Screwed Up Softner Setup for Large Family


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Old 12-23-13, 04:32 PM
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Screwed Up Softner Setup for Large Family

I moved into a house that has a rented 32K softener. There was 6 people living in this house prior. Im sure it was set all wrong and when I moved in I think it was regenerating about twice a week. There is major hardness here in the relm of 30 gpm.

I know that is WAY undersized and Im thinking there is significant hard water damage because of it....

I am curious, for that previous family what size system did they really need? Did my house ever have conditioned water while this family lived here? Im guessing to properly soften water with that system and size of usage they would have to use an obscene amount of salt and water..... care to speculate on how screwed up this was?
 
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Old 12-25-13, 10:43 AM
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A run down of the water quality, iron and hardness and mn if any would be the first step.
Next would be the size of the house in what kind of flow rate is one looking at for the house.
Well or City..
32k is the max but really it should be set for closer to 21k as that is the better balance between capacity and salt usage.

The settings may have been off in that the system was going say 1500 gallons but really with the 6 people the meter should have been closer to 1000 gallons..

They may have been running out of treated water in the day and over running the system.
 
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Old 12-25-13, 10:49 AM
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I dont have the equation I was using but I was thinking with that many people and that small of a softner with such hard water that thing would have to regenerate daily?

And if they were renting a unit that would be highway robbery if a water treatment proffesional would leave that softener in place.
 
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Old 12-25-13, 11:11 AM
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Too small and there are problems and then there is too large and problems.
There is a balance between capacity and number of people.
For me there is a point that a twin of at least 48k max capacity is the better choice when there is a comp hardness and number of people.

I can not really speak about a company that would put money first...

Some only do what the Corp wishes and then there are those that look at all of what is on the table and find the system that would work the best for what is on the table.
 
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Old 12-25-13, 12:17 PM
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With 6 people using a 32K with 30+ hardness at least is it safe to assume they probably ran out of softened water on a daily basis?

(Not to mention they were probably using 15 year old resin)
 
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Old 12-25-13, 12:46 PM
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Setting a unit up to always run at max cap is never a good idea.
It is more of a waste of salt in the long run.

One would first need to nail down the iron, hardness level in real numbers and if there is any Mn in the water.
I have been doing iron X 4 and Mn X 4 + hardness for years.
With the comp hardness number and a capacity of 21K per cubic at 6lbs(best on curve)
Then one starts working in the number of people using the water, another thing that would need to be looked at is peak flow rate for the house and what the well pump can at best put out in gpm.
 
 

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