Suggestion on treating hard water and iron. Both are moderate, pH is high.


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Old 01-02-13, 08:04 AM
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Suggestion on treating hard water and iron. Both are moderate, pH is high.

0.38 mg/L Iron
74 mg/L (4.35 grains) Hardness
8.1 pH

The water is very clear with no sediment evident (just a little white residue on faucets and shower heads) so I'm hopeful this is clear water iron and no iron bacteria (our water treatment center doesn't differentiate between clear and red water iron). Would a simple Whirlpool water softener do the trick here you think? We're planning on doing water filtration too for added purity. I've been looking at the Whirlpool WHELJ1 for the whole house filter along with a softener, and then the fridge has it's own filter built-in and adding a smaller unit under the kitchen sink for cooking water.

Household is 3 people now but growing shortly I certainly don't want to undersize a unit as I've read iron equates to 5x the amount of hardness when calculating a softener size. The Whirlpool 30,000 grain model quotes iron reduction of 8 which is more than twice my needs.

Thoughts?
 
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Old 01-02-13, 01:17 PM
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I don't recommend the Whirlpool or other brands sold in big box stores.

You will, in my opinion, be much better of with a unit with a Fleck control head and prices are not that different.
The Fleck 7000 SXT would suit your circumstances and is my personal favorite.

A 1 cubic foot unit (32,000 grain nominal size) is comparable in size to the Whirlpool you are considering and would be appropriate unless you have a large tub with high flow faucet or large/multiple shower heads.

Here is a souce of supply (there are many other online suppliers) where the prices are for a complete unit delivered to your home:

Water treatment, water softener, water conditioners, Fleck 7000 water softener

To get good salt efficiency you will need to program the unit to regenerate with 6 lbs of salt/cubic foot of resin and set the capacity to 20,000 grains. With your hardness and iron I recommend a hardness setting of 7 or 8.

You should plan to use an iron cleaner periodically--perhaps every 6-8 weeks to keep the unit working at top efficiency.
 
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Old 01-03-13, 06:46 AM
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Thanks for the advice. I'm open to other brands, but I'm curious why you favor the Fleck over the Whirlpool?
 
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Old 01-03-13, 07:55 AM
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These forums are full of people wanting to know what's wrong with their GE, Whirlpool, Sears, Home Depot, Lowes and NorthStar water softener. All of them are made by the same company (EcoWater). Not too many people that own a Fleck are on here. You would be better off with a Fleck or Clack unit than EcoWater
 
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Old 01-03-13, 07:56 AM
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Fleck control heads are, on average, much more durable. Additionally, Fleck electronic controls allow the user to customize the settings for the steps in regeneration to match water conditions.

Whirlpool, Sears, and some other units are all made by the same supplier and include an industry unique valve design that fails much more frequently than the Fleck
 
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Old 01-03-13, 09:07 AM
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THANK YOU. Well those are great reasons and the price isn't much different. Glad I posted here before running to Sears/Lowes.

Any reason NOT to oversize the system a little (say, get a 40k instead of a 33k) ? Being on well water I've heard that conditions like hardness and iron can change so it might be higher if I tested in 6 months.

Finally - wise to go with a whole-house carbon filter, one of the self-cleaning units like the "Kenmore Elite Central Water Whole Home Filtration System" (made by Whirlpool)? We're going to put a RO system under the sink and the fridge of course has it's own built-in filter too. But being on well water we want a bit of whole-house filtration for showers and brushing our teeth and stuff.

Really appreciate the help.
 
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Old 01-03-13, 10:00 AM
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With iron in your water you don't want to go too long between regenerations.

Also, I assume you are interested in salt efficiency. But with iron you don't want to go below 6 lbs of salt per cubic foot of resin. With a 1 cubic foot size unit that will give capacity of ~20,000 grains. With 3 people using a typical 60 gal/day/person and compensated hardness of 8 your daily grain usage is 60 x 3 x 8 = 1440 grains/day and with capacity of 20,000 grains and allowing for safety factor for regeneration you will be regenerating every ~ 12 days. That is on the long side for water with iron. Ideal would be less than every 7 days. So I don't recommend increasing the size of the softener.

