Water Softener Advice

Users who are viewing this thread

Rick Receveur

New Member
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Tampa, FL
I've inherited a Northstar NSC25ED - 25,000 grain capacity - last year with my home purchase. It was installed in 2010.

I'm pretty sure that the resin has outlived its useful capacity because test strips show the water is still hard @3 GPG vs 7 GPG untreated. According to our water company, our water varies from 7-20 GPG. The previous homeowner had it set to 30, probably because it wasn't getting the job done on lower settings.

I'm leaning toward buying another Northstar unit online and installing it myself - it should be a drop in replacement.

We have 5 people and 4 bathrooms and go through a lot of water, so I'm trying to figure out the correct capacity for a household this size.

Also I've heard that Northstars are throw away units - although this was from someone trying to sell me a different brand.

Any advice or feedback on capacity or brands ? I'd like to get something well built that's going to last.

Rick
Tampa, FL
 

ditttohead

Water systems designer, R&D
Messages
6,088
Reaction score
455
Points
83
Location
Ontario California
Agree with the guy trying to sell you a different brand.

Fleck and Clack are the premium softener valve manufacturers. The softener is comprised of many components all of which can be built with junk or higher quality parts. Be wary of the online companies, the majority of these companies simply find every cheap components they can and build the units with the look of quality but in reality they are poorly done. Their primary goal is to be the lowest price and this obviously comes with some sacrifices. One of the guys who posts on this site is in Florida, SWS systems. Skip is a great guy, give him a shot.
I would lean toward a 2.5 CF system. This size of unit has great capacity, is usually reasonably priced...

Assuming 5 people at 75 gallons per person per day at 30 grains, the system would regenerate about every 5-7 days.
 
Last edited:

Rick Receveur

New Member
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Tampa, FL
Thanks for the reply Dittohead,

So Fleck is not a brand of softener, correct ? When I see systems advertised as Fleck systems, it just means whoever built that particular system chose to use a Fleck valve and who knows what other parts ?

Thanks for the sizing info - I just read about salt efficiency, I can see my .7 cu ft system is grossly undersized.
 

ditttohead

Water systems designer, R&D
Messages
6,088
Reaction score
455
Points
83
Location
Ontario California
Fleck is a premium valve and softener components manufacturer. Many of the big name water softener companies use Fleck or Clack for higher end proprietary valves. Fleck is also heavily copied in China. Many companies buy Fleck valves since it is the most prominent part of the system. They then proceed to source everything else from the lowest bidder and build a "Fleck" system. Most of the online companies focus on this business model since many people only look at price.

And yes, your .7 cf system is very undersized. Like trying to take the family on a cross country vacation on a Vespa

vespa.jpg
 

Rick Receveur

New Member
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Tampa, FL
So here's what I ended up doing...

I went with a 1.5 cf unit that's built here in Tampa by a company called Nelsen using a Clack valve. This was recommended to me by Terry Graham at Suncoast Water Tech. Our hardness is currently at 7 and goes up to around 20 max during the dry season, so I think that's sufficient for our needs.

One other thing I learned because of the flow information on the Clack valve, is that our hose bibs are connected through the water softener, which I previously did not know, so I can put it in bypass when filling the pool, or watering.

I was very happy with Suncoast - it's a small family company and he's a technical guy who knows all the ins and outs of this stuff.
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks