J Z
New Member
I've been looking at some water softener systems online and casually browsing this forum. I live in southern California close to Temecula. The water here is fairly hard. From the municipality's report I have the following details:
* hardness: 220 (50-280) mg/L. So about 14GPG, if I calculated correctly.
* calcium: 60 (20-70) mg/L
* magnesium: 18 (ND-25) mg/L
* potassium: 3.2 (1.1-4.5) mg/L
* sodium: 92 (86-100) mg/L
...
* disinfectant chloramines: 1.38 (0.08-2.9) mg/L
I didn't see any information on Iron, but when the water company did a flush I did get some red water and sand.
My house has about 2-6 people (it varies due my kids coming back from school, or my inlaws staying with us for few months or a year). It's usually 4 people most of the year. We have 3 bathrooms, and the house is about 3K sqft.
From a simple calculator I found online (http://www.qualitywatertreatment.com/water_softener_sizing.htm) , for 2-6 people at 14GPG we need to remove 2100-6300 grains per day. That means I probably need a system with 48K grain capacity.
Here's my concerns, other than the price:
* From my house, the main problem seems be the the draining. It would probably need to run about 100 ft within garage to get to the cleanout access outside of house next to kitchen.
* I've read that the drainage system needs to be vented. If there cleanout access is connected properly, shoudl it be already vented?
* I would prefer metered regeneration over timed as the people living in the house is not constant. For some weeks it's 2. Other times it's 4 or 6. If I get timed generation, should that cause much of an effect?
* I don't know if I need a dual tank or single tank system. If you need me to answer any questions let me know.
* If possible I'd like to be able to source parts easily from more than one location if I need a plumber to fix it.
* Is a prefilter absolutely needed given what I have above from my municipality? Sometimes the city flushes the lines or an earthquake happens, or something rattles the pipes. At those times I get some sandy or rusty red water. My RO prefilter over 6 months does build up some sand, but nothing excessive. But due to how long the water softener might operate without being serviced, I felt a prefilter might be necessary.
My quotes from some dealers:
I contacted Culligan and Kinetico and hope to hear from them later this week.
I've asked Ecowater from costco and the quote was around $5K. If I added Reverse Osmosis and a prefilter it jumped up another $1K. It seemed a bit high. My main problem was that the salesman was too pushy.
I spoke briefly with Lowe's Krystal Pure. They haven't quoted me an exact price, but from a brief estimate it was around $2-$3K. My problem here is that I can't find much details about this company's product other than some complaints. Since you guys mostly recommend Fleck, I figured I should look further.
I got one quote from a local dealer, and for a system with a Fleck 5810 it would cost about $2.2K. A blue prefilter would cost me about $500. The dealer recommends this system due to the higher GPM over the 7000 series and the 9100. The prices includes installation. Is this a fair price? I forgot to ask the dealer, but from what you know does this system (fleck 5810) handled metered regeneration?
One online dealer has recommended the fleck 9100 dual tank system with 60,000 grain capacity with a higher flow valve. The system would cost me about ~$1.4K (no tax, shipping included). I would need to higher plumber for installation. They have another system called the fusion NLT which is lower cost, and weighs less. For the price and system, is this reasonable price? How much would a plumber charge to install given that I have a long drain pipe to consider?
====
I'm not much of a handyman and would prefer job be done correctly, but it seems the prices are too varying to know what is fair. For my local dealer, it has favorable reviews on Yelp, but I've been misled before from Yelp reviews.
One more thing:
The pipe leading to my house has a rusted valve/knob. There's probably a pressure regulator. It's movable but requires too much force and will release some rust when it is turned. If it won't open 100% or close reasonably easy, should I replace that valve/knob and pressure regulator? If so, how much would it cost?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
* hardness: 220 (50-280) mg/L. So about 14GPG, if I calculated correctly.
* calcium: 60 (20-70) mg/L
* magnesium: 18 (ND-25) mg/L
* potassium: 3.2 (1.1-4.5) mg/L
* sodium: 92 (86-100) mg/L
...
* disinfectant chloramines: 1.38 (0.08-2.9) mg/L
I didn't see any information on Iron, but when the water company did a flush I did get some red water and sand.
My house has about 2-6 people (it varies due my kids coming back from school, or my inlaws staying with us for few months or a year). It's usually 4 people most of the year. We have 3 bathrooms, and the house is about 3K sqft.
From a simple calculator I found online (http://www.qualitywatertreatment.com/water_softener_sizing.htm) , for 2-6 people at 14GPG we need to remove 2100-6300 grains per day. That means I probably need a system with 48K grain capacity.
Here's my concerns, other than the price:
* From my house, the main problem seems be the the draining. It would probably need to run about 100 ft within garage to get to the cleanout access outside of house next to kitchen.
* I've read that the drainage system needs to be vented. If there cleanout access is connected properly, shoudl it be already vented?
* I would prefer metered regeneration over timed as the people living in the house is not constant. For some weeks it's 2. Other times it's 4 or 6. If I get timed generation, should that cause much of an effect?
* I don't know if I need a dual tank or single tank system. If you need me to answer any questions let me know.
* If possible I'd like to be able to source parts easily from more than one location if I need a plumber to fix it.
* Is a prefilter absolutely needed given what I have above from my municipality? Sometimes the city flushes the lines or an earthquake happens, or something rattles the pipes. At those times I get some sandy or rusty red water. My RO prefilter over 6 months does build up some sand, but nothing excessive. But due to how long the water softener might operate without being serviced, I felt a prefilter might be necessary.
My quotes from some dealers:
I contacted Culligan and Kinetico and hope to hear from them later this week.
I've asked Ecowater from costco and the quote was around $5K. If I added Reverse Osmosis and a prefilter it jumped up another $1K. It seemed a bit high. My main problem was that the salesman was too pushy.
I spoke briefly with Lowe's Krystal Pure. They haven't quoted me an exact price, but from a brief estimate it was around $2-$3K. My problem here is that I can't find much details about this company's product other than some complaints. Since you guys mostly recommend Fleck, I figured I should look further.
I got one quote from a local dealer, and for a system with a Fleck 5810 it would cost about $2.2K. A blue prefilter would cost me about $500. The dealer recommends this system due to the higher GPM over the 7000 series and the 9100. The prices includes installation. Is this a fair price? I forgot to ask the dealer, but from what you know does this system (fleck 5810) handled metered regeneration?
One online dealer has recommended the fleck 9100 dual tank system with 60,000 grain capacity with a higher flow valve. The system would cost me about ~$1.4K (no tax, shipping included). I would need to higher plumber for installation. They have another system called the fusion NLT which is lower cost, and weighs less. For the price and system, is this reasonable price? How much would a plumber charge to install given that I have a long drain pipe to consider?
====
I'm not much of a handyman and would prefer job be done correctly, but it seems the prices are too varying to know what is fair. For my local dealer, it has favorable reviews on Yelp, but I've been misled before from Yelp reviews.
One more thing:
The pipe leading to my house has a rusted valve/knob. There's probably a pressure regulator. It's movable but requires too much force and will release some rust when it is turned. If it won't open 100% or close reasonably easy, should I replace that valve/knob and pressure regulator? If so, how much would it cost?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.