Softener and Iron Filter combination

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JSAlaska

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I have browsed the forum for a while and read up on other sites but I'm still pretty confused on what I need. I've met with three different vendors who sell setups. Unsurprisingly, I got different information from all three. I am on a private well and, after meeting with the vendors, sent my water out for an independent test. The house is 2.5 baths with two adults and one kid.

My water is as follows:

Total Dissolved Solids = 221 mg/l (which I think is 12.92 grains per gallon)
Hardness total = 170 mg/l (company said they'd consider 180 "very hard")

Calcium = 52 mg/l
Iron = .47 mg/l (recommendation is .3 or less)
Magnesium = 8.7 mg/l
Manganese = .49 (recommendation is .o5 or less; one of the vendors tested out manganese at 21 times the max recommended limit)

Langelier corrosivity is .11 (good)
Alkalinity = 97 mg/ CaCO3
pH = 7.84

From my research, I think I need both an iron/manganese filter and a water softener. A plumber recommended doing a spinning or centrifugal filter before the iron/manganese filter to get out the biggest chunks. I'm not clear what that is.

My understanding is that salt free softener will not actually remove the hardness but merely polishes the calcium and magnesium which will eventually build up in our hot water heater and boiler. So I'm leaning toward a salt-based system notwithstanding the added maintenance and salt cost.

One vendor tried selling me a Kinetico claiming it would also remove the iron and manganese. I think it would at first but that the manganese would eventually coat the resin even with washing with a cleaning solution. I like the Kinetico for it's efficiency in terms of salt and water recharging, but it's expensive.

I'd like to get a system that is efficient with salt and water recharging and is a larger system that will recharge less frequently. My thought is to do the centrifugal filter, then iron and manganese filter, then the salt based softener. I've considered Pelican's Greensand filter for iron/manganese and salt water softener.

Can anyone recommend specific units for an iron/manganese filter and water softener. Sorry for the long post, I've just gotten a series of different answers from different vendors. Not sure what to think
 

Reach4

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Softener 1.5 cubic ft of resin in a 10x54 tank. Expect that to recharge every 10 to 12 days maybe. It would be best to precede that with a similar size tank with Katalox Light. Bonus: the KL also takes out H2S and more. That takes about 8 GPM to backwash, and that would normally be every 3 days. Some iron+manganese media takes significantly more to backwash.

It is possible to just get by with the softener, at least for a while, but that would give you a lot of extra cleaning.

The Kinetico would not be that more efficient than a regular softener, and it would be worse than the softener with the iron filter first.

A plumber recommended doing a spinning or centrifugal filter before the iron/manganese filter to get out the biggest chunks. I'm not clear what that is.
I think that indicates that he thinks you have sand. That would be a fairly small item.
 

ditttohead

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Stay away from the units you mentioned... enough said.

The pre filter would be something like this.

I would highly recommend a properly designed iron reduction system, a softener would also be nice.
 

JSAlaska

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Thanks to both for your input and messages. I'm leaning toward doing a centrifugal sediment filter before the iron/manganese, then doing an iron/manganese, then the water softener. Some of the vendors have been pushing us to do a carbon filter at the end of everything which seems unnecessary and excessive. If there is any issue with taste after the filter and softener are installed, I was planning on putting in an under-the-sink carbon filter for drinking water only, not a whole house carbon filter.

Reach4, I'll look into the system sizes you mentioned and see what options I can find.

Dittohead, yes, I'm definitely leaning toward doing both an iron/manganese and a water softener. We are remodeling and have all new appliances so I figured I'd help protect those with a softener. Also looking into a boiler for a radiant system and my understanding is that it's best to keep the water soft for tankless boilers.
 

JSAlaska

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A related question. If we recently bought a new washing machine and dishwasher, is it okay to run those for one or two months before we get the water softener and iron filter connected? I don't know if the levels of contamination that we have will foul up the machines. We are still planning on connecting a softener and filter as soon as possible but it would be nice to have the appliances in the meantime. Thanks.
 

ditttohead

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They will get stained, this will not hurt them in the short term. A little acid cleaning later will make them look like new. Try to not use bleach... this can make the problem worse.
 

Joe777

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We have bought several systems from Aplus Water LLC over the years for our own homes and rental properties. We recently had a tenant complaining about orange stains ruining her clothes and rotten egg smell in the water. We had previously bought a katalox system for similar water at our cabin. But this time https://www.greatwatersofteners.com/ saved us quite a bit of money by going with an air injection system Iron Eater which resolved her iron and smell issue.
 

ditttohead

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Recommending a specific system as a solution is not typically a good idea without explaining some of the potential drawbacks of a specific design. Linking to a reseller is also probably not desirable.

Air injection is sometimes effective assuming the iron levels are reasonable and you can deal with the air in the water. In some cases the air in the water is barely noticeable, in other applications it can be excessive and annoying. Air injection also creates a lot of precipitation of iron all over anything the iron comes into contact with. Sometimes you can go for years between system tear downs and cleaning, other times it can turn into a monthly ordeal. We recently consulted on an iron reduction application with some self proclaimed hippies who didn't want to use any chemicals so air was the only option to them. Air injection (micronizer) and Katalox Light was the solution they chose but at 24 ppm iron they are cleaning components monthly. They are happy with the results and the effectiveness of the treatment, as a bonus they have become very capable of working on their own equipment. H202 injection (constant regen) directly ahead of a backwashing KL system tends to have less potential for this problem but... it still occurs.
 
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