Does softened water always feel slippery when you shower?

[Reach4]

The Brine Cam setting is the salt setting you had already identified is 12 lbs currently but is to be reduced to 6 lbs along with resetting the proper capacity between regen cycles.

The setting of 12 pounds, which would correspond to 16 lbs of resin per cubic ft of resin, the white dot could have been set a bit under 9. However that would be less salt-efficient than the 6 lb (8 lb/cuft) setting.

If your resin comes up to the "Full" mark, that looks right. See https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/gravel-bed-question.31555/ #6 for a discussion of that. If there is no gravel, adding 8 to 12 pounds of the right gravel to fill the bottom dome would be an improvement. Gravel sinks, so there is no need to remove the resin while adding gravel.

 

[Brenda_MD]

Thanks for the full photo. The amount of resin is not usually critical as the recommended settings will not use the resin's entire capacity but since your softener is smaller than usually recommended, especially due to the substantial hardness and a presence of iron, any shortfall will have greater impact.

Without measuring the volume of resin, it would have been reasonable to add 1" above the line since the newly added resin will settle and any air will be driven out.

There are various types of resin including Fine Mesh (not recommended due to higher flow restriction), 8% crosslink (standard) and 10% crosslink (will better tolerate constant chlorine exposure). Some 'cheaper' import resin will have less than 8% crosslinking which is not recommended.

Thanks for that info.

 

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[Brenda_MD]

Bannerman/Reach4, I wanted to get back to you both on the water softener issue I had, sorry it has taken this long. We made the adjustments you recommended for the water softener where afterward we could feel some difference in the water, but not super slippery. We had the water tested at an authorized lab and just received the results.

As a baseline, we had them test our water straight from the holding tank before going through the whole house filter, acid neutralizer, and water softener for hardness and iron. Hardness was 240 mg/l and Iron was 0.42 mg/l. For iron, the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level), which is established by the EPA, is 0.3 mg/l.

Water samples for testing were taken based on the instructions provided by the lab, depending on the test being conducted. The results of our test, with our water going through the above three mentioned systems (including your recommended changes to our water softener settings), are:

Hardness <10 mg/l
Iron <0.1 mg/l
pH 7.1

Other measurements:
Calcium 1.31 mg/l
Chloride 130 mg/l, MCL is 250 mg/l
Magnesium 0.537 mg/l
Manganese <0.02 mg/l, MCL is 0.05 mg/l
Phosphorous-Ortho <0.2 mg/l
Sodium 150mg/l
Zinc <0.02 mg/l

At this time, we believe our well water is in pretty good condition. I really appreciate the help you both provided on this issue and what we have learned about how the systems work.

 

[Reach4]

Brenda, thanks for getting back with the followup. Nice numbers.

Since you are using the softener to deal with 0.42 ppm iron, every x months you may want to treat your system with citric acid or Iron Out. X=3? 6? I don't know. Clean the injector and screen every Y months... I don't know what Y should be.

The "<" in the test numbers means that the level was less than the sensitivity of the test.

 

[Brenda_MD]

The whole house filter the water goes through first is what seems to be removing a lot of the iron along with other debris grit. That filter is pure red when we change it every few months. We didn't think the <0.1 mg/l reading for iron was bad.

 

[Reach4]

The whole house filter the water goes through first is what seems to be removing a lot of the iron along with other debris grit. That filter is pure red when we change it every few months. We didn't think the <0.1 mg/l reading for iron was bad.

A sediment filter can take out ferrous iron (rust). Ferric iron (not so oxidized and therefore soluble) is treated by the softener. So at some point, your softener may need some cleaning/treatment. You could use one of the iron-treating salts, which contain citric acid, can help. But you still might need to do a treatment down the line. It is not that difficult.

The <0.1 mg/l reading for iron is essentially zero. So that's great.

 

[Brenda_MD]

Got it, thanks.