; while feedlots are softening their water to help with weight gains. "The agriculture industry is keeping us very busy." Paul said he loved that they worked at the coalface of farming issues, helping family businesses improve their water supply and the environment around them. "And what I love about Hydrosmart is that it is a one-off technology," he said. "Farmers put it on and we generally don't hear from them again until they want to buy more."