I recommend you set the softener up with the days override at 8 days--that will force a regeneration every 8 days and should ensure that the RO unit use--which is typically a a low enough flow that the softener water meter doesn't detect it--doesn't cause you to run out of softened water.

As to a carbon filter--with well water it is not clear to me what you are trying to filter out. Carbon is great to remove chlorine or organic compounds but most well water supplies have neither.

I suggest you install the softener and see if you really need any further treatment--unless you have test results indicating other problems now.

But if you do decide to go with a whole house carbon filter buy a back-washing one with a Fleck valve.
 
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Old 01-04-13, 08:49 AM
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So are you suggesting I go with the smallest size, 24,000 grains? I've been checking online calculators and they recommend 32,000, but I totally see what you're saying about wasting salt by flushing a larger unit. My only concern is does hardness and iron vary widely from time to time in a well? I wouldn't want to retest next year and see totally different numbers, you know? Again, I'm grateful for your help here.

Regarding the filter - I'm not certain what I'm trying to filter, I guess. It just feels right to filter water before using it to brush our teeth and wash our hands and shower and stuff like that. Does the softener itself do any filtering or just the ion exchange with the calcium?
 
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Old 01-04-13, 09:37 AM
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Well water can vary by time of year and it is not uncommon for the analysis to change over time.

I would buy the 1 cubic foot unit and accept the salt waste.

A softener does mechanical filtering and can handle small amounts of sediment. If you have lots of sediment in the water additional filtering before the softener would be indicated.
 
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Old 01-04-13, 09:54 AM
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Okay the 1 cu.ft unit says 32,000 grains, that's why I was confused as you mentioned 20,000 grains. Any opinion on going with the turbolator or upgrading to the fine-mesh resin? They say 0.50 iron or below, go with turbolator. Above, go with fine resin. I'm at 0.38 and concerned about it being higher other times of the year, you know?

FYI my water test says 250 mg/L of dissolved solids, not sure if that's a big factor here.
 
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Old 01-04-13, 11:44 AM
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I would avoid fine mesh resin--it will reduce flow/pressure.

If you want to go with a specialty resin get SST-60. I don't think it is really necessary given your water conditions but is definitely a premium product that performs very well with iron and doesn't cost much more than fine mesh resin.

A turbulator is also good, and can be combined with SST-60 resin, but probably not really necessary with your water conditions.

TDS of 250 is not a concern, and not something that can be done much about for the whole house supply, except at great expense. An R0 unit for drinking water will typically reduce it by 90-95%.

For a 1 cubic foot unit the nominal capacity is typically listed as 30-32,000 grains. But those capacities are only achieved with very high salt dose regeneration--15-18 lbs/cubic foot--which is very salt inefficient.

I recommend you program the unit to regenerate with 6 lbs/cubic foot which yields a capacity of 20,000 grains/cubic foot.
 
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Old 01-04-13, 11:51 AM
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Sounds like a plan - we'll forgo the whole-house filter and get the 1 cu ft Fleck 7000 system with the turbolater and standard resin. I just need to check my connections to order the right bypass and tubing. Best price I found was at discountwatersofteners.com
 
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Old 01-10-13, 08:38 AM
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I would avoid fine mesh resin--it will reduce flow/pressure.

...A turbulator is also good...
I've been reading more about this and found that the turbolator also reduces flow and pressure downstream. This concerns me - my wife will not be thrilled if we don't have good water pressure (happy wife, happy life). Now I'm on the fence about this. I've also read a few pros won't do the 7000 with 1" because of "problems". Some sites won't even sell that combination. Weird. Confused..
 
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Old 01-10-13, 09:18 AM
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I've been reading more about this and found that the turbolator also reduces flow and pressure downstream.

Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/forum/ne...#ixzz2HatF9aH0
That is news to me. What is the source of that information?
 
 

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