I changed my twin Hague softener setup and need some guidance/advice.

[bofh]

I need some advice. I purchased a "twin" Hague HC3-35 softener system about two years ago from a reputable water treatment company. However, it never really performed that good to remove the iron (3-4PPM) from my central Florida well. I had discoloration, odor, and staining of the fixtures within ten months of installation. The original installer never really satisfied my concerns when I raised them.

So I thought maybe the well is the problem and called the well guy. He talked me into removing one of the softeners to replace it with a dedicated aeration based iron filter. So now I no longer have the "twin" softeners and the water seems to be a lot better. I have a prefilter, iron filter, and then the softener. The odor is gone and water seems softer.

My problem is the original water treatment company that installed the softener is now saying the head on the HC3-35 needs a needs a different piston and other various parts in order to operate properly. Something about it not being a dual system anymore. This doesn't make sense to me. Is it true? Any advice or input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Reach4]

Not familiar with your softener, but it makes sense that if you convert a twin to a single, some changes would be needed. In other words, it sounds right to me. That dual valve controlled two tanks, alternating which was in service. What did it mean to "remove" one"? Did the well guy repurpose one of the softener tanks to make the iron filter? I would presume that your iron filter has its own valve.

It would have made more sense to make the new iron filter be separate, and simply precede the softener.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[bofh]

Not familiar with your softener, but it makes sense that if you convert a twin to a single, some changes would be needed. In other words, it sounds right to me. That dual valve controlled two tanks, alternating which was in service. What did it mean to "remove" one"? Did the well guy repurpose one of the softener tanks to make the iron filter? I would presume that your iron filter has its own valve.

It would have made more sense to make the new iron filter be separate, and simply precede the softener.

To be clear,.. I originally had two softener tanks, with two separate Hague heads/valves, and two separate brine tanks. I did not have a single valve controlling two tanks.

This is my current setup shown below. I added the iron filter (left) to take away one of the two softeners. My softener guy now tells me that the valve (or piston?) needs to be changed out on the remaining single softener (right). Why would new parts be needed for the remaining softener on the right? For the life of me I cannot think of why he is suggesting that.

This is a picture of what was removed and it's currently sitting in my shed disconnected. It has all the components as the other unit and in my opinion was completely redundant. Capacity isn't an issue at my home so I thought it would be safe to remove it and add a new purpose built filter for better removal of iron, mag, and sulfur.

 

[Bannerman]

Twin softeners usually alternate between the two media tanks so only tank A will supply softened water to home fixtures, while tank B remains in stand-by mode. Once tank A's capacity has been depleted, then the control valve will immediately switch over so tank B will supply soft water and will cause tank A to regenerate and then wait in standby mode until tank B's capacity is depleted whereby the process will be repeated.

It seems you and the original equipment supplier had expected to utilize the dual softeners to remove your considerable quantity of iron. While a softener is capable of removing some iron, removing iron with a softener is not an efficient method since removing even 1ppm iron will consume the capacity equivalent to removing >85ppm (5 grains per gallon) hardness.

Although some homeowners do choose to use a softener for iron removal to prevent purchasing a dedicated iron removal system, that will often work OK when the iron content is less than 1ppm.