Nuvia Pro Water Softener

[UnderEstimated]

Hello...new to the forum and glad to see such a wealth of information! Back in July, my wife and I purchased a brand new home and she wanted a water softener installed right away. Unfortunately, I travel quite a bit for work and I was unable to be a large part of the "homework and researching" part, as well as the decision making process for our water softener. My wife had heard from a co-worker that Nuvia had installed a system in their house and they loved it. Well, that's what we ended up getting installed along with their RO system for our drinking water. The system also didn't come with any detailed manuals or paper work, so I'm left to research with limited resources. And it seems that not many people use this system, although it looks similar to several systems on the market. And by the sounds of it, I'm sure we overpaid for the unit and install.

I have a few questions about our system and I'll provide the details that I know at the bottom of the post.

• How can I tell if our water softener is sized correctly for our home?
• How full should I keep our brine tank? (Plumber/installer told my wife to make sure it's always at least half-full with salt, although I've read some stating the opposite).
• How much water should be sitting in the brine tank?
• Is there a way to program this unit?
• Plumber recommended salt pellets over solar salt, is there a reason why? (Originally he filled with solar salt, but strongly recommended the Diamond Bright & Soft pellets. Not sure if it's related or not, but my wife said shortly after adding the pellets, white, salty spots started to appear in the sink and shower, but wipe away easily).
• Is there any harm in regenerating too often?

Here's what I know and I can provide additional details, if necessary once I get home this evening:

• My wife and I are the only people living in our 1260sq. home (2.5 bath)
• Water tests show our hardness at 319ppm
• The unit regens about every 12 days once it hits 200 gal. remaining
• After regen, it shows about ~1460 gal. available
• We've gone through about 100lb. of salt since July 2013

Thanks in advance for all the assistance! I greatly appreciate it!

 

[Gary Slusser]

How about posting a picture or two including the face of the control valve so we know what control valve you have?

In your paperwork, is there any mention of anything like 32K, 30,000 etc. or 10" x 54" etc.? That would tell us the size.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Hello...new to the forum and glad to see such a wealth of information! Back in July, my wife and I purchased a brand new home and she wanted a water softener installed right away. Unfortunately, I travel quite a bit for work and I was unable to be a large part of the "homework and researching" part, as well as the decision making process for our water softener. My wife had heard from a co-worker that Nuvia had installed a system in their house and they loved it. Well, that's what we ended up getting installed along with their RO system for our drinking water. The system also didn't come with any detailed manuals or paper work, so I'm left to research with limited resources. And it seems that not many people use this system, although it looks similar to several systems on the market. And by the sounds of it, I'm sure we overpaid for the unit and install.

I have a few questions about our system and I'll provide the details that I know at the bottom of the post.

• How can I tell if our water softener is sized correctly for our home?
• How full should I keep our brine tank? (Plumber/installer told my wife to make sure it's always at least half-full with salt, although I've read some stating the opposite).
• How much water should be sitting in the brine tank?
• Is there a way to program this unit?
• Plumber recommended salt pellets over solar salt, is there a reason why? (Originally he filled with solar salt, but strongly recommended the Diamond Bright & Soft pellets. Not sure if it's related or not, but my wife said shortly after adding the pellets, white, salty spots started to appear in the sink and shower, but wipe away easily).
• Is there any harm in regenerating too often?

Here's what I know and I can provide additional details, if necessary once I get home this evening:

• My wife and I are the only people living in our 1260sq. home (2.5 bath)
• Water tests show our hardness at 319ppm
• The unit regens about every 12 days once it hits 200 gal. remaining
• After regen, it shows about ~1460 gal. available
• We've gone through about 100lb. of salt since July 2013

Thanks in advance for all the assistance! I greatly appreciate it!

You didn't get a manual or any such paperwork with the unit?

 

[UnderEstimated]

The paperwork we received doesn't state much, just "Nuvia Pro Softener" and "Nuvia Clarity 2100 RO". There is an additional manual/brochure that just shows pictures of the filtration and softening process with the only stat being "27gpm flow rate".

