Water softeners

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Big Karen

You stupid

[tjfontaine]

Back on topic and trying to be helpful ...

Two things - maybe have them turn down the hardness level on the softener it may be set too high - usually when the water feels super slippery it is over softened.

Then - the drinking water should really bypass the water softener. In the upper midwest where we are it is std practice to not have the kitchen faucet on the softener circuit. Check with your in-laws on this... if it is that way they can get their drinking water just from that one faucet.

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

On a road trip to my MIL's. Lower NYS just below Harriman State Park. On a well. They always had the best water- Baby Doll used to rave about it after washing her hair. Taste was awesome. Then the old gal had Culligan come in and test, "oh, you got hard water", then installed a softener.

Tastes OK, hardly what it was. Take a shower and rinsing seems to take forever. Slippery water.

WTF

Have 'hard' artesian water here. Lathers up and rinses great. Leaves water spots on car if you don't wipe it down. Never had that issue in the Bay Area.
Have a friend in Nevada City who has a softener. Soap won't lather and the water feels slimy. Don't care for it. I'd rather load up on calcium and wipe my cars down. Hell, hardly wash them anyhow these days. It's all about detail spray and keeping them clean all the time. Much easier.

[Bruze]

Originally Posted by tjfontaine

Back on topic and trying to be helpful ...

Two things - maybe have them turn down the hardness level on the softener it may be set too high - usually when the water feels super slippery it is over softened.

Then - the drinking water should really bypass the water softener. In the upper midwest where we are it is std practice to not have the kitchen faucet on the softener circuit. Check with your in-laws on this... if it is that way they can get their drinking water just from that one faucet.

Per my earlier post, where I noted that I had ridiculous amounts of dissolved iron in my well water: The water, while harmless to drink, had a very noticeable and unpleasant metallic taste to it.

But I have seen places (in my youth) that had a separate drinking line and faucet on the kitchen sink.

Although one in particular (as I recall) was that they had a lame dug well, and not enough water for a household with 5 people. So the main water supply was a cistern, drinking water came from the well.

Not that dug well water was necessarily more sanitary than cistern water, but living in the country has its unique problems that city people aren't even aware of.

"Why doesn't water come out when I turn the faucet on?"

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by GTOguy

Have 'hard' artesian water here.

Artesian means that it comes out if the ground under pressure- doesn't need a pump. It's an often misused term.

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

Artesian means that it comes out if the ground under pressure- doesn't need a pump. It's an often misused term.

I mis-used the term. We have groundwater and run-off from the Sierra Nevada.

I think you could take Big Bob. He's a big boy, but you're faster and in better shape. You would wear him out just dancing around him and then could go in for the TKO. Just stay out of his reach when you're tiring him out. And whatever you do, don't let him fall on you.

[Bruze]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

Artesian means that it comes out if the ground under pressure- doesn't need a pump. It's an often misused term.

Yep, and I've only ever seen one in my life.

A family I knew, about 6-8 miles from here, had one. The guy bitched about it cuz he had a steady stream of water flowing across his driveway/lawn.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Bruze

Yep, and I've only ever seen one in my life.

A family I knew, about 6-8 miles from here, had one. The guy bitched about it cuz he had a steady stream of water flowing across his driveway/lawn.

I worked with a guy who did a stint as a hydrogeologist in the Peace Corp. They put him in a third world country, a large flat valley surrounded by mountains. Early 80's, few had running water. After his stint there were dozens of artesian wells serving thousands of people.

Odd fellow. When I knew him, he and I were probably making the same money. I had a house on two acres with a wife and kids on the way. He lived in his AMC Pacer. He just saw no need for luxuries like a bed, hot showers and a cherry dining room set.

[the new me]

Originally Posted by tjfontaine

Two things - maybe have them turn down the hardness level on the softener it may be set too high - usually when the water feels super slippery it is over softened.

Originally Posted by GTOguy

Have a friend in Nevada City who has a softener. Soap won't lather and the water feels slimy.

