Water softener discharge question............

[Brian Sickles]

I am hoping to purchase a water softener to locate on my dock and treat the FL hard water that is recklessly spotting my boat each time I wash it. Spotting is so bad that it is a toss up if the boat looks better before or after washing.....sort of.

Never had a water softener before in my life, so I am puzzled how they work. I am trying to buy a Kenmore (don't know the model-16" x 48" high) but the seller is warning me about the briney discharge and that the briney discharge issue would negate my using his unit for my application. He explains that I would have no way to dump the discharge into the city sewer system.

So, I am asking you folks, how does this discharge exit the machine: gravity drop? Pumped by the machine itself? I would never dump the briney discharge into the water, I just need to know how it comes out so I can plan how to discard it acceptably.

Too, we are living on the boat, so I would hope for an improvement in the water we bathe in despite the fact that we really don't seem to experience any problem with the water currently.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Reach4]

So, I am asking you folks, how does this discharge exit the machine: gravity drop? Pumped by the machine itself?

Hose, probably 1/2 inch ID. I would guess there is a barbed fitting on the softener, and you supply your own hose... but I am not sure for that unit. Water is pushed out by the supply water pressure during regeneration only .

Is this boat on salt water, or inland? If you are living on the boat, how do you handle the toilet output?

 

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[ditttohead]

Avoid the Big Box junk systems. Their price is impressive but...
A modern high end softener can be programmed quite easily to collect the salt portion of the regeneration. This is a little tricky but it can be done a couple of different ways. The rest of the regen is basically clean water.

As to the cleaning of the boat, soft water may help but you are probably looking for higher purity water if you want to be able to detail the boat like the pros do. This would usually involve an RO system and demineralization. Since you have an unlimited water supply this nay be a fairly easy thing to do.

Give us a few more details.