JohnnyBoy
Apr 21, 2010, 9:49 AM
Post #7 of 9
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Re: [jeanneatlixco] Water Softener Salt
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My water softener is called: Pentair. I bought here in Hermosillo, Sonora, at AguaTec on Reforma. They do every imaginable thing with water. I got my hydropneumatic system from them as well. I doubt that information is going to do you much good down there in Puebla.
But here are a couple of things you ought to know:
1. the most important part of a water softener is the valve. The gizmo that has the timer and sends the machine through the various stages of the regeneration process. Before I bought my system I did some online research and ended up exchanging a few emails with an engineer someplace in the USA. He told me not to worry too much about whether my system had the resin tank inside or outside the brine tank, which was the thing I was concerned about at the time. He told me the three most important things to consider were this, the valve issue, and to make sure I got a Fleck valve.
2. he said make sure the water to be softened is tested accurately for hardness and to get a valve that will handle the hardness. The water here in Hermosillo is pretty hard, but I have seen worse, in Kansas, where my daughter's water softener (actually the valve...and it is not a Fleck) is just too whimpy to handle the hardness there. It is also important for setting how much salt to use every time the machine regenerates and how often to do it.
3. make sure your house has at least the minimum required water pressure, according to the specs of the water softener. Mine was something like 26 psi (but I am not sure of that now) and I thought my pressure here was good. And it was. But as more and more people moved into the neighborhood, my water pressure declined, and the water softener stopped working. It would go through the regeneration cycles, but the pressure was too weak to rinse out the bad stuff and bring in the new, good stuff (sorry for the technical language). I ended up having to get a hydropneumatic system installed, which involved putting a large plastic cistern under my garage floor, and a pump that sits next to the water softener. We have around 45 psi now and it is great.
Pentair uses Fleck valves. My water is wonderfully soft and the machine regenerates just once a week. I used to regenerate three times a week to get minimal softness, before I corrected the water pressure problem. Now, once a week is enough, and I could probably go longer, but the valve is based on a weekly cycle, so I have to regnerate at least once a week if I want the machine to do it for me automatically. I could do it manually and less often, but that is too much trouble for me.
I am so glad I got the pressure system. Now when we have our turn without water (eight hours every day) we do not even notice it, because the pump takes water out of the cistern and it eventually refills to capacity when the city water comes back on. Same, of course, is true whenever there is a water outage, which happens now and then, in addition to the mandatory eight hours without water. And we have great pressure in the showers, and it makes a big difference in the length of time it now takes to do laundry every week, because the washer fills so much faster now.
So, bottom line: get a stout Fleck valve in your water softener and make sure you have enough water pressure to run it.
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