water softening systems

[knighty]

anyone have experience with resin tower water softeners?

I've got one of these.... inline before my water heaters at work but it's not doing enough, need to investigate more but pretty sure my boilers are scaled up (2x 50kw inline gas water heaters)

so I need to sort out better water treatment, it's a hard water area, and we use a lot of hot (80'C) water

with the resin tower ones, you get a rein tower the water flows through, which softens the water, then set by timer the system reverse flushes itself with salt water to clean the resin.... salt water comes from a tank full of salt

but... how is the salt water pulled into the resin tower? it is just sucked in via venturi and the output is constantly dumped down the drain?


we use a lot of hot water so an off the shelf system is £ thousands... so figure I'll go with ebay first, parallel up some big resin towers... just need a way to control them all

would be easier to dump their controls, add some 3 way valves and pump the salt water through them?

 

[Ross365]

I have one that is similar to these https://www.aquacure.co.uk/products/water-softeners. Bought it about 35 years ago (about £300 at Wickes).
The programmer does all the opening and closing of valves as is necessary to pass salt solution through the resin once in a while and then restore the system to operation. Depends on throughput as to whether you need to do that every 2 days or every 2 weeks or whatever. Once set up, all you need to do is add some salt tablets periodically (£9 for 10kg at Screwfix). Wouldn't contemplate building one.

That device you have is not a water softener...I doubt it does anything much at all.

 

[knighty]

A small one like that won't have the flow rate I need, and it'll need to flush the resin too often - we easily use a few thousand litres of hot water a day (I should have said that earlier!)

with my own at least I can go overkill on the resin towers, and then flush it on a timer every night at 4am

one inline one I have came recommended on here - it was worth a try anyway

 

[voipio]

The magnetic water "treatment" devices don't work.

 

[awemawson]

I used to have three Kinetico resin tower systems (Permutit system) in my launderettes. As you described they had two chambers, one in use and one already refreshed by passing brine through to waste. The timing was by water volume measured by a turbine in the flow pipe. I used (cheaper) catering salt as I modified the units to accept it, they were designed for pelleted salt. Used to buy salt by the 3 ton Lorry load the two chambers were in a dustbin sized enclosure and a second one being for salt for the brine. Changeover was a simple toggle valve driven by the turbine.

very reliable so long as the water entering the turbine was filtered otherwise small particle clogged the tiny plastic gear trains which were a pain to dismantle and reassemble.

 

[awemawson]

The resin refresh is by ion replacement. The calcium ions are pulled out of the water and get grabbed by the resin. During refresh the sodium ions in the brine replace the calcium which goes to waste.

 

[knighty]

the how they flush part is the part that I'm stuck with?

do they just use mains water to pull in salt water via ventuir, and then dump the output down the drain?

can I swap to pumping the salt water in instead?

is it dumped down the drain or back to the salt tank? I'm assuming down the drain?

 

[winchman]

The mains water pressure sucks the brine in , the brine is then flushed down the drain

 

[winchman]

anyone have experience with resin tower water softeners?

I've got one of these.... inline before my water heaters at work but it's not doing enough, need to investigate more but pretty sure my boilers are scaled up (2x 50kw inline gas water heaters)

These dont work
Show me an industry that uses them?
Resin towers is the way forward

 

[winchman]

A small one like that won't have the flow rate I need, and it'll need to flush the resin too often - we easily use a few thousand litres of hot water a day (I should have said that earlier!)

with my own at least I can go overkill on the resin towers, and then flush it on a timer every night at 4am

one inline one I have came recommended on here - it was worth a try anyway

Its best to only regenerate the resin when required, remember whilst it lasts a long time it will need replacement at some time

 

[Farside]

I've got one of these....

That's not a water softener, that's a device for emptying the wallets of the gullible.
Sorry.
I spit bullets at the sharks who peddle these things. I cannot adequately express my contempt on here without being heavily censored.

 

[mike 109444]

Find your starting point. Get a basic water hardness tester. There are digital ones about the size of a large marker pen. Some will also show conductivity as well. Failing that go to aquarium suppliers for the very basic dropper type and that way you have a base line for your current water hardness and you can then compair the output to anything you fit inline to see what improvements it's making.

 

[Maker]

the how they flush part is the part that I'm stuck with?

do they just use mains water to pull in salt water via ventuir, and then dump the output down the drain?

can I swap to pumping the salt water in instead?

is it dumped down the drain or back to the salt tank? I'm assuming down the drain?

I'm pretty sure our domestic one has a pump in it for the brine, you can hear it whirring away in the night sometimes.

Used brine goes down the drain, you couldn't reuse it as it's contaminated with the calcium and magnesium ions it's just washed out of the resin.

 

[cobbler03]

anyone have experience with resin tower water softeners?

I've got one of these.... inline before my water heaters at work but it's not doing enough, need to investigate more but pretty sure my boilers are scaled up (2x 50kw inline gas water heaters)

so I need to sort out better water treatment, it's a hard water area, and we use a lot of hot (80'C) water

with the resin tower ones, you get a rein tower the water flows through, which softens the water, then set by timer the system reverse flushes itself with salt water to clean the resin.... salt water comes from a tank full of salt

but... how is the salt water pulled into the resin tower? it is just sucked in via venturi and the output is constantly dumped down the drain?


we use a lot of hot water so an off the shelf system is £ thousands... so figure I'll go with ebay first, parallel up some big resin towers... just need a way to control them all

would be easier to dump their controls, add some 3 way valves and pump the salt water through them?

Their is a company that sells magnets that are installed on feed water lines that creates a magnetic field that crushes the iron in the water that creates the scale

 

[mike os]

Depends on how hard your water is, resin beds are great but maintenance is a pita, depending on your needs a big ro system might be a better option

 

[Bornfree]

Yes venturi action to take the concentrated brine solution into resin towers.https://www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/regeneration/

 

[Maker]

Their is a company that sells magnets that are installed on feed water lines that creates a magnetic field that crushes the iron in the water that creates the scale

Scale is calcium, not iron, and ions in solution aren't magnetic so a magnet wouldn't touch them anyway. As Farside says, snake oil BS.

 

[Farside]

Their is a company that sells magnets that are installed on feed water lines that creates a magnetic field that crushes the iron in the water that creates the scale

I have a bridge for sale. Interested?

 

[badabec]

I have a bridge for sale. Interested?

How did you get on selling the Eiffel Tower?

 

[Farside]

How did you get on selling the Eiffel Tower?

Had them lining up around the block for it. Some Germans turned up too, claiming they'd acquired it 82 years ago.