Water Softener for Well

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Water Guy

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Comprehensive. Meaning a full well test. The information you have is interesting but is the equivalent of an auto mechanic listening to your car over the phone and saying "its a great car!". A real test will give us an indication of what is going on. It will also look for many contaminants that can be harmful or difficult to remove etc. A real test should be done at minimum every few years or when you notice a change in the well. Here is a link to a real testing company. When you own a well, you have the responsibility of testing the water.
NTLWATERTEST
^^^this.
 

Water Guy

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My TDS is over 500, and I find no problem with that. On the other hand, I am confident I would not be happy with 0.3 iron.
you may benefit from an RO. While things such as calcium and magnesium can contribute to TDS, it mainly consists of salts and heavy metals, neither of which is good for the human body. While some TDS is acceptable, higher amounts (especially of heavy metals) can bioaccumulate leading to long and short term health effects, and even nervous system problems. Personally, i think a total of around 120 ppm is acceptable, anything over that should be removed.
 

ditttohead

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I review typically 10-20 water reports daily. TDS in excess of 500 is where I start to look more carefully t potential problems. The most common contributors to TDS are calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride, sulfate and a few other elements. It is important to look to the EPA guidelines, it makes a great reference. While many people may disagree with some of their MCL's, it is a fairly reasonable guideline. There are a few places where the TDS is very low. 120 PPM is the exception when it comes to water quality and is considered a great water source that is typically going to be fairly easy to treat but we are going to start to look more carefully at LSI and CI numbers when the TDS is that low. Many area around New York have very low TDS. Another heavily populated area with very low TDS is the area served by the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in California. TDS under 1000 is still considered very potable depending on what makes up the TDS. Every water sample I read is unique and the treatment method can be as simple as a little sediment filter, to a long chain of complex equipment.

Here is a system we just shipped for a fairly complex well... H2s, high chloride and sodium, coliform potential was high...multiple ozone systems, UV Remin, RO, injection, iron reduction, Manganese reduction etc...
well2.jpg
 

Water Guy

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that's quite a system. are you injecting for descaling? also, love the d.bs ease of pressure adjustments and ramp up ability based on demand. how do you like them? found any drawbacks? I've seen people try to treat everything at once with an RO. Like you, my thought is to separately treat to avoid overloading the membrane. first for pH (if needed), then iron/mang/H2S, then calcium/magnesium, then an RO for salts/chlorides. I'm in central ny where municipal tds is usually 120, most wells are 200-400, but occasionally 1000-3000. people in my area are usually not interested in the cost of an RO, so I usually recommend the above with the RO just treating a sink. thoughts?
 
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ditttohead

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On this design, anti-scalant with silica sequestrant made sense. We are using Ozone for oxidizing iron, manganese and H2s in the first atmospheric tank, cleaning it up with KL, DAB as the pre-boost to the main RO, Calcite remineralzing, atmospheric storage, UV post... lots more not shown here but you get the idea. We even got the county to agree to a "French style drain" as shown in the drawing by the gravel for the RO and KL waste. it is in the middle of the forest...

DAB has been a huge hit for us, we bring them in by the truckload and they have replaced the majority of our other pumps. Their ability to handle low to high flow without a problem has been a huge benefit to us. The main drawback is that the large DAB is a bit expensive, but considering what you get for the money it is not too bad. Also they are butchered online so many companies don't want them. People need to make a few bucks, and when they are selling for 10% over cost online, people expect you to match the price... this does not keep the kids fed or the lights on. Some of my larger customers simply "give them away" at barely above cost, basically a loss leader since they like the pumps so much. Many companies are finally getting wise to the online resellers, usually some guy in his moms basement smoking weed selling candles, fidget spinners, water filters etc... then they complain because they can't pay their bills working on 10% margins... and with shipping cost going up as much as they have this year... we are seeing a lot of changes, mostly for the good. Several companies are also enacting MAP contracts and cutting off companies that don't take care of the customer support after the sale.

I run projections for the membranes all the time to see what in theory will happen and what kind of efficiencies I can hope for. here is a recent one where we could only get 25% recovery with any membrane longevity. Ro under the sink is excellent but you have to let the customers know reasonable expectations. TDS in excess of 1500 PPM for under the sink should be designed with a little more care. over 3000, a lot needs to be taken into consideration.
upload_2020-10-31_7-31-17.png
 

Water Guy

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Recovery seems very acceptable with that much tds. is that the actual water temp or best scenario? Couple of questions, do you plan on backwashing those membranes periodically? and, if you were able to up the feed pressure would that result in increase in efficiency or just increase both concentrate and permeate simultaneously? thanks for the info on the dab. To me, ease of use, space savings and less equipment to mess around with are huge advantages over traditional pumps/re-pressurization.
 

hutt132

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I plumbed everything up a few weeks ago. Here's the final pics!

Pre-softener 30 Micron filter, and 48000 grain softener.
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Post-softener 20-1 Micron filter.
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Video of setup.
 

Reach4

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Looks good. Protect your plastics from UV with paint or covers.
 

Bannerman

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Also, place a waterproof cover or at least an overturned buck over the control valve to prevent water entry into the electronics.
 
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