Attached are pictures of the system; I apologize I just took them this evening from my phone.

 

[Gary Slusser]

You have a Clack WS1 control on a SS tank of unknown size, with an 18" x 33" brine tank.

Are you getting soft water? If so the softener is working as it should, although possibly not as efficiently as it could. Take the cover off the valve by spreading the edges away from the valve so it can come off toward you. Inside the cover should be a paper that will tell you how to set the time of day etc. by pushing (at the exact same time) and holding the Next and up or down arrows for x seconds and let go. You use the Next button to go from one field to another and to get into installer programing you use the Next and up or down button. That is where you will see what K of capacity, salt dose lbs, etc. that it is programed for but....

I suggest you call the dealer and ask the cuft volume and type of resin in it before you get into any programing.

I suggest solar crystal salt and keeping the salt tank half full. Pellets leave a residue in the tank that will eventually build up, plus pellets cost more.

The amount of water in the brine tank depends on the salt dose setting and that varies from one softener to another. How high is the water in your brine tank?

IMO, it should regenerate like every 7-9 days but some say it can go months between regenerations... I say that damages resin. It should be programed for the best efficiency based on the volume of resin.

Once you get the info from the dealer we can get into more. You can also tell him you want the Clack WS1 CS (or whatever model the control valve is) service manual he should have given you.

 

[UnderEstimated]

You have a Clack WS1 control on a SS tank of unknown size, with an 18" x 33" brine tank.

Are you getting soft water? If so the softener is working as it should, although possibly not as efficiently as it could. Take the cover off the valve by spreading the edges away from the valve so it can come off toward you. Inside the cover should be a paper that will tell you how to set the time of day etc. by pushing (at the exact same time) and holding the Next and up or down arrows for x seconds and let go. You use the Next button to go from one field to another and to get into installer programing you use the Next and up or down button. That is where you will see what K of capacity, salt dose lbs, etc. that it is programed for but....

I suggest you call the dealer and ask the cuft volume and type of resin in it before you get into any programing.

I suggest solar crystal salt and keeping the salt tank half full. Pellets leave a residue in the tank that will eventually build up, plus pellets cost more.

The amount of water in the brine tank depends on the salt dose setting and that varies from one softener to another. How high is the water in your brine tank?

IMO, it should regenerate like every 7-9 days but some say it can go months between regenerations... I say that damages resin. It should be programed for the best efficiency based on the volume of resin.

Once you get the info from the dealer we can get into more. You can also tell him you want the Clack WS1 CS (or whatever model the control valve is) service manual he should have given you.

Well, my call to the dealer's customer service was pretty much a joke. The 3 different agents couldn't answer my questions but said a manager would call me back before the end of the week. The agent did say my system was of a 32K grain capacity. Does that help at all?

I'll be receiving a PDF copy of the owner manuals shortly.

 

[UnderEstimated]

The resin is Purelite C100EFM resin, if that helps any.

 

[Gary Slusser]

The "32K" is a bit small IMO for your hardness and 2.5 baths but, there are only 2 of you, and you have the softener already. Click the link in my signature and post what data you develop there and we can get into the programming.

 

[UnderEstimated]

Using your calculator:

Hardness: 19gpg
Iron: 1ppm
Manganese: 0ppm
People: 2
Usage: 60gal.
Extra: 0gal.

It recommends 2760 of daily grains of capacity and 22090 for the total grain capacity. 1.5 cubic feet is the recommended size, but as you mentioned, mine may be too small.

Will the .5 cubic feet make a difference in me having 0 hardness at all times? Generally, my wife and I are home for 12-14 hours a day and I travel quite a bit, so there are times where I'm gone for a 4-8 weeks straight and it's just her. I don't mind the unit regenerating more often (or having to constantly refill salt) to ensure 0 hardness.

For what it's worth, the half-bath is basically never used and our home is brand new with low water consumption appliances and fixtures. There may be days where we use 60gal. or maybe more (when I wash the cars), but I'm sure there are days when it's quite a bit less.

