Anyone have a water softener?

“We just had a water softener installed in our home. The difference is already apparent and quite refreshing. Now to replace some of the old pipes to get the pressure back up.”

“i put one in last year. it wasns't easy to do myself but saved me a bunch of $

i use the iron out salt which which helps quite a bit for my water. otherwise everything turns orangish brown”

“I've considered installing a softener system here, but it would have to go outside becasue of a decided lack of space.”

“When I was a young smartSa$$, my dad had a new water softerner installed. The water had a heavy iron content. I sugested that he up the pressure on the tank (well system)to flush out some of the sediment in the pipes. He tried it and it worked--to his surprise.

It may not be a long term solution, but for the short range....”

“We have plenty of pressure from the meter. something like 120psi. Our house was built in 1942. The pipes just need to be replaced. The water softener lowers the ppm of sediment as well as removing the chemicals used by the city to treat the water. I had a water polisher installed in the kitchen which filters the water additionally down to .4 microns. Our water always smelled like chlorine at best and downright nasty at worst. It tastes almost sweet now. It's remarkable really.”

“It probably has old galvanized pipes instead of copper. Galv pipes rust to the inside, narrowing the pipe, and lowering the delivered volume of water, which is what really counts. I read once that it is possible to clear the rust, but honestly, all you're gonna do is knock all that crap loose and clog up all your valves. Replacement is the way to go.

My last house had this problem.”

“Wow, that's cool. Sometimes when we get a bath or shower the water is so strongly chlorinated it smells like a city pool.”

“Where I work, we have the softeners that we custom make with coconut shell activated carbon on top of the resin which acts as a softener and a carbon filter. The coconut carbon is far better than the standard activated carbon . It's great for city water supplies where they tend to overchlorinate. I always ran my five potable water systems at a .2-.3 residual. You could hardly taste it, and it passed the Safe Drinking Water Act saftey standards without fail. Most towns where I am now run at a full 1.0

The Carbon units (or "plus" units as we call them) are really sweet.
last edited: 6/07/05 5:28:34 PM”

“Was it really expensive to replace the pipes?”

“had one for 24 years and wouldn't be withouit one. our softner is on the 3rd floor of our house so it's a pain to houl those 40lb bags up two flights of stairs. guess that's what sons are for!”