Water softener pump strength? or should I go with Saltless

[triet nguyen]

My 9 Month year old son has been having skin issues from Eczema, itchy skin etc... Im here in Minneapolis and I was told we have really hard water.

My problem is I have a boiler system in my basement and the closest drain is in the laundry room 50-60 FT from my boiler. I would have to run it 10FT floor to my ceiling, run it across the room 50 FT and down into my sink in the laundry room

Ive read that most water-softner can only discharge the 30FT max. Can you guys recommend another route?
- External pump? fill the water in a bucket and get a larger pump to shoot it to my laundry room?
- Saltless tank? ive read they just condition the water and im afraid that wont help my son.

Anyone have any advise?

 

[Reach4]

I think the question is going to be whether you can run that in 3/4 PVC or you need something bigger. I expect 3/4 is sufficient.

What about 3/4 ID flex tubing?

What is the softener size? 1.5 cubic ft in a 54x10 tank? The backwash flow is only 2.4 for that size.

What is your water pressure? 50 PSI or more?

Here is the deal. If your water pressure is 50, and you can hold the pressure loss to 10 psi or less, you will not have a problem with too much restriction. In fact, my numbers are extra-conservative. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pvc-pipes-friction-loss-d_802.html
100 ft of schedule 40 3/4 inch would have 2.5 psi loss at 5 gpm. Elbows cause some loss, but your 50 ft with 3 elbows will have less drop than 100 ft. From the softener output, you will rise about 5 ft or so. Let's say that might add another 2.5 psi of backpressure. No problems.

Using PEX or stiff flex polyethylene? 3/4 PEX might give as much as 6 psi of drop at 5 gpm. Still OK. Plus your softener will be backwashing less than 5 gpm anyway.

I am not a pro. I am confident that you will be fine with 3/4 pipe where you don't pinch things up.

"saltless softeners" don't soften.

 

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[ditttohead]

Running the drain 50' is fine for most higher quality units. You will simply need to keep the drain pipe size reasonable. Do not use 1/2" polytube, use 3/4" PVC or pex. These materials are cheap, easy to work with, and very reliable.

Salt free "softening" does not exist unless you consider a reverse osmosis system a softener. We manufacture dozens of different "conditioners" and they all have their pluses and minuses. Here is an article of our opinion on the topic. https://view.publitas.com/impact-water-products/2018-catalog-final/page/32-33

Virtually everybody who works in this industry has a traditional softener, they simply work.