Softener or Filter

[Bolt15]

Presently have a 12 year old 48,000 grain Fine Mesh Resin softener with 5600SE valve that is starting to give me an issue with slight iron taste. No staining or color, just a very slight taste. Before jumping into replacing the resin, given the age and technology advancements I'm looking for recommendations. Looking at my test results below the iron level has significantly increased from 8 mg/L when I installed in 2006 to 23 mg/L today. Test results were taken from the bladder tank before any treatment, so directly from the well. This has also been the wettest year I can recall in New England so that may be part of the iron increase. There are 2 of us in the house and we use very little water. Was thinking 1.0 or 1.5 Katalox Light with AIO on a 5600sxt might be all we need & ditch the softener. I also have a small cartridge filter before the softener to keep the sediment out of the softener. Your thoughts?
TEST PARAMETERS TEST RESULTS LEVELS (in mg/L)
ODOR NONE
TURBIDITY 70
COLOR 75
PH 6.28
NITRITE NITROGEN < 0.001
NITRATE NITROGEN < 1.00
CHLORIDE 78
HARDNESS 96
IRON 23.10
MANGANESE 0.35
SODIUM 15
SULFATE 40

 

[Reach4]

23.1 mg/l (ppm) is an incredible amount of iron. It is surprising that the softener was making that tolerable for many years.

If you wanted to try, you could try cleaning the softener with

. Clean the resin. Clean the controller Look for old posts that talk about that. Big 9.5 pound bottle is more economical. To search for old softener cleaning references in the search box above, search for "iron out*" in the search box above. Include the quotes and asterisk.

Smell is not great, but fairly tolerable for most.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bolt15]

Thank you for the reply, unfortunately I have tried iron out a few times over the past few months with no real improvement. I have also cleaned out the injector and valve so I know all is proper. I read about katalox & aio, thoughts?

 

[Bannerman]

8mg/L is still significantly higher than recommended for removal with a softener. Each 1 mg/L iron is equivalent to 85.5 mg/L hardness load on the softener. You didn't state the softener's current Capacity setting or salt dose used.

Your acidic (low pH) water has likely helped to reduce iron fouling within the softener and resin. Iron Out and similar iron cleaners are acids to lower the pH of the brine drawn from the brine tank. A full cleaning would require a significant amount of cleaner, and extending the cleaner's contact time would also be beneficial.

There are various methods for treating an iron condition, but most require the water pH to be neutral (7) or above so as to be most effective.

While AIO can be effective to oxidize iron, many people are not favorable to 'airy' water.

Your water hardness of 96 mg/L on its own, signifies 6 grains per gallon hardness. While that is not excessive, it is high enough to make a softener beneficial.

 

[Bolt15]

48000 grain softener 10x54 tank with fleck 5600SE valve with 1.5 CF fine mesh resin.
Back wash 15
Brine draw 60
Rapid rinse 10
Brine fill 15
Regen @ 1000 gal
14 day override

 

[Bannerman]

17.1 mg/L = per 1 grain per gallon. The 85.5 mg/L specified above, equals 5 grains per gallon for each 1 mg/L iron.

The original 8 mg/L iron, signifies 40 gpg softening load in addition to 6 gpg actual hardness. As your softener is programmed to regenerate every 1000 gallons, 46,000 grains capacity will have needed to be restored every regeneration cycle. While that usage may seem within the capacity of the softener, in practice, that is not how a softener is utilized.

The capacity of 1.5 cuft resin when manufactured is 48K grains. Some capacity will be lost initially during handling and installation and will further decline during numerous regeneration cycles as broken and worn resin beads are flushed to drain. In addition, to regenerate all 48K requires an excessive and inefficient quantity of salt (27 lbs) every regeneration cycle.

The salt dose is directly related to BF time (15 minutes) X BLFC rate which is usually stated on a label located near to the brine line connection. Common BLFC rates include 0.125, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 gpm. 0.5 gpm is most common so anticipating that is the correct rate, 15 minutes X 0.5 = 7.5 gallons. Each 1 gallon entering the brine tank will dissolve 3 lbs salt so 7.5 gallons = 22.5 lbs salt which falls short of that needed to restore the 46K capacity that was needed every cycle.

A 1.5 cuft softener is typically configured so no more than 30K grains or 36K grains is used each regen cycle. When a softener is not required to remove iron, 30K would require a salt dose of 9 lbs whereas 36K grains would require 12 lbs salt each cycle but the presence of iron usually requires a higher salt dose.

Iron will coat (foul) resin beads over time, making the resin increasing less effective in removing hardness and also to reduce iron. High doses of iron cleaner may gradually reduce the iron buildup, so full removal will likely require multiple cleaning and brining cycles.

 

[Bolt15]

Thank you Bannerman & Reach4
I have been using the green bag salt pellets since 1 and yearly done a regen with iron out directly from a 5 gal bucket and 1 cup iron out, let sit then normal regen. Did that to clean the orange out of the brine tube & system. In the past 2 months I have done the iron out flush 3 times.
Understood on the iron content exceeded the softener capacity.
Do you feel it’s a waste of time replacing the media? If so any recommendations? Also could you pm a good internet supplier?
Thanks in advance for your time.