Iron and manganese versus regen time


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Old 03-16-13, 07:05 AM
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Iron and manganese versus regen time

If you had to put a ratio to the maximum days between regin against the level of iron and manganese what would that be approximately?

Basically, (making up facetious numbers here) but lets say you had 0 ppm of both you could allow it to go to eight days, but if you had 5 ppm you better regen every day. Again, nothing to do with the sizing of grains or water use, just wanting to get a handle on the impact of iron and manganese on the maximum allowable days between regin.

At the moment I only want to look at this as applied to standard mesh c100 resin. I have read and studied the data sheets on the resin, but a lot of times I think applied practical knowledge trumps (most of the time) .

Thanks.
 
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Old 03-18-13, 06:46 AM
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Also, I'm assuming when a softener does a regin the back wash and rinse flow rate is determined by the drain line flow controller, but wanted to verify.

Thanks.
 
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Old 03-20-13, 10:00 AM
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At a more simple level, what is even considered a high level of iron in water?
 
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Old 03-21-13, 12:28 PM
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Just what is the level of iron and manganese and hardness in your water?
What is the amount of water to be used each day?
What kind of flow rate from the well into the house is one working with?
 
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Old 03-21-13, 12:44 PM
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At the moment, what is in my water isn't the point, or at least the point in what I'm asking. There are two factors when sizing a water softener. The first is based off water conditions, salt dosage ect. Lets say someone is running a really heavy dose of salt and in theory (by grains) the softener could go 15 days between regen's based off water usage (and water conditions) alone.

From what I have researched no matter what you really shouldn't go much beyond 8 days between regen's from a time stand point just for the life of the resin. The second factor is the amount of iron and manganese in the water.

Obviously those factor into the amount of grains for the amount of water being used, but what I'm looking at in a generic point of view is how does the level of iron and manganese effect the maximum permissible days between regens regardless of water usage.
 
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Old 03-21-13, 12:50 PM
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The more iron you remove, the heavier the media becomes requiring longer/higher flow rates to properly clean the media. I tend not to go over 3 days when dealing with high iron.
 
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Old 03-21-13, 12:58 PM
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One is looking at using a Cookie Cutter on some thing that is by no means a Cookie cutter deal.

Each well is different , thus each needed to be treated different.

Yes there are some guide lines that come into play, but some one in Florida most likely will never be able to use a Softener on any thing over 2ppm of Iron while in Alaska they might find that any thing over 10ppm Iron has a problem.

A R.O. system in Florida runs close to what it is rated for in gallons per day out put while in Alaska it is 1/3 of the out put rating.
 
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Old 03-21-13, 01:10 PM
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biermech, what would you consider "high" iron to go no more than three days? By the same token, what would you consider "low" iron where resin could go 8 days?

I'm not necessarily looking for cookie cutter something, just guidelines for at least a place to start. I understand grains, dosage, water usage ect but I'm just trying to get my arms around the iron impact on maximum days between regen independent of actual usage.
 
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Old 03-21-13, 01:13 PM
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It seems to me a place to start would include the analysis of your own water.
 
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Old 03-21-13, 01:17 PM
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The place to start is with your water test in the level of iron and manganese along with the hardness and thus coming up with a comp hardness level.
Then looking at the number of people in the house and using say 70gallons per person per day as that will give an est of gallons per day.
What kind of flow rate from the well? 5gpm? 10gpm?
What flow rate is going to be needed in the house in question?

Why is the number of days so important to you?
 
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Old 03-21-13, 01:27 PM
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I've done an analysis of my water. I don't have a well, I'm on city water.

The number of days is import to me for the life of the resin. I knew this was going to be a struggle for me to get the point across of what I was trying to ask. With a salt dosage of 4 lbs/ft^3, my water conditions and water usage, I could go around 15 days. That is obviously not a smart idea. I have very low iron (0.046 ppm) so I could go 8 days and I would feel pretty good about that.

But, what is considered high iron? 1 ppm, 5 ppm, 10 ppm? And, at those high levels, what would you say the max allowable time between regens should be no matter what the usage does?

I'm not trying to be a pain, I promise.
 
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Old 03-21-13, 01:46 PM
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High iron in my view is what part of the country one is in... around here it is 10ppm+ what some one else might say is high I can not say.

The chlorine is going to more damage to the resin than going to many days between regens.

If you are using a control that counts the gallons and has a default day setting and the system would clean based on gallons every 9 days then I would have the default days at 11.

Now this would be some thing that I might do if the well in question had a trace of iron or no iron, but again this is where I live and Every part of the country is Different and needs to be treated differently.
 
 

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