Way Off Topic: Water filtration, R-O, water softeners?

Their water softener is great and I really like the double resin tank and mechanical timer for backwashing. No electrics and nothing to corrode.

The filters last us, 2 people, about 3 to 4 months and cost around $50 a shot to replace.

Softened water still makes stones in the body, so I don't drink it. RO for drinking water does remove both solids and aromatics, better than distillation but its expensive to buy and to run so you tend to not do it for the whole house.

Iron wrecks the softener fairly fast, you need to use a resin cleaner or Pellens, and if that's not working long, you need an iron filter. A good water treatment place can check the water and supply the necessary equipment to do it right.

Go to your county extension office and ask for the home water treatment book from Midwest Plans Service. It will cost a few bucks but will give you more information than the typical water conditioner salesman ever knew.

Gerald

We have pretty hard water from our well and it has iron. The iron will collect on the resin of the softener and bacteria will grow on the iron. The result is a sulfur smell that many think is sulfur. If you don't smell sulfur now but do smell it after the softener is in... just get the salt that is meant for water with iron. Works for us.

We put a ro unit in the cellar and it is plumbed to refrigerator ice and water in the door, and the kitchen and bar sinks. Don't think the bar sink gets much use, would rather have had the tap in the upstairs bath, but no straight run to refit upstairs.

We have lake ontario water, not that hard, 5-7 grains, but is nice in the shower and laundry.

Soft water is what you want in boilers, radiators, and the like. Distilled water is corrosive.

Corrosion is accelerated by chloride ion (think hydrochloric acid, HCl), you can dissolve stainless steel with table salt and vineger. Chlorinated drinking water will cause stainless steel piping to crack and fail.

Washing your car with softened water (water that contains sodium carbonate, sodium sulfate) will make it easier to dry without water spots.

RO or distilled water is corrsosive because there is no dissolved salts and the water is "looking" for anything to dissolve. Many folks on this board believe the best radiator juice is distilled water and antifreeze, and that is incorrect. It is also their engine and radiator.

Seek out the advice of a stationary engineer and ask if he/she uses soft water, deionized water, or distilled water in their boilers.

Your physician is concerned about your sodium level increasing and aggravating any propensity for increasing blood pressure. One large glass of water has about as much sodium as 1 slice of white bread. If I was thirsty, I would drink the water.

In summary, chloride is bad, causes iron to rust. Soft water is sodium salts of carbonate, sulfate etc. If it tastes salty, it has chloride.