ISO Information You guys have a water softener?

[steppinthrax]

So I'm in the Owings area. I'm on a well. I've been here around 7 years so far. The water has been tested and it's hard, around 14.6 GPG and .31 PMP of iron. I've consulted with many people and It comes down to a 48,000 Grain water softener. I've pinpointed it down to a Fleck 5600 SXT softener. The issue I'm having is the amount of water use with these softeners, It apparently uses around 89 gallons per regeneration. The generation is calculated on a weekly basis. The softener is an on-demand model, so it calculates the amount of water use to determine the next regeneration.

Just curious does anyone really soften their water here, or do you guys just accept the extra cleaning, soap scum and iron staining issues?

 

[Chris0nllyn]

So far, just been dealing with it.

My well expansion/bladder tank and water heater are needing to be replaced so I plan on adding a softener at the same time. I just renovated my kitchen and a bathroom and would prefer not having hard water stains. Plus my wife says the water isn't good for her hair.....

I'd be curious also to hear from anyone that has a softener. What sort of maintenance is involved, does it really help, etc.

 

[MiddleGround]

Water softeners will only filter out so much iron. If you iron levels are above a certain threshold then you will need to also get a seperate iron filter ($$$)

 

[steppinthrax]

Water softeners will only filter out so much iron. If you iron levels are above a certain threshold then you will need to also get a seperate iron filter ($$$)

I already understand this. My iron is only at .31 PPM. At such low levels of iron any water softener will easily remove it. Even in higher levels of iron, if you use a turbulator or iron out resin cleaner (every few months) it will be fine. Several have already told me that with my levels I simply just need to buy salt with iron out.

 

[black dog]

I have a softener at my farm, it's about 15 years old but it regens by using a analog clock. Since it's vertually just me I have the clock turned off and I regen manually when it's needed. It also uses just under 90 gallons per cycle, and about 3 lbs of salt.
I don't have hard water but have huge iron, so with running water through a iron machine that uses Potassium permanganate it raises the hardness level is up to where it's a problem so a salt machine was in order.
If I didn't have to water equipment everything the water touched would be orange within 24 hours.

 

[MR47930]

So far, just been dealing with it.

My well expansion/bladder tank and water heater are needing to be replaced so I plan on adding a softener at the same time. I just renovated my kitchen and a bathroom and would prefer not having hard water stains. Plus my wife says the water isn't good for her hair.....

I'd be curious also to hear from anyone that has a softener. What sort of maintenance is involved, does it really help, etc.

Same boat. We had our pressure tank replaced when we bought the house but the hot water heater is original to the home and we would like to get that updated. I was looking into having a softener added because of our hard water, but I don't really know enough about the systems to know what I need.

 

[steppinthrax]

So far, just been dealing with it.

My well expansion/bladder tank and water heater are needing to be replaced so I plan on adding a softener at the same time. I just renovated my kitchen and a bathroom and would prefer not having hard water stains. Plus my wife says the water isn't good for her hair.....

I'd be curious also to hear from anyone that has a softener. What sort of maintenance is involved, does it really help, etc.

My wife is complaining of the same exact thing. She is experiencing hair loss from hard water. Apparently I didn't hear about this until a few weeks ago. Hard water is bad on your hair.

This is the unit i'm about to pull the trigger on.


https://www.discountwatersofteners.com/fleck-5600-sxt-on-demand-48-000-grain-water-softener.html


It uses the fleck 5600 SXT valve which is one of the top control valves (next to the 8000 series). It's an on demand, meaning it measures the water use and regenerates on that basis, instead of timmed units that regenerate on a fixed time.

This is much cheaper than calling Culligan or Rainsoft and end up paying $5,000 on the same damn thing.

 

[steppinthrax]

Same boat. We had our pressure tank replaced when we bought the house but the hot water heater is original to the home and we would like to get that updated. I was looking into having a softener added because of our hard water, but I don't really know enough about the systems to know what I need.

I've spoken to several people on the phone and asked lots of questions. I already know too much.

I'm just trying to understand what other people in this area are doing, We all pull from the same aquifer

 

[black dog]

My wife is complaining of the same exact thing. She is experiencing hair loss from hard water. Apparently I didn't hear about this until a few weeks ago. Hard water is bad on your hair.

This is the unit i'm about to pull the trigger on.


https://www.discountwatersofteners.com/fleck-5600-sxt-on-demand-48-000-grain-water-softener.html


It uses the fleck 5600 SXT valve which is one of the top control valves (next to the 8000 series). It's an on demand, meaning it measures the water use and regenerates on that basis, instead of timmed units that regenerate on a fixed time.

This is much cheaper than calling Culligan or Rainsoft and end up paying $5,000 on the same damn thing.

Do the on demand units have the opinion to lock out when the unit cannot regen?
I wouldn't want it to regen during whenever the higher demand for water is needed.

 

[Chris0nllyn]

My wife is complaining of the same exact thing. She is experiencing hair loss from hard water. Apparently I didn't hear about this until a few weeks ago. Hard water is bad on your hair.

