About Us
Water…Your Home’s Most Precious Resource.
Steve Wiley, Technical Director and President of Advanced Water Treatment systems, Inc., graduated form Temple University with a degree in marine biology. While working for a pharmaceutical company in the 1980s, he was instrumental in the development of a series of revolutionary water treatment and purification technologies for use in the commercial fishing and aquaculture industries. His name is still attached to four separate patents that together were utilized by the company to help protect fish from a variety of waterborne diseases and contaminants.
Through his involvement with water technologies and because of his expertise in the field, Steve routinely gave speeches and wrote technical articles on his company's work, bringing him into closer contact with Point of Use / Point of Entry (POU / POE) manufacturers and others in the purification sectors of the market.
"I'd see a lot of the same faces at conferences and a lot of this technology overlaps from that (aquaculture) industry to applications in the drinking water world," Steve says.
In the late 1980's, Steve began moonlighting with drinking water technologies, investigating the effectiveness of a variety of POU products and developing his own POU / POE sales strategy.
It was 1992 when the marine biologist made the switch from aquaculture to drinking water treatment systems. While visiting a friend at a local water treatment dealership, Steve felt their drinking water testing lab was substandard in comparison to the aquaculture lab with which he was accustomed.
According to Steve, the restrictions placed upon the pharmaceutical company for its aquaculture research by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were far more stringent than the Environmental Protection Agency rules for drinking water. "I couldn't believe that the water we tested in the lab for marine life was put through more treatment than drinking water for human consumption. That's when I decided that I should be working on drinking water," Steve says.
As he inched toward an independent dealership, Steve rigorously tested a bevy of POU / POE products and ultimately settled on selling a POU system from the Amway Corporation. "I knew a lot about water purification systems, but learned very quickly that there's a big difference between doing research and selling," Steve says.
Prior to 1996, Steve was firmly established as an independent dealer of Amway filters, struggling to grow in the Philadelphia area. A. Wiley's Water Filtration Systems, Inc. was a one-man operation, expanding its offerings each time Steve found a product that met his rigorous personal standards, which ultimately led him to Hague Quality Water International.
"I had heard a lot about Hague over the years," Steve says, "but I never paid much attention because I thought that any water treatment system that was so fundamentally different than the technology I was used to couldn't really be true."
Steve now says his desire to become a Hague dealer is a resounding endorsement for the company and its products. Unlike the majority of other dealers who have started their dealerships from scratch, Steve brings a history of water purification research and expertise to the business.
One day, Steve called on a manufacturing firm to discuss their bottled water usage. That's where he met Richard Slimmer, current CEO / CFO of Advanced Water Treatment Systems, Inc., who was managing the company at the time. Steve installed several bottleless water coolers for Slimmer's company, which worked so well that Rick wanted one installed in his home. Steve said he had something even better, and introduced the Hague WaterMax to Rick and his wife.
During the initial installation of the WaterMax at Rick's home, Steve found more than just a new customer, he also found a partner. Rick's background in finance and Steve's technical and sales expertise led to the development of Advanced Water Treatment Systems, Inc. In April, 1999, the two men had established their dealership and began exclusively marketing the Hague WaterMax under the Hague Quality Water of Greater Philadelphia division.
Today, the Advanced Water Treatment Systems family of customers is growing monthly. As the dealership has expanded in the region, it has helped to establish the Hague name in Southeastern Pennsylvania, simultaneously making periphery Hague dealerships more viable. The company operates a commercial / industrial division under the name of Advanced Water Treatment Systems, Inc. and its residential services under the name of Hague Quality Water of Greater Philadelphia.
In the near future, the company hopes to expand its operations further by opening two satellite locations in the Southeastern PA region to meet its ever growing demand.
