water softener questions?
Hey everyone! I was wondering if someone might have a suggestion for a water softener for my mobile situation. I am running my machine off of a shurflo bottled water dispenser with 5 gallon water jugs that I have filled with from my own filtration system at home. I bought a dva lt8 water softener but It has two water inlets and outlets and my shurflo just has the one. I am usually pretty handy but not when it comes to plumbing situations. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Scott on
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If you are using filtered water already, why the softener? Why not just soften the water at home, instead of on the mobile? It would simplify things. And you could install a valve controlled/plumbed in softener. Or are you thinking of being able to source water from locations other than home, and then soften on the go?
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Permalink Reply by Shadow on
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Since we are mobile in operation I decided to install a high flow/volume softener as we have 90 gals of fresh water capacity. This allows us to achieve good water regardless of the source, as long as it's potable that is. To protect all onboard equipment I bought a Boji RV/Marine carbon filter/softener and installed/"hard" piped it. All water that goes into the tanks is ran through this. With average hardness it's good for 2,000 gallons before needing to be manually generated, which only takes 30 mins.
Will also add that being mobile (with onboard tanks) has its challenges. Sanitizing of fresh water tanks is of great importance with such setups.
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Permalink Reply by Eli Masem on
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Hey scott, thanks for the advice that def. simplifies things a little. I have a tendency to overthink these things as I am one of the very few people in my area that has this sort of set up. Also, shadow, your way might be the way for me to go in the future if I decide to expand. thanks so much guys. Its nice to be able to bounce these questions off of other brains sometimes.
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Sure thing Eli! I don't know where you are but having your water tested would be a good idea. Heck, keep a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter and a hardness test kit with your equipment. While I see people mostly under-treating their water, I do occasionally see people over-treating their water. For example if you're in Portland, OR, you generally only need a taste and odor filter/sediment and carbon blocks to remove the copious amounts of chlorine. Most of Portland's water being less then a grain of hardness (or so low it doesn't register) and maybe TDS of 20ppm; while out here in E. WA. you could need anything including a Iron filter, UV light and a Merlin. We have water well over 500ppm, in some parts, and all of that hardness (30 grains). It really depends on where the water is sourced, surface or underground. Take care!
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Permalink Reply by Joshua Longsdorf on
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If you have the jugs why not just spend the 40 cents a gallon on RO then treat it. If you're filling at home water costs $ too unless you have a well which then I'd would for sure go for the reverse osmosis.
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Hi Joshua - First, it sounds like he is treating the water at home. Second, wells are expensive, it's ground water so it's more likely to be hard (requiring additional filtration equipment) and if it's not maintained by a licensed municipal water operator could be looked at by the local health department as something akin to selling home baked pastries . Just doesn't sound like it's worth the trouble to me.
take care!
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Scott, pretty sure you miss understood me. I clearly said not to use a well. What I suggested is to not have a softener and just buy reverse osmosis, it's fairly cheap. Especially if you factor in filters at home plus municipal water prices. Unless he has RO, which I doubt is the case because as I stated you wouldn't need a softener. So again just to make my point clear. Buy reverse osmosis or distilled at a local store, no matter where I've lived it's been under 40 cents per gallon, which means not buying a softener or flying through filters at home. It mostly likely will be a wash on price or fairly negligible. Then if you want to target a specific water TDS use Cirqua AB. They're not terribly priced assuming you have an EIN and can order through Cirqua. It will be the best water you can buy and far less plumbing worries.
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No problem, you're right, I think I got the impression you where implying a cost saving from using well water. Still if you are using a home or small line pressure RO, you need to factor in the waste water, those things dump about four gallons for every one gallon of product water. Yes you could recover it (and in parts of California I'm told you have to by law) and recycle it ( which incidentally was against the law here in Washington until last year). Small line pressure ROs are pretty slow producers.
We have used GE Merlin systems with great success. But that's only one of many options. You can always find a local WF company for your needs. BTW, I was a customer of Cirqua's for over 10 years. Matter of fact I'm going to repair a Cirqua N300 today, if the parts arrive. Take care!
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No, don't. Buy an RO for home, buy water from a retailer. It's fairly cheap. I did it for six months and wouldn't have done it any other way. Of course I only used 16 gallons a day but still that was only like 6 or 7 dollars.
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