This is the unit i'm about to pull the trigger on.


https://www.discountwatersofteners.com/fleck-5600-sxt-on-demand-48-000-grain-water-softener.html


It uses the fleck 5600 SXT valve which is one of the top control valves (next to the 8000 series). It's an on demand, meaning it measures the water use and regenerates on that basis, instead of timmed units that regenerate on a fixed time.

This is much cheaper than calling Culligan or Rainsoft and end up paying $5,000 on the same damn thing.

Apparently there's some special shampoos out there that can help with hard water. I'm sure some salons in the area can help with that in the short term. I hadn't heard of anyone losing hair due to hard water though.

 

[steppinthrax]

Do the on demand units have the opinion to lock out when the unit cannot regen?
I wouldn't want it to regen during whenever the higher demand for water is needed.

The regeneration schedule is set at 2:00am by default. You can modify that time. But it says the regeneration can take around 2 hours. It depends on the pressure of your water.

Another option I was looking was doing a twin-tank. So you'd add another resin tank and pack it with resin and another control valve. Advantage is with this it will regenerate whenever. During regeneration of a twin tank, the standby tank becomes the active tank and the spent tank is regenerated. That regenerated tank then becomes the standby. So your tanks will flop during every regeneration. The advantage of a twin tank system is you can regenerated in the middle of the day. The other advantage is you can wait until the tank is 100% spent before regeneration v.s. regenerating a tank that may have an additional 10 gallons of filtering capacity left.

 

[steppinthrax]

Apparently there's some special shampoos out there that can help with hard water. I'm sure some salons in the area can help with that in the short term. I hadn't heard of anyone losing hair due to hard water though.

The hard minerals build on the hair and apparently causes oxidation, stresses the hair causes it to fall out. Or, the hard minerals make the hair rough and a combing will pull hair out (simply due to the additional drag).

 

[Chris0nllyn]

The hard minerals build on the hair and apparently causes oxidation, stresses the hair causes it to fall out. Or, the hard minerals make the hair rough and a combing will pull hair out (simply due to the additional drag).

*The more you know*

 

[black dog]

The regeneration schedule is set at 2:00am by default. You can modify that time. But it says the regeneration can take around 2 hours. It depends on the pressure of your water.

Another option I was looking was doing a twin-tank. So you'd add another resin tank and pack it with resin and another control valve. Advantage is with this it will regenerate whenever. During regeneration of a twin tank, the standby tank becomes the active tank and the spent tank is regenerated. That regenerated tank then becomes the standby. So your tanks will flop during every regeneration. The advantage of a twin tank system is you can regenerated in the middle of the day. The other advantage is you can wait until the tank is 100% spent before regeneration v.s. regenerating a tank that may have an additional 10 gallons of filtering capacity left.

I definitely would go with the twin tank if I had multiple people in the household.

 

[black dog]

The hard minerals build on the hair and apparently causes oxidation, stresses the hair causes it to fall out. Or, the hard minerals make the hair rough and a combing will pull hair out (simply due to the additional drag).

I just texted my ex and asked her what she used when we lived near Trent Hall, she would use a hard water shampoo that she bought at Walmart once or so each week and maybe once a month she would do a soak and rinse with lemon juice to remove minerals from her hair.

 

[steppinthrax]

I just texted my ex and asked her what she used when we lived near Trent Hall, she would use a hard water shampoo that she bought at Walmart once or so each week and maybe once a month she would do a soak and rinse with lemon juice to remove minerals from her hair.

Yep, someone told me that back in the day they would use vinegar on hair to remove the hard minerals.

 

[nutz]

I've spoken to several people on the phone and asked lots of questions. I already know too much.

I'm just trying to understand what other people in this area are doing, We all pull from the same aquifer

Some of us are using chlorinators because the staining is NOT from the iron.

This place has decent pricing for what you are asking about. https://www.ohiopurewater.com/categories/?categories_id=275

fyi https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3927171/

 

[warneckutz]

Just had one put in a few weeks ago. Definitely takes a little getting used to. Water definitely had the horrid "egg smell" (sulfur) and it pretty much left the orange film on anything if it sat too long. The iron deposits were pretty bad too.

Since having it put in, taking a shower or washing your hands feel really weird, it's like you have lotion you can't get off but it's less noticeable I've noticed.

Water doesn't have the odor anymore (never drank it). Added a triple filter at the kitchen sink and I have a separate spigot for the filtered water - tastes great, going to get used to not drinking bottled water.

I've yet to see any residue anywhere.

Clothes smell different coming out of the wash and dryer but maybe it's in my head.

I'd say money well spent.

 

[spr1975wshs]

I've spoken to several people on the phone and asked lots of questions. I already know too much.

I'm just trying to understand what other people in this area are doing, We all pull from the same aquifer

Hmmm, we do not have a softener, but the water we get from Metcom seems okay.

 

[black dog]

Hmmm, we do not have a softener, but the water we get from Metcom seems okay.