Water Softeners

[twerner]

I am moving into a used mobile home and I noticed the water in the bathroom and kitchen is very hard, rusty and smelly. Is it possible to put in some type of water softener or filtration system to get rid of this? The former owner mentioned to me not to wash whites in the washing machine since the water is so rusty. Please help.
Thanks,
Tina

[TonyPa]

I used to install water softners for a living, many years ago. And they sale them at lowes now, I think. They really do help for that issue.

[Johnny]

removed

[shadow745]

I'll give you a heads up on this one...... a softener is great for neutralizing hardness, removing chlorine, etc..... but they do very little for removing iron. May help with smaller amounts, maybe less than 1ppm, but any higher and you should look for something more iron specific. There are lots of options out there, including iron/manganese filtering systems and chemical injection systems that work great. We spent $8,000 total on our system. It works great, but requires periodic maintenance and isn't 100% effective all the time. Iron is a pain in the a$$ to remove.

I'd recommend finding a water specialist in your area and have them test it, then go from there. I know this can be expensive, but good water is important. You can find cheaper alternatives by buying something at Lowes, Sears, etc.... but they won't know anything regarding exactly what you need and those systems aren't as good, won't last as long as what you get from Rainsoft, Kinetico, Culligan, etc.

Don't know if this will be removed (some moderators don't like links), but there is a great forum for the Do-It-Yourselfer and they have specific topics that might help. Here's the link. Later!

http://forum.doityourself.com/water-sof ... stems-139/

[flcruising]

I take it you're on a well.

We ran a Sears water softener on my mother's well when we first moved in. The iron and sulfur were horrendous without it and caused the whites to become orange. That softener only lasted a couple years as apparently the iron buildup finally wore it out. This promted her to switch to a water service company. Culligan maybe? The softener worked well when it worked, but the water was never clean enough to not taste the impurities, even after switching to Culligan. Actually, I remember her going through several different companies (with none of them cleaning it up completely) in about a 12 year timeframe before 'city water' became available.

My home is on a well now too, but our water is perfectly clean straight out of the ground. Everyone who tastes it, asks what filtration we have. They're shocked when I tell them none. My suggestion is talk to an 'experienced' well driller in your area who is familiar with what water that could be available to you. Though there are no guarantees, you may be able to get another well point drilled for just a couple thousand $ and save alot of frustration by not dealing with what you have now.

[DigitalDreams]

The iron at my place is really high and heres what I done and it seems to work.On the inflow before it hits anything I installed a 5 micron sediment filter followed immediately by a carbon filter and then it runs through a culligan water softner then back through another carbon filter and that makes it about as clear a I have ever seen it.
Before I did that my water was so high in iron it tasted like licking a rusty bolt.If I remember the culligan test said it was 10.5 ppm

And when I say clear I mean clearer than my friends in towns city water ,in fact my friend said it tasted better than his too.

Now I don't claim to be no water expert, but it worked for me and cost was substantially less than 150 dollars minus the water softner which is just a standard culligan.

You will find tho that you may have to change filters about every 2 months, I have to change the carbon one that is first in line about every 2.5
months and the after softner one about every 6 months.

It's a easy change tho I just put a valve before and after the filter section of the line in and shut it down to do filter changes.

[shadow745]

Here is a link that provides alot of info regarding iron.

http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/f ... ironFS.htm

Digital Dreams....... if you have 10.5ppm of iron and removed it that easily consider yourself really lucky. There are different types of iron in water and different methods of removing it. BTW... how often do you have to change out those filters?

If iron is present in large amounts some type of chlorine treatment or similar option is usually the best bet, followed by a softener, etc. We inject with alum to remove the iron, then that is followed with caustic/bleach to raise the PH, disinfect and oxidize any remaining iron. Only problem we really have is that the iron levels fluctuate and that makes it harder to dial in. Later!

[twerner]

Thank You all for the help!!!!!

Much Appreciated,
Tina

[DigitalDreams]

Like I said I change the primary sediment and carbon every 2.5 months and the one after the softner every six months and if you want to
know how I got this figure I ran the first batch till they plugged (as in no water coming out of the filter) then did the next batch a little sooner till
I got a time line down to where the pressure gauge
on the house side registers no less than 80 percent
of the one on the pressure tank side.