Hyderabad Duo Invents Device That Turns Hard Water Soft for 1/10th the price!
Published on by Trudi Schifter, CEO and Founder AquaSPE in Technology
Imagine this: You just spent your hard earned money and purchased a new house. It has a small backyard to plant trees, satin finish tiles, walls painted in your favourite colours and a swanky kitchen.
But a few days later, washing clothes becomes hard as it requires more soap but using more soap leave a messy scum on the clothes that cannot be rinsed clean.
Meanwhile, your costly bathroom fittings and kitchenware appliances begin to turn black.
Your skin suddenly develops dryness causing an outbreak of acne. It leads to excess itching leaving the skin cracked.
Your first suspicion zeroes in on the water you receive. So, you obviously, you install an expensive water-purifying/softening device or boil large amounts of water before bathing.
The scenario that arises out of the usage of hard water is a widespread phenomenon in India. In fact, in 2018, 24 per cent of the areas in Bengaluru received hard water containing inorganic minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonates, chlorides and sulphates reported The Economic Times.
Having faced a similar situation, two childhood friends in Hyderabad installed water softeners in their respective homes.
Rajesh Saraf and Uday Nadiwade discontinued using the softener plants due to the high maintenance cost.
Speaking to The Better India , Rajesh says,
Hard water problem is a pressing problem in most parts of India, and unfortunately we end up using it as it is or pays for very costly devices. It was high time we addressed this problem.
When there is a shortage of fresh water, water is then drawn from bore wells. This hard water is often used as utility water for bathing and cleaning purposes.
Having worked in product development and sales and marketing industry respectively, Rajesh and Uday took the matters in their own hands and started researching on developing a low-cost and environment-friendly solution to the hard water problem.
It took them almost a year, but it was worth the hard work and wait, says Uday, “There are already ample of treatment plants available in the market, but we didn’t want to develop just another plant that would be expensive further aggravating people’s woes.”
D’Cal company hopes to resolve hard water problems in India
Developing on their principles of ‘Better, Faster and Cheaper’, the two friends christened their product ‘BEFACH’. The product is for one-time use and doesn’t require any maintenance. As against the conventional plants that cost anything around 30,000, this device is priced at only Rs 3,600. The best part is that it can last for a year!
Taxonomy
- Water Softener