Alreet lads an lassies... So we had somebody from Rain Soft come by our house last night and look at our water and do the song and dance about whole house water treatment. Seemed pretty cool, but it ain't cheap (though they do point out ways that you save money with filtered water). I never like to just dive in so I wanted to do a bit of research on the subject and naturally thought of PC'ers. Does anybody have first-hand experience with this sorta thing? I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions. Thanks.
I have had extensive experience with several water softening companies. Most of them, not that impressive. The only softener I would recommend is Kinetico. I used to live on a farm where the water was harder than the ground... Culligan, Rain Soft, and one other I can't pull up now could not even begin to touch it (and, the Rain Soft system corroded within weeks). The Kinetico worked, and worked flawlessly, for over 5 years.
I much prefer water you don't have to chew first. After moving from the Prairies to the coast, I have no complaints at all with what comes out of the tap. Do you get enough real rain water to store in barrels, at least for the plants?
I'll probably do rain barrels at some point. Technically, they're illegal in colorado but I doubt that anyone would gig me for it. I'll have to check out Kinetico. Thanks for the tip guys.
Is it something that goes under your sink? Can you tell me what the model number is? I'm intrigued by the whole house setup, though they all seem to be pretty pricey. Rae vynn, that's WAY off the charts!!! 10.5 grains/gal is "very hard" water. 3034 grains/gal is, uh, quite hard. Are you sure you weren't drinking limestone?
Tripp - it depends on what you are trying to solve for. It sounds like hard water for you. While I can't speak for softeners, we have a whole house filter that filters for basic particulate and chlorine. This is nice because it keeps chlorine off your body in the shower and also out of the air from the steam in the shower (ie - inhalation). Then on our kitchen sink I have an additional GE filter that filters pesticides, etc. I really wanted a water a whole house filter that could do it all, but sadly couldn't find one. There are basically 2 NSF standards - one for odor and taste and one for chemicals/purity. The throughput on the chemical/purity filters is apparently so low that you really can't get it for whole house (at least not that I could find for our water volume). Anyway, here are a few of the more interesting bookmarked webpages I saved. Use at your own risk / discretion... NSF Certified Products - Drinking Water Treatment Units A guide to help select the best drinking water treatment methods to treat tap water Water pseudoscience and quackery Drinking Water Treatment Methods Good luck! PS - although for drinking water I think reverse osmosis works the best (in terms of taste) you are probably aware they waste several gallons for every one purified.
Tim, thanks m8! I'll have to dig in. Didn't get a chance last night, USA v Sweden replay was on. Gotta have your priorities.
I did a standard soft water treatment system, using salt, from this place: Water Softeners - Water Softener - Commercial Water Softeners - Saltless Water Softner - Water Conditioner Purifier I've got medium hard water, 9 grains? memory is foggy. Did research and the Fleck brand valves were mentioned to be much better than stuff sold at big box stores. Website above sold Fleck and was very easy to deal with. My house is 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath and the system cost about $500 installed by me. Six months and no issues, works great, I'll probably use one maybe two bags of salt a year @$5 a bag. Salt soft water systems do alot of filtering but they also sold an add on fancy filter which I did not buy. Calcium was my problem and it is gone.
One thing I noted on the page directed above is that it is a clock system. In other words, it regenerates the resin bed on a set time regardless of use (every three days or every four days...). For a somewhat more, but I think it is well worth it, get an 'on demand' system. It only regenerates when a certain amount of water passes through the system (depending on the hardness setting you program into the softener) and therefore is much more efficient at its salt use. The on demand system still has a clock but it uses it only to regenerate the bed in the middle of the night when it is unlikely you will be using any water (regeneration usually takes a few hours). Rick #4 2006
We have a Rayne Water system ... had multiple people out and weren't as impressed with any of them as much as we were with Rayne. Their equipment also comes with a lifetime warranty which helps to put to ease the pain of the initial cost.
huh? whats that about? why on earth would rain barrels be illegal? i have several hooked up - they're great for the garden.
Because of the way western water law works. There are water propriations on pretty much every watershed in the state. By storing water in rain barrels, you're making an illegal appropriation in the water shed. It's the same reason that you can't take rain from your roof in store it in cisterns for domestic use. The appropriation system is based on seniority. "First in time, first in right" about sums it up. Mind you, no one would gig you for it, but technically, it's illegal. Stupid, ain't it?
Gotta love the "first use" doctrine (or whatever it's called; my memory is foggy of my environmental law class......) A way a friend explained it to me is that somebody else already owns a drop of rain that falls on your property. Anyway, do you know what substance is used to soften the water, Tripp? I'm sure the technology has advanced since I took my freshman chemistry class, but I seem to recall that water softening systems increase the amount of sodium in your water, which is a concern to some. I've lived on the Great Plains for pretty much my entire life, so I'm used to hard water. I actually think soft water feels slimy.
They don't own it. In western water law no one owns the water. They just have rights to apply a certain amount of water towards a "beneficial use", you know, like 400 ft tall water fountains in Vegas. Everyone benefits from that. Yeah, it's sodium (NaCl) that replaces the Calcium. I've defo got mixed feelings about it and have decided to not go forward at the moment.
