Options after old Culligan failure

[Reach4]

Doh. Good idea. https://www.wdmww.com/waterqualityreport.aspx

Nearly-useless report for water treatment needs. They are going to know the data you need. Give them a call to see if they will tell you pH and hardness.
https://www.wdmww.com/faq.aspx#B_HardWater does say

The hardness of West Des Moines tap water averages 154 milligrams per liter (9 grains per gallon)
​

When designing and setting up a softener, you usually want to plan for the max hardness rather than an average.

Also confirm that they don't use chloromine. If they do not, that makes potential a carbon tank choice easier. You can use GAC.

These words do not appear in the report:
pH
hardness
calcium
magnesium
iron (tho that would have been settled out by the time it got to your house)

 

[Bannerman]

One bit of info from the report suggests that Chlorine is utilized for disinfection so regular GAC should be effective and premium Catalytic Carbon needed for Chloramine removal will only be an option.

When municipal water is obtained from multiple sources, softener sizing and program settings need to be based on accurate test results obtained at the actual location where the softener is to be installed. Municipal reports will often only state a combined average hardness as tested from each source.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[pete187]

I have a hardness test coming in the mail today.

I called the city water works, and they do NOT use chlorimine, only chlorine. So it looks like GAC should be ok in that regard if I wanted to do that as well.

He said they get some water from Des Moines, but for my address they get it from other sources. For my address, the max hardness was 166 mg/liter last month.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

Nearly-useless report for water treatment needs. They are going to know the data you need. Give them a call to see if they will tell you pH and hardness.
https://www.wdmww.com/faq.aspx#B_HardWater does say

The hardness of West Des Moines tap water averages 154 milligrams per liter (9 grains per gallon)
​

When designing and setting up a softener, you usually want to plan for the max hardness rather than an average.

Also confirm that they don't use chloromine. If they do not, that makes potential a carbon tank choice easier. You can use GAC.

These words do not appear in the report:
pH
hardness
calcium
magnesium
iron (tho that would have been settled out by the time it got to your house)

The chloromine is the biggest issue in our area, it is really killing off the units much faster

This is a NEW seasonal additive that is either injected into the water system in the spring or fall
and it breaks down the resin beds really fast depending on how close you are to where they
inject the chloromine at around the city. .... if you are nearby at ground zero like a few blocks away, you
are getting the the strongest dose of this stuff and the units will break
down in around 6 years or less....

I have been pushing the backwashing carbon filters for this reason.. but few people care all that much...

In the original picture I posted, the water softener was NEW and another unit that was only 8 years old had just got replaced
then a few days later I threw in the carbon filter........

Here is a pic of another unit we installed back about 9 years ago and the chloromine turned the resin bed into
something like yeast and it literally rose up out of the top of the unit while I was watching This resin expansion cut his pressure down to about a third of normal--

you should be able to find someone to install both of them for around 2500 give or take.

also, no one really knows what bathing in this stuff is really gonna do to your health
in 25 years either just from bathing in it, you will absorb some of this through the skin

 

[Bannerman]

Mark, increasing numbers of municipalities have been adopting Chloramine (Chlorine & Ammonia) as a full-time disinfection alternative to chlorine.

As Chloramine is more difficult to remove and is more stable over time than chlorine alone, the measured residual will remain more consistent throughout the water distribution system. Chloramine also supposedly produces fewer harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs) such as THMs, HAAs etc compared with chlorine.

An oxidant such as Chlorine will accelerate damage to the resin's crosslinking, leading to the results shown in your photo. While 10% crosslink resin will better tolerate constant chlorine exposure compared with a lower crosslink resin, the damage will just take longer. The speed of damage will also be conditional on the concentration of chlorine in the water.

A substantial quantity of regular activated carbon prior to the softener to remove Chlorine will extend the life of any resin, with the added benefit of also reducing DBPs. As Chloramine is substantially more difficult to remove, Catalytic Carbon will be more effective.

While the use of these chemicals is needed for the safe distribution of drinking water, that doesn't mean we should be or need to be taking the chemicals into our bodies. In addition to taking them in by eating, drinking and breathing, as you said, we also absorb through our skin. If a filter is not used to remove the chemicals prior to exposure, then we become the filter.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

That is basically about what I am saying too....but you sound more informed.
I think we are actually lab rats in the experiment
because they really dont know what its affects will be over our lives...... also something else
in the city water is all the diluted drugs like xanax, prozac and other medications that just get thrown down the toilet, They all flow from upstream of you and in minute amounts they make their way into the
drinking water.... people throw a lot of medications down the drain and its really not filtered out

I just had another call tonight, which I cannot go out to, where they claim that they have
no water pressure in the home and cannot flush the toilets... I am willing to bet they have
an older water softener that just rose out of the tank and clogged up the tolilets....

 

[pete187]

The Hach total hardness test showed 13 gpg.

I'm glad I do not have Chloramine in my water and can just use the regular activated carbon.