Thanks for all the assistance. I greatly appreciate it! Happy New Year!

 

[Gary Slusser]

So... 60 gals per person per day, not just 60 total for the 2 of you. 120* 23 ((1*4=4) + 19) = 23 gpg of compensated hardness gets us 2760 daily grains needed, * 8 days average regeneration = 22080 (round to 22K). 22,000/ 23 gpg= 956 (rounded to 950) gallons on the meter. That's without a reserve if you have variable reserve on your model Clack WS-1. If not subtract 120 from the 950. Salt dose is 22000/3333 grains per lb efficiency = 6.6 lbs (total) and that, including the above, is simply input into the Clack WS-1. Since you are gone so much and often, calendar day override like day 12 due to your iron and small water use per day without you there.

I can't recall all the rest of the programming choices so once you get into it, write down the data and field names and I'll check it out for you. To move from one field to another, push the Next button and let go. To go back one field IIRC you push the Up arrow and let go; but then again, maybe not...

 

[UnderEstimated]

So... 60 gals per person per day, not just 60 total for the 2 of you. 120* 23 ((1*4=4) + 19) = 23 gpg of compensated hardness gets us 2760 daily grains needed, * 8 days average regeneration = 22080 (round to 22K). 22,000/ 23 gpg= 956 (rounded to 950) gallons on the meter. That's without a reserve if you have variable reserve on your model Clack WS-1. If not subtract 120 from the 950. Salt dose is 22000/3333 grains per lb efficiency = 6.6 lbs (total) and that, including the above, is simply input into the Clack WS-1. Since you are gone so much and often, calendar day override like day 12 due to your iron and small water use per day without you there.

I can't recall all the rest of the programming choices so once you get into it, write down the data and field names and I'll check it out for you. To move from one field to another, push the Next button and let go. To go back one field IIRC you push the Up arrow and let go; but then again, maybe not...

How will I know if I have a reserve on my unit? I'll look into the programming this evening or tomorrow, as I'm taking off on a 12 day trip...however the wife will be with me on that one!

 

[UnderEstimated]

My settings are: Hardness: 23 / Regen Day: 9 / Regen time: 2am / Capacity: 23x1000 / Lbs: 9.5 / Backwash: Normal / Gal: Auto / Fill: Post / Brine: Down

 

[Gary Slusser]

I'm sure you have the CS version and suggest you set it with my figures and override day. And then when you get the manual we'll look into other settings, or other fields will show up when you set my settings and you can post them.

 

[UnderEstimated]

I'm having a hard time taking your settings into the format above. Correct me if I'm wrong:

Hardness: 23
Regen day: 8
Capacity: 22x1000
Lbs. 6.6
Backwash: Normal (would changing this to 'longer' make any difference?)

 

[Gary Slusser]

Well it seems you set everything but the day 12. So go to where it says day 8 and use the up arrow to go up to 12, then Next repeatedly until you are out of the programing. Check this as you do that.... What are the other choices in the field where you see Auto? You want Gallons somewhere, and enter 950. That may get you more fields you don't see now. I'm done for tonight, Happy New Year.

 

[UnderEstimated]

Thanks, Gary. I can set the gallons from 5-50000. I'll set to 950. There is also a filtering portion of the menu I didn't get into. Happy New Year!

 

[UnderEstimated]

I plugged in all your settings. The gallons I set to 940, as that was the closest I could get to 950. Lbs is at 6.5, as I can only do .5 increments. However after these settings have changed my hardness shows N/A and I can't change the value anymore. Is that normal?

 

[Gary Slusser]

Check that Filter/Softener is set to Softener.

Then write down and post her all the programing Field Name and data with both Next and Up arrow and Next and Down arrow.

 

[UnderEstimated]

So it looks like when I change the gallons to a value other than 'auto' my hardness becomes N/A.

Under Filtering:

Fill: 0.8gal
Backwash: Normal
Regen: 940gal
Fill: Post
Set time: Normal

 

[UnderEstimated]

Also, Next and Up Arrow only gives me my hardness (n/a), regen day and the clock.