Water softener

[Nick merrall]

Hi guys, I was just wondering if any of you use a water softener before you start your purification? The water in my area is soo hard it's minimum 480 n as such is killing me in filter , membrane and resin costs, I'm after some advice as I don't know what route to go down , I have a van mounted system 2 x 10 inch pre filters, 4040 membrane and 2 x di bottles, my membrane must be shot again after only 8 months in the van, I changed 1 resin bottle and it lasted 2 weeks before the tds started creeping up again, it's doing my head in! Any advice would be welcomed .

 

[AGlassAct]

I used to have a softener as part of my filtration, removed it in he end as it was too time consuming for my needs as my TDS is around the 250 mark. Simple enough to knock up yourself - just get another DI unit and an empty 10" jumbo clear housing. Fill the housing with salt, run the water through the softener resin until the salt has gone and the water out of the softener isn't salty ( mine was clear a few minutes after the salt was gone from the canister) then connect it to the filters. Mine went - pre filter - carbon - softener - membrane - DI. I've got the layout of the Ionic system I copied somewhere I can dig it out if you like.

I assume you've ruled out high levels of chlorine in your tap water? It might be worth checking the chlorine levels as high chlorine will destroy your membrane as well. It could be worth testing the water pre and post carbon filter to see if it's that knackering your membrane. A general fish tank testing kit should be enough, if not a swimming pool test kit (which is what I used).

Going back to the softener - I had a 4-5 litre softener which took around 20-25 minutes to 'recharge' every time I filled the van (which was a 350ltr tank).

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[Nick merrall]

I used to have a softener as part of my filtration, removed it in he end as it was too time consuming for my needs as my TDS is around the 250 mark. Simple enough to knock up yourself - just get another DI unit and an empty 10" jumbo clear housing. Fill the housing with salt, run the water through the softener resin until the salt has gone and the water out of the softener isn't salty ( mine was clear a few minutes after the salt was gone from the canister) then connect it to the filters. Mine went - pre filter - carbon - softener - membrane - DI. I've got the layout of the Ionic system I copied somewhere I can dig it out if you like.I assume you've ruled out high levels of chlorine in your tap water? It might be worth checking the chlorine levels as high chlorine will destroy your membrane as well. It could be worth testing the water pre and post carbon filter to see if it's that knackering your membrane. A general fish tank testing kit should be enough, if not a swimming pool test kit (which is what I used).

Going back to the softener - I had a 4-5 litre softener which took around 20-25 minutes to 'recharge' every time I filled the van (which was a 350ltr tank).

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[Nick merrall]

If you could dig that out for me please aglassact, I've not checked the chlorine in the water, if that is the case that the chlorine is high then what's the solution to that? My mate who's a windy too has used a softener in the past but said he was getting salt spots on the glass so he stopped using it, how do you know when the resin is salt free and is it the same resin as we use in the di? Thanks for any advice given .

 

[AGlassAct]

If it's chlorine just replace the carbon filters more regularly - the fibredyne filter gardiners sell seem to be the best and I've used them without issue, it tells you how long they are 'meant' to last but I would look in to getting a test kit for chlorine of some form. I test my water every now and then as part of other swimming pool maintenance I do. We had a incident not long ago close by to me where the water authority 'leaked' too much chlorine into the water supply so it wasn't drinkable - I'm sure this doesn't happen often but it sure would screw up a failing carbon filter, or at least shorten its life. Manufacturers would test carbon filters under normal conditions so my tap water has between 0.2 & 0.4 mg/Ltr of chlorine in it (I think!!) anything above that and I'd expect the life of my carbon block to be reduced.

Resin wise - good news for a change, softener resin isn't that expensive and lasts a lot longer than DI resin, as long as you regenerate it with salt before every fill it should last over a year at a time (my last bag of salt cost £12 but I can't remember how much the resin was) have a look on DAqua's site or email Doug I'm sure he will offer better advice than me.

With regard to spotting - I've never had an issue, like I said before I used to wait a few minutes after the salt had dissolved from the pre filter and then I would physically taste the water that came directly out of the softener, if it didn't taste if salt/brine it was good to go!

I will sort the diagram out for you later.

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[Nick merrall]

Thank you so much , I'll do some investigating and hopefully get to the bottom of the problem,seems like the best way to go is a water softener, has anyone tried one of those water inhibitors you can buy from screwfix? It goes in line from your water supply and supposedly reduces the hardness of the water,

 

[AGlassAct]

The limescale inhibitor? Fitted one to my previous property, didn't make a massive difference to be honest and once it's 'treated' it goes back to scale forming - even just heating it, as my cold water was ok but hot taps scaled up again

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[AGlassAct]

The limescale inhibitor? Fitted one to my previous property, didn't make a massive difference to be honest and once it's 'treated' it goes back to scale forming - even just heating it, as my cold water was ok but hot taps scaled up again

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[Nick merrall]

Thanks again bud

 

[AGlassAct]

Hope this helps, I've included the user instructions too which should make it a little clearer

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[Nick merrall]

You're an absolute star mate, thank you so much for your help and advice, top man!

 

[Barry46]

Hi guys, I was just wondering if any of you use a water softener before you start your purification? The water in my area is soo hard it's minimum 480 n as such is killing me in filter , membrane and resin costs, I'm after some advice as I don't know what route to go down , I have a van mounted system 2 x 10 inch pre filters, 4040 membrane and 2 x di bottles, my membrane must be shot again after only 8 months in the van, I changed 1 resin bottle and it lasted 2 weeks before the tds started creeping up again, it's doing my head in! Any advice would be welcomed .

I’m like you I live in a hard water area I built a water fed trolly which purifies and fill my back back container
The system I use a water softener cartridge an anti scale cartridge a 5 micron washable sediment filter 20 inch size 20 inch carbon block filter a 10.5 litre di resin saver vessel 11 litre O ppm di vessel since I fitted the water softener to my system it made a real difference and my resin is lasting longer where before it wasn’t lasting before I hardly get any spotting I still use a tds meter

 

[Barry46]

I’m like you I live in a hard water area 380ppm I built a water fed trolly on my own which took four weeks which purifies and fills my back back container 22 litre size
The system I use a water softener cartridge an anti scale cartridge a 5 micron washable sediment filter 20 inch size 20 inch carbon block filter a 10.5 litre di resinsaver vessel 11 litre car detail zero ppm di vessel since I fitted the water softener to my system it made a real difference and my resin is lasting longer where before it wasn’t lasting before I hardly get any spotting I still use a tds meter so a water softener in eyes is a real benefit which is keeping my resin cost down