Need help on Soft Water or water conditioning

[Azprepper]

I live on property with a well, totally offgrid. The results are as folows:

Hardness: 86 gpg
Iron: 0
PH: 7
Maganese: 0
Nitrates: 0
TTDS: 811

As you can see, my water is super hard. I don't have any appliances, yet, but will be getting them in about 2 weeks. Water doesnt taste or smell bad at all.

The company that drilled my well installs soft water systems & recommended Water Rite Sanitizer Plus (a $6.1k price tag) and I spoke with a local plumber & he suggested a water conditioner system by H20 systems for about $5k.

Where I used to live, I had a salt water system, whole house, that cost me about $2.6k at lowes & thought it was a big system. The guy said it was made for a family of 4 - quite a big difference in cost.

Would anyone here have some input on what I would need? Can't find much online for objective reviews and want the right system. Only have me & my wife and want a good system that'll reduce the hardness but not pay an arm and a leg for it.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Reach4]

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[Azprepper]

For 4 people?

For 4 people what? There are only 2 in the household.

 

[Reach4]

If you use 120 gallons per day of softened water, a 3 cubic ft softner is good for about 5 days between regenerations. You would like to get 7. If you used less, that would work. You can do that in a single 14 x 65 tank. You could use a Fleck 5600SXT or Fleck 5810SXT (not advertised directly, but available). A 12" x 52" tank with 2 cubic ft of resin would be undersized..

There is a high-hardness compensation factor of about 1.4.

I am confident that the Lowes unit is much smaller, and would not be suitable.

Alternatively, twin 1.5 cubic ft 10x54 inch tanks with a Fleck 9100sxt. You could install yourself.

 

[Azprepper]

If you use 120 gallons per day of softened water, a 3 cubic ft softner is good for about 5 days between regenerations. If you used less, that would work. You can do that in a single 14 x 65 tank . You could use a Fleck 5600SXT or Fleck 5810SXT (not advertised directly, but available).

There is a high-hardness compensation factor of about 1.4.

I am confident that the Lowes unit is much smaller, and would not be suitable.

Alternatively, twin 1.5 cubic ft 10x54 inch tanks with a Fleck 9100sxt. You could install yourself.

Thanks.
I really dont think the household will use more than 120 gal./day - is this a non salt system? Whats the difference between the 5600 & 5810 and it will cut the hardness down to a reasonable level from 86 gpg (or 1,471 ppm)?
What would the benefit be for 2 twin tanks (such as Fleck 9100)?

Also, are you saying Lowes system wouldn't work for water this hard?

 

[Bannerman]

While not normally recommended here due to proprietary equipment, proprietary sales and proprietary service, Kinetico manufacture twin tank softeners which operate with a water turbine and so do not require electricity.

No-salt systems are considered water conditioners, not water softeners.

A single tank softener will delay regeneration until one specific time per 24 hr period, usually, 2 am. As such, there would be a specific amount of capacity allocated as a reserve, in case regeneration is triggered at say 9 am, to continue to deliver soft water until the next regeneration time at 2 am. The reserve allocation is commonly 1-day usage capacity. With 86 gpg, the reserve allocation will be substantial but may not always be fully utilized depending on when in the day regeneration is triggered vs the time remaining until regeneration.

A twin tank softener is commonly configured to immediately switch to the 2nd tank to provide soft water when regeneration is triggered. The depleted 1st tank can then be regenerated without delay. No reserve is needed so all of the regenerated capacity can always be utilized.

 

[Azprepper]

While not normally recommended here due to proprietary equipment, sales and service, Kinetico manufacture softeners which are twin tank design and operate with a water turbine and so do not require electricity.

No-salt systems are considered water conditioners, not water softeners.

A single tank softener will delay regeneration until one specific time per 24 hr period, usually, 2 am. As such, there would be a specific amount of capacity allocated as a reserve, in case regeneration is triggered at say 9 am, to continue to deliver soft water until the next regeneration time at 2 am. The reserve allocation is commonly 1-day usage capacity. With 87 gpg, the reserve allocation will be substantial but may not be fully utilized depending on when in the day regeneration is triggered vs the time remaining until regeneration.

A twin tank softener is commonly configured to immediately switch to the 2nd tank to provide soft water when regeneration is triggered. The depleted 1st tank can then be regenerated without delay. No reserve is needed so all of the regenerated capacity can always be utilized.

This helps, thanks again. Reviewed the 9100 sxt & its too big.

 

[Azprepper]

While not normally recommended here due to proprietary equipment, proprietary sales and proprietary service, Kinetico manufacture twin tank softeners which operate with a water turbine and so do not require electricity.

No-salt systems are considered water conditioners, not water softeners.

A single tank softener will delay regeneration until one specific time per 24 hr period, usually, 2 am. As such, there would be a specific amount of capacity allocated as a reserve, in case regeneration is triggered at say 9 am, to continue to deliver soft water until the next regeneration time at 2 am. The reserve allocation is commonly 1-day usage capacity. With 86 gpg, the reserve allocation will be substantial but may not always be fully utilized depending on when in the day regeneration is triggered vs the time remaining until regeneration.

A twin tank softener is commonly configured to immediately switch to the 2nd tank to provide soft water when regeneration is triggered. The depleted 1st tank can then be regenerated without delay. No reserve is needed so all of the regenerated capacity can always be utilized.

I do have a question....when you're offgrid, like myself for instance, where does the regeneration flush to? I hear this os bad for septic systems.

 

[ditttohead]

In general the discharge of the softener has little to no affect on the septic but considering your high hardness, a simple French drain may be an acceptable design.

As to your system size, a 16x53 3 cu ft unit maybe a good option. It is not as efficient as a twin alternating unit but is would be acceptable assuming less than 150 gallons of water use per day.