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paulz
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# Posted: 3 May 2019 06:12pm - Edited by: paulz
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My well water goes through a big sand pool filter but the water is still very 'hard' I guess is the term. My hair, after a shower, feels like my dog's.
I've had this water softener kicking around but never hooked it up because it has a whiz bang programmable control panel and a manual 50 pages thick, plus it runs on A/C.
I don't even know the basic principles of these things. Can it be hooked up and run manually? My water tank is above my cabin, I get pretty good flow even with my pump off. Here is a diagram from the manual. I don't have a pressure tank.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 3 May 2019 11:52pm
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Paulz. Have you considered putting an inline softener cartridge type filter? I'll post a pic of one from amazon that costs about $70 bucks. I have one hooked into my system, but I don't have hard water, so I use a filter that cleans the extra goodies out of "clean" city water. I haul all of our water, but I get it from a municipal source. Our system is powered by 12 volts from solar.
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paulz
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# Posted: 4 May 2019 08:42pm
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Sounds good, I'll look into it. Thanks!
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Brettny
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# Posted: 5 May 2019 08:33am
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I believe most of the normal softeners just use electrical for the timer, backflush solenoid and salt useage ammount. Theres really not much to them. How ever they do need constant water pressure to back flush. Depending on how much water you use this could run for quite a while before backflushing is needed.
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paulz
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# Posted: 5 May 2019 01:19pm
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Thanks Brettny. That's kind of what I was thinking and hoping. Can you tell me how these things operate? Were does the salt go and what is backflush? The tank (the tall one in the picture above) has some kind of media in it, gold colored, is that the salt/brine?
Obviously I haven't a clue what goes on with these..
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Brettny
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# Posted: 5 May 2019 02:30pm
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Usualy theres a media/filter cylinder and a salt brine tank. Some times the media cylinder is in the salt tank. The media needs to be flushed because it traps the hardness/minerals in the water. Usualy this is done every day in a normal house. It backflushes through the media and pumps it out a drain hose.
The electronics are so small in these things and not run very often i dont see not hooking them up as being much of a benifit. But at least on mine its just a timer that turns on/off the solenoids and pump to keep the system clean.
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paulz
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# Posted: 5 May 2019 03:50pm
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Found an article on the basics:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/interior-projects/how-to/a150/1275126/
So as I understand it, when the media is clean the water just flowing though it takes out the minerals. Then, when the media is saturated, salt is pumped through it which replaces the minerals with salt. Then the salt is flushed out.
Do I have that right?
Unfortunately the unit I have runs on 12vac. I run my cabin on 12vdc but when I am not there there is no power at all. I suppose I could run the softener off a generator and the 12vac adapter and do manual flushes once in awhile, if I could figure out a a manual mode?
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paulz
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# Posted: 30 May 2019 12:30pm
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I have been messing with the water softener I bought a couple years ago. I have it hooked up and will add salt today and see what happens. I think I have the principals down: The media tank collects the minerals, when it gets saturated it does a 'regenerate'. First the media tank gets backflushed to remove debris. Then it pulls brine in from the salt tank to flush out the minerals. Then it flushes the brine out of the mineral tank. The resulting 'soft water' might have a salty taste, but my hair will be silky smooth.
My deal has a electronic panel that keeps track of usage and does the regens automatically. You can do a manual regen. Since mine won't have electricity unless I run a generator I'm thinking I will have to do manual regens, based on..something.
Anyway I hope to get it going and take it from there. Any advice or experience appreciated...
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