Salty Water no ocean

[Rman]

Hi I need advice fast please. 3 years ago I built and plumbed a single family two story home w/pex and s/s crimp rings w/brass pex crimp fittings Several of the exposed fittings in the basement are getting a crusty white substance at the crimp joint and one is slowly dripping.. Also my tankless takagi water heater has failed three internal leaks.. So I had an extensive lab water test post 20 micron filter, Katalox rust filter and water softener.. The findings are crazy 890mg/l sodium and 2000PPM TDS making the water crap. I am waterfront and the small property makes it impossible to drill a new well. Septic front yard, well back yard water front lake. No way to get a drill rig to the backyard!! BTW the only thing I did not do was drill the 78 foot water well in 1978. Previous owner died and cabin/land sold as is but he lived there for 25 years and the smoking not the water killed him. So I assumed the water was at least useable stupid me. Does anyone know if a Whole House RO system will clean up my crap water? I've never seen/installed a large system that also needs a holding tank for the clean water then needs a second pump to push throughout the house. 2 adults 3 bathrooms Thanks for hanging in so far but I'm loosing sleep that all the pex fittings in the wall will fail real soon.

 

[Reach4]

Since seawater has a TDS of approximately 35,000 mg/L, and they can do RO on sea water, I am confident that RO can be done. I expect it might take a better RO that takes your brackish source water into account.

I am thinking permeate pump, maybe booster pump, membrane better for high TDS, etc. I have no specific suggestions, but feel optimistic that somebody will have good info for you.

In the mean time, drinking bottled water is not that expensive. It is not handy.

Note that you want to not send RO water thru metal pipe, so if you have copper running to your refrigerator, look to change that to plastic.

Regarding the clamp PEX leaking, another poster was having that problem. I suspected the tool may not have been properly calibrated. I wonder if re-crimping with a calibrated tool would fix that. Another thing would be to put a worm gear hose clamp next to the existing clamp. I understand you should not have to do that.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Rman]

Since seawater has a TDS of approximately 35,000 mg/L, and they can do RO on sea water, I am confident that RO can be done. I expect it might take a better RO that takes your brackish source water into account.

I am thinking permeate pump, maybe booster pump, membrane better for high TDS, etc. I have no specific suggestions, but feel optimistic that somebody will have good info for you.

In the mean time, drinking bottled water is not that expensive. It is not handy.

Note that you want to not send RO water thru metal pipe, so if you have copper running to your refrigerator, look to change that to plastic.

Regarding the clamp PEX leaking, another poster was having that problem. I suspected the tool may not have been properly calibrated. I wonder if re-crimping with a calibrated tool would fix that. Another thing would be to put a worm gear hose clamp next to the existing clamp. I understand you should not have to do that.

Hi Thanks for good info However on the pex leaking connections I personally did the connections and No leaks for 3 years now several are starting to leak. If I replace a 3/4 inch elbow same tool and cinch clamp no leak Also the whole hydronic heating system is plumbed with oxygen free pex and not a single sign of leak/corrosion. Can the 180 degree boiler water evaporate the salt in the water thru the vent system?

 

[Valveman]

Moving this to the softener forum. Get some more eyes on it that way.

 

[Bannerman]

had an extensive lab water test post 20 micron filter, Katalox rust filter and water softener

Did you have the raw water tested? It might be helpful to compare the water conditions before and after treatment, including pH and hardness.

A water softener functions by exchanging calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions. The higher the initial hardness, the higher the sodium level will be after the softener.

 

[blaze4545]

In a situation like this, we would install a whole house Nanofiltration system. Reach is correct, Whole house Reverse Osmosis would be too fine and lower the pH too much meaning you would have to re-plumb any brass fittings, copper lines, steel etc. For comparison nano is around 0.001 of a micron and 0.0001 for R.O. We would aim to lower the TDS to 200-500ppm as to not reject too much water.

Did they test for Sulphates (SO4) as well? Is it Sodium Chloride or just Sodium they tested?
Whats is your well recovery like?

You can definately get the water clean and drinkable (as long as there is Blue-Green algae bloom) ,but how much are you willing to spend?

$17k Canadian was our last job installed and everything and here is what we installed:

Micro Z backwashing Sediment Filter (5 micron)
2000GPD commercial R.O Sytem fitted with a 2000GPD Nano filter
Stenner chemical feeder with storage tank
Antiscalent/Membrane cleaner
U.V sterilization system for bacteria
2000gal water storage tank
Grundfos Reprussirization pump

Optional or usuall mandatory if blending with raw water approach:
Backwashing carbon for polishing
5 micron pre filter for the U.V sytem

I would highly recommend getting a local serviceman or contacting manufacturers. Do not go with big box store manufacturers and try to stay away from proprietary franchises unless you have heard good things and recommendations. This is alot more complicated than a water softener install and many franchise owners would be in over their heads.

You can play around with this to get an idea:
https://www.wateronline.com/doc/rosa-7-0-0001

The Rosa test is used to determine your production, rejection etc. Has been pretty accurate for us

 

[ditttohead]

Since you only have 2000 TDS, a standard ro or NF system would be ideal. NF systems do require careful membrane consideration to get the water where you want it. We do a lot of NF systems but a simple RO with blending may also be ideal for your application. It is difficult to say without having a real water test completed first and no reputable company would move forward without one.

We make several whole house RO systems that are based on price, not performance or quality. These are branded under several different companies names, I would avoid these ultra low cost systems, they are typically designed for low initial costs but a much higher operating cost.

Regarding the pex problems, here is a a simple article that may explain some of the issues you are having. http://66.39.144.14/Dezincification.html

Simply stated, higher zinc content = lower cost and more problems with dezincification. There have been several class action lawsuits regarding this, but most of those were years ago. Is it possible you got some older cheap fittings? You will need to replace any fittings you can access, the ones you cant... good luck. You could try injecting polyphosphate as a stop-gap measure, this should extend the life of the fittings... no guarantees. It is fairly cheap to do and is commonly done where piping systems are having this type of problems especially in commercial applications.