Home Water Softener

[treillw]

Not hunting related in the least, but it's kind of like sitting around the campfire with your hunting buddies - it's always good info.

Need to get a water softener for the whole house. Got a quote from a professional and it's not the cheapest thing in the world. I figure they can't be that hard to install - my house is already plumbed to make it easy, I believe. Is this something you can do yourself? Anything to watch out for doing it? Softener brands?

Our toilets get orange/yellow from the water (and me). Is there anything you can do about that?

I'm clueless on this and appreciate any guidance. Thanks!

 

[JoeB]

If you're getting orange staining, I would guess you have Iron issues with your water. We went through that with our well water, and I installed a softener. Not sure who made them back then, but we went with a unit we got from sears at a reasonable cost over 21 years ago. The first unit failed after 5 years so i got another one. Same thing it stopped up after around 5 years. Culligan told us the cheaper units don't flush good enough to clear the iron out of the resin bed. (maybe a sales pitch??) So far after close to ten years with their recommended system we are running strong. I purchased their system and let them install it. Have your water tested to make sure you're getting a unit that will take care of your issues and also be serviceable down the road as some cheaper units aren't serviceable just replace.

As far as your question they aren't hard to install.

 

[gbflyer]

Get a Water Boss. All that is required is a 110V plug in and some very basic plumbing skills.

 

[CorbLand]

Some good information in here.

Whole house Water Softener Systems

Alright there has to be someone here in the water softener business. I am looking to replace my current water softener and iron filter in my house. I've consulted Culligan and other companies, but its a little more than I would like to spend. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good system...

rokslide.com

 

[49ereric]

Not that hard to install with modern fittings. Flush the softener with Iron Out once a week.

 

[AKBC]

I just added one to my house. It is an easy job and you dont need to know how to solder. I bought the 42,000 grain Rheem from Home Depot and the softener and the hook up lines were ~$700 total.

 

[JakeT]

Not that hard to install with modern fittings. Flush the softener with Iron Out once a week.

Iron out is amazing. Just found out about it a couple weeks ago. Our softener "quit working" and used the iron out and it was like a new unit.

 

[fmyth]

Not hunting related in the least, but it's kind of like sitting around the campfire with your hunting buddies - it's always good info.

Need to get a water softener for the whole house. Got a quote from a professional and it's not the cheapest thing in the world. I figure they can't be that hard to install - my house is already plumbed to make it easy, I believe. Is this something you can do yourself? Anything to watch out for doing it? Softener brands?

Our toilets get orange/yellow from the water (and me). Is there anything you can do about that?

I'm clueless on this and appreciate any guidance. Thanks!

Does your house have a "loop" in the garage/basement for a softener?

 

[treillw]

Does your house have a "loop" in the garage/basement for a softener?

I'm pretty sure I remember the plumber talking about this.

What's the purpose of it again?

 

[Mighty Mouse]

If you already have tees and valves in the right spot, adding a water softener is dead easy. If not, it's still a very doable DIY task if you're dealing with PEX or PVC pipe.

 

[49ereric]

I installed a bypass for using the outside water hose.

 

[AKBC]

If you already have tees and valves in the right spot, adding a water softener is dead easy. If not, it's still a very doable DIY task if you're dealing with PEX or PVC pipe.

I agree and most people seem to be using the supply lines that have shark bite fittings making copper lines easy also.

 

[fmyth]

Not that hard to install with modern fittings. Flush the softener with Iron Out once a week.

I'm in AZ and and have hard water with a lot of iron. My softener has never been flushed and it's 22 years old. How do you flush it? Once a week seems like more trouble than its worth.

 

[pirogue]

I'm pretty sure I remember the plumber talking about this.

What's the purpose of it again?

That would be to make your installation easier with that exposed pipe loop, as opposed to tearing out a wall to find the pipe.

 

[Lil-Rokslider]

If you take the water out of the freezer, it will be noticeably softer by the next day.

 

[49ereric]

I'm in AZ and and have hard water with a lot of iron. My softener has never been flushed and it's 22 years old. How do you flush it? Once a week seems like more trouble than its worth.

there Is a plastic tube with a cap on inside my softener that we pour a gallon of water down with @ a cup of Iron Out in the water jug for a day so it dissolves well then hit recharge.
if your soaps are still making suds well then not needed cuz your softener is working.
the media in our softener plugged up fairly quick with iron and no soap suds.

 

[SOL2]

A Water Softener from Menards is more than adequate and use salt crystals rather than pellets or cubes which contain binders. After I drilled the last well it had a very strong sulfur odor, so I installed an aspirator to remedy that problem.

 

[Ken_L]

I have a water softener that has media in it for reducing iron but I also have a tank that goes before the water softener which uses air to reduce the amount of iron before it gets to the water softener. Before all of that I have a spin down filter and a big blue filter that goes from 1-20 microns to reduce the iron and anything else before it gets to the tanks. I installed it myself and it has been working really good in our new house for 4 years.

The trick I do for the water softener is I put a 1/4 cup of iron out in the tank that holds the salt every time I add the salt. This way when the water softener cleans itself it uses some of the iron out and that cleans off the media.

 

[Nine Banger]

The softener will make soap work better but it won't take the iron out, you need both devices, or use both in one like we do:



The Fleck 5600 will remove iron and backwash itself and the softening comes from salt pellets.

These prices are 2016, but it seems like the cheap choices recommended above are going to crap out on you or have a short service life.

The Water-Right system burps the water over air to release the sulfur, which you may not need depending on where you live.

We drink from the RO under the sink and I ran the same output to both my icemakers.

 

[treillw]

there Is a plastic tube with a cap on inside my softener that we pour a gallon of water down with @ a cup of Iron Out in the water jug for a day so it dissolves well then hit recharge.
if your soaps are still making suds well then not needed cuz your softener is working.
the media in our softener plugged up fairly quick with iron and no soap suds.

It's odd that we get great soap suds. We are just getting a scale buildup on plumbing fixtures, etc. Culligan said that our water is a 10 on the hardness scale and has zero iron. The toilet staining could be from the hardness somehow??

Showering at my wife's house before we were married was terrible - you always felt slimy. She had a water softener installed and it was still bad. Gave me dandruff too. The water at our house now is great for showering - there is just a crazy mineral buildup.

Weird.