Air Gap recommendation for softener

[Jeff H Young]

I suggest you stop concentrating on air gap and instead think of where the output of the air gap will go. You should ask you softener provider for a reference for a plumber.

I might run the pipe to the upstairs laundry standpipe. If you can get that pipe installed, we could talk about a suitable airgap.

Regarding potentially running water through the wall, to the lavatory, I am not going to try to design that project and produce a bill of materials for you. You have not shown any indication that you are going to be able to do this yourself. Pointing to a branch tailpiece would only lead to more and more.

Yea no offence to homeowner but I'm thinking he can't do this or just won't hey nothing wrong with hiring a plumber we can use the work . if no one ate out we wouldn't have waiters or cooks. I encourage DIY but my wife couldn't , wouldn't do this, heck my dad wouldn't he would frame out and build a bed room or bath and wire it but heck no he wouldn't plumb it. Sprinklers, irrigation no problem though

 

[Brecchi]

I suggest you stop concentrating on air gap and instead think of where the output of the air gap will go. You should ask you softener provider for a reference for a plumber.

I might run the pipe to the upstairs laundry standpipe. If you can get that pipe installed, we could talk about a suitable airgap.

Regarding potentially running water through the wall, to the lavatory, I am not going to try to design that project and produce a bill of materials for you. You have not shown any indication that you are going to be able to do this yourself. Pointing to a branch tailpiece would only lead to more and more.

Hello Reach4, good idea about asking the softener provider for a reference. Regarding a project design and a bill of materials, I wouldn't ask anyone specifically to do anything that is too much, or a waste of their time. My comment was more of an explanation of where my ability is if I were to tackle this myself. It does seem like an easy thing to do once an exact setup has been figured out. I went back and forth a bit on a plumber installing the softener, but again I don't have a good handle on my setup and having it done once, correctly by an expert seems like a good investment.

Yea no offence to homeowner but Im thinking he cant do this or just wont hey nothing wrong withg hiring a plumber we can use the work . if no one ate out we wouldnt have waiters or cooks. I encourage DIY but my wife couldnt , wouldnt do this, heck my dad wouldnt he would frame out and build a bed room or bath and wire it but heck no he wouldnt plumb it. Sprinklers, irrigation no problem though

Mark, thanks for your expert opinon as well. Jeff, no offense taken by you or anyone else on here! Just to be clear, I can see how this is not a difficult job. I'd like to tackle it myself, but even with all of the advice, I still need to get a better understanding of my system and figure out the proper fittings to do the job. I've ordered the air gap itself, and if I can't figure it out by the time the plumber arrives in a couple of weeks, I can always let him do it.

 

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[Master Plumber Mark]

Mark, thanks for your expert opinon as well. Jeff, no offense taken by you or anyone else on here! Just to be clear, I can see how this is not a difficult job. I'd like to tackle it myself, but even with all of the advice, I still need to get a better understanding of my system and figure out the proper fittings to do the job. I've ordered the air gap itself, and if I can't figure it out by the time the plumber arrives in a couple of weeks, I can always let him do it.


I have never liked using those crappy shitty air gaps because many of them seem to spatter and leak a bit... and I have had to go out and eliminate some of them over the years due to complaints...

another easy way to make an air gap is simply install that trap off that line behind the heater....
then up about a 18 inches above the trap on
the standpipe just install a 1 1/2 wye and a 45 pointing up....
then glue about a 18 inch piece of pipe into the top of the
wye and put your drain hose down into that........
Your air gap is now the wye and 45 that is well below the top of the line
works well as an air gap... I do this all the time...

it will work , it has to work, its got to work, it cannot not work....

 

[Brecchi]

Hi Guys,

Just got everything installed. Everyone across several threads has been helpful in different ways, I figured I'd post the final result (even though I am a bit worried about being told that this is all wrong!)

In any case, the crew took about 3 hours from start to finish. They had all fittings, and an air gap as well. They looked into the washer drain, but decided against it. I've included as many pics and angles as possible, although its pretty dark behind the water tank.

I was told to engage the lever in about 24 hours, hit the regen button for about 3 seconds and I'd be good to go. The salt container took the three 40 pound bags I had, and I was told it could take a couple more.

Any advice about ongoing maintenance would be much appreciated. I'm sure its fairly minimal, but I'd like to be on top of it and to keep learning about these things.