I have very hard well water. 60 grain. That's really high.

I have it softened down to 0 grain hardness.

The water does not feel super slippery or slimy. Soap lathers well. Small amounts of soap will do a great job. I use a pea-sized dab of shaving soap with a brush to make tons of lather. A couple of ounces of laundry soap will wash a medium-sized load with just enough soap.

???

Sure wish I could figure out why these experiences are so different.

[Bruze]

FWIW: I didn't notice any difference in the volume of lather/suds after my water softener was hooked up.

Also, I've read that there isn't necessarily any correlation between the volume of suds and the actual cleaning power of any soap.

[ZipZap]

Originally Posted by Bruze

Yes, it's mostly BS.

I had a well drilled in 2005, plenty of water but it is loaded with iron. I lived with it for a few months but had to do something about it. Ice cubes were orange, boiled water would turn orange, and iron bacteria formed a thick orange scum on the inside of the toilet tank.

So I had a softener put in (Water-Rite) that was especially designed to remove iron. It works well, but as far as the water being soft I don't care and don't see any advantage.

A buddy of mine is a germ-o-phobe and is a big softener fanatic. He's critical of anyone who DOESN'T have a softener. But then he believes that space aliens built the pyramids, so there's that.

Iron removal is done via a greensand fllter that is recharged with Potassium Permanganate. The KMnO4 oxidizes the dissolved iron into small particles that are caught in the greensand. The system then backflushes periodically to blow out the iron, typically in a dry sump.

If you had more than the single tall canister and the smaller KMnO4 canister, then they may have also added a softener.

Wells in northern VA are notorious for Iron. The first time that all the white laundry came out a pale orange, the wife went berserk. I installed the system the next week.

Contrast that with the well I'm on in CO and it's really night and day. The only thing I need to do is remove sand, and that's easily done with a whole house filter. I test the water frequently due to having a spa and the total hardness and alkalinity of the tap water are under 100ppm.

[Bruze]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

Iron removal is done via a greensand fllter that is recharged with Potassium Permanganate. The KMnO4 oxidizes the dissolved iron into small particles that are caught in the greensand. The system then backflushes periodically to blow out the iron, typically in a dry sump.

If you had more than the single tall canister and the smaller KMnO4 canister, then they may have also added a softener.

Wells in northern VA are notorious for Iron. The first time that all the white laundry came out a pale orange, the wife went berserk. I installed the system the next week.

Contrast that with the well I'm on in CO and it's really night and day. The only thing I need to do is remove sand, and that's easily done with a whole house filter. I test the water frequently due to having a spa and the total hardness and alkalinity of the tap water are under 100ppm.

I only have the Water-Rite softener, designed mostly to remove iron. It has a chlorine generator that works somehow with the salt (as I recall, this was explained to me in 2006).

"The Guy" said I could go that route or go with a chlorinator system (I think) but the price would be roughly the same for either system.

The softener worked great from 2006 up until maybe 5 years ago. Then I would have to take the injector apart and clean it every year or so. But it continued to get worse, and the past year or so a day or two before regeneration I could taste the iron in the water.

So I had a different "Guy" come a few months ago and replace the beads which were nearly all pulverized. I should have done it sooner, but no harm done.

Water is all good now every day.

[ZipZap]

Originally Posted by Bruze

I only have the Water-Rite softener, designed mostly to remove iron. It has a chlorine generator that works somehow with the salt (as I recall, this was explained to me in 2006).

"The Guy" said I could go that route or go with a chlorinator system (I think) but the price would be roughly the same for either system.

The softener worked great from 2006 up until maybe 5 years ago. Then I would have to take the injector apart and clean it every year or so. But it continued to get worse, and the past year or so a day or two before regeneration I could taste the iron in the water.

So I had a different "Guy" come a few months ago and replace the beads which were nearly all pulverized. I should have done it sooner, but no harm done.

Water is all good now every day.

Bacterial iron. The worst kind of iron. Have you had your well sanitized/shocked?