Stainless Steel Softener Resin Tanks

[heytom]

I am brainstorming how many condo owners have in the past on how to add a water softener when the condo has a central hot water boiler. I understand I would have to have a softener for both the cold water and hot water sources in my condo that come in under the master bedroom sink.

Without the room for a full softener with a brine tank that could regenerate the resin tanks, I am wondering if there are companies that exchange the resin tanks that are stainless steel, where I could run the hot and cold water supplies for my condo to a near by coat closet and place two stainless steel tanks in there where they could be accessed and exchanged every 1 to 2 months.

Concerns: - with the hot water in our condo being quite hot and nearly instantaneous (as the hot water service is continually recirculated for all the units (not within each unit but to their supply), I am wondering how much longer I would need to run the hot water for it to become hot if the hot water resin tank cools down when water is not in use. I guess that would depend on the size of the SS resin tank. With it being just 2 adults in a 2 bathroom condo, hopefully I could locate a smaller sized SS resin tank to keep this wait time down and probably keep the exchange cycle monthly (as the company doing the exchange would probably like to exchange at least monthly to charge more).

Next Concern - would hot water harm the resin beads in the tank? Have you ever heard of supplying a softener resin tank with fairly hot water (140 degrees F?).

Thanks for any help on how I might improve the extremely hard water in this condo complex. One of the things I miss from having a home and my own softener system.

 

[Bannerman]

Instead of addressing the issue individually, have you attempted making a request to your Condo Board to install a central system? If you are having issues with water hardness, it is highly likely other residents are also. If the condo board is not initially receptive to an individual request, perhaps they would be more willing to consider a request from multiple owners.

As a new service not included in the development's original specifications, it is likely funding would need to be obtained through an additional assessment from each owner. Since only one central system would be required, your individual shared costs should be less than each buying and operating two softeners, will require less water to regenerate x# number of softeners, would not consume valuable space within each individual condo unit, and would resolve all of the concerns you listed.

A central softener should also reduce maintenance requirements and assist the development's central boiler to last longer than it would with hard water.