 

[Jeff H Young]

Looks good. well the guys doing the work decided whats best. I cant disagree its good either way . all we had was a picture and doubts that any of the pipes were connected to anything. It looks pretty clean though Id say Mark had good suggestion on the air gap its installed now but if you wind up with issues that is viable option meets code.

 

[Reach4]

Looks good. well the guys doing the work decided whats best. I cant disagree its good either way . all we had was a picture and doubts that any of the pipes were connected to anything. It looks pretty clean though Id say Mark had good suggestion on the air gap its installed now but if you wind up with issues that is viable option meets code.

Maintenance needs will be affected by the amount of iron in your water.

Always the case is to keep some salt higher than the water level. At the beginning you might just put in enough to do that, and as you get more confident things are working well, add more. If you fill high, you will need to fill less often.

What salt do you plan to use? I use pellets, and others like solar softener salt. Each is good.

 

[Brecchi]

Looks good. well the guys doing the work decided whats best. I cant disagree its good either way . all we had was a picture and doubts that any of the pipes were connected to anything. It looks pretty clean though Id say Mark had good suggestion on the air gap its installed now but if you wind up with issues that is viable option meets code.

Hi Jeff, thanks for the insight. They had no problem with installing an air gap as opposed to a check valve. The washer drain did end up being a viable option once they cut a hole in it and took a look, but they decided to install the air gap more cleanly right beside the main unit. I ended up paying close to $550 plus tip, but they did provide all fittings and attachments, including the air gap. I pretty much just provided what came with the Fleck system and 3 bags of salt. They also replaced a plastic connector with a brass fitting off of the well filter, they mentioned they see a lot of failures there. The job took about 3 hours with a mix of 3 people (a 2 man crew showed up to do the basics, and the crew chief came by for the last hour or so and worked alone, buttoning everything up and programming the head unit.

 

[Brecchi]

Maintenance needs will be affected by the amount of iron in your water.

Always the case is to keep some salt higher than the water level. At the beginning you might just put in enough to do that, and as you get more confident things are working well, add more. If you fill high, you will need to fill less often.

What salt do you plan to use? I use pellets, and others like solar softener salt. Each is good.

Thanks. I believe my iron level is very low. No brown staining, maybe a VERY little bit around the inside of the toilets, although the rings are a bit more "blackish" and not too bad at all. I could post the number again, although I forget off the top of my head what a "high" iron content number is.

Asking about maintenance, the plumber mentioned that after a while some head units do need to be serviced with new parts. But overall he made it seem like I should just keep the salt at a reasonable level and wait a day or so for the water pressure to even out once the lever is flipped.

One thing that's weird to me is that our hot water isn't working. Its definitely turned on. My best guess is that will change once the water softener is turned on.

I was told that I could probably put 2 more bags of salt in the tank which I plan to do tomorrow. I did a bit of research and went with Diamond Crystal Bright and Soft pellets, as opposed to the solar.

One last question - the unit is plugged into an outlet on an adjoining wall, and I'd like to unplug it and re-plug into a power strip so that there isn't a cord stretching across the floor. Can I just unplug and plug back in, or are there any additional steps to prevent any problems from power loss?

I'll engage the top lever at around 4pm tomorrow and hold the regen button for 3 seconds, as instructed. Hopefully I'll have that sweet soft water after things settle in!

 

[Reach4]

Unplugging and re-plugging is fine. The battery will keep the clock running for a while.

Top lever? Are you saying that they left he softener in bypass, perhaps to let the resin soak?

 

[Brecchi]

Unplugging and re-plugging is fine. The battery will keep the clock running for a while.

Top lever? Are you saying that they left he softener in bypass, perhaps to let the resin soak?

Yep, that's right. I'm supposed to let the resin soak for 24 hours before taking the softener out of bypass mode. Glad I can unplug without worry of losing settings.

 

[Reach4]

Yep, that's right. I'm supposed to let the resin soak for 24 hours before taking the softener out of bypass mode. Glad I can unplug without worry of losing settings.

The built-in rechargeable battery only keeps the clock running. The settings are in non-volatile memory, so even if unplugged long enough for the battery to run down, only the time is lost.

Incidentally, changing the time is pretty easy... I still don't change the time for daylight time, so I pick a time suitable for both standard and daylight time.

Most people don't do the resin soak time. Probably a good idea. So once the unit comes out of bypass, you are probably good to go -- not needing to regenerate until the capacity has been used.