Water Softener Questions

[Bruce Wrenn]

We are in the market for a water softener, so I want to know about your experiences. Because softener would be located in a remote building (not close to the house,) how would I handle backwash water? There is no sewer, only fresh water and electricity in the building. Any brands or models to steer clear of? Total novice, seeking experience of others.

[Doug Dawson]

We are in the market for a water softener, so I want to know about your experiences. Because softener would be located in a remote building (not close to the house,) how would I handle backwash water? There is no sewer, only fresh water and electricity in the building. Any brands or models to steer clear of? Total novice, seeking experience of others.

I have a Fleck, and it works well (23 years of service.) Parts are readily available, and they’re easy to work on.

As with some other things, it’s cheaper to own than to rent, BTW.

[Jerry Bruette]

All the backwash and rinse from mine has gone into my sump pit since 1988.
But I'm lucky and the water table is low enough that I've never needed a sump pump.

I would probably stay away from the consumer models at the BORG and get one from a dealer.

Did you get you're water tested yet? When we had our house built the plumber said we wouldn't need one based on the hardness tests. Two weeks after moving into the house we started to get reddish stains in all the plumbing fixtures. Lucky for us the softener takes care of the iron in our water and we didn't need any other treatment equipment.

If I get another one I'll look for one that refills the brine tank with treated water so that the brine tank doesn't sit with untreated iron laden water in it. My brine tank sorta reminds me of sitting in dirty bath water.

[Lisa Starr]

Ours is also a Fleck and we ordered it from a company that supports DIYers. It was easy to install and has worked great for the 7-8 years we've had it. Our discharge is piped to the slop sink in our basement which is connected to public sewers. If anyone wants the name of the company, I'll look it up and report back.

[George Bokros]

Comments deleted by poster

[John Lanciani]

Start here, everything you need if you intend to DIY; https://www.ohiopurewater.com

No affiliation, just a happy customer.

[Lee Schierer]

You will need a place to drain the restoration water and rinse for refreshing the softener.

Get a unit that either senses the hardness or refreshes after a certain number of gallons have been used. The ones that refresh every X number of days waste salt and water.

Get your water tested by an independent lab, before you buy any system. Personally I would avoid Culligan due to price and reliability.

There are several snake oil systems out there that only work to take your money. Magnets cannot soften water.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Renting isn't an option. I've leaning towards the Fleck 5600SXT. The You Tubes I've watched on water softeners has it in their top picks. Amazon (tax not included) less than $600. Figuring what to do with back wash water is my next problem. Due to two houses being on same softener, I'm thinking of doing two units in parallel, with an time based relay alternating the units. Our water system (well and storage tank [1500 gallon] with booster pump) can't exceed the flow capacity of this model

[Frank Pratt]

You will need a place to drain the restoration water and rinse for refreshing the softener.

Get a unit that either senses the hardness or refreshes after a certain number of gallons have been used. The ones that refresh every X number of days waste salt and water.

Get your water tested by an independent lab, before you buy any system. Personally I would avoid Culligan due to price and reliability.

There are several snake oil systems out there that only work to take your money. Magnets cannot soften water.

All of the above is true. The flush cycle uses quite a bit of water, so you need a sewer to handle it. Don't get me started on the snake oil softeners.

I replaced our softener system a few years ago & did an insane amount of research on them. There are some good forums dedicated to water softeners (who knew) that have lots of good info. The more salt/KG of resin, the longer between regen cycles. But there are diminishing returns because the higher levels of salt don't go as far in softening the water. So I got myself a system with an extra large resin tank & a controller that allows me to program how much salt is used per cycle. It's set at a fairly low level, but because there's lots of resin, the regen cycles are many days apart. I use about 5 bags per year with 2 people in the house that shower & bath a lot.

[Larry Frank]

First, you need an accurate water analysis. I would also get a local good dealer as they know your water issues.

My equipment is made by Aqua. I have a air induction filter which uses air to remove sulfur and iron. Then I have a water softener. This gives me very good quality water.

[Jim Becker]

The backwash probably isn't a huge amount of water. I know it isn't from my acid neutralizer and it's clean water...probably can just go on the ground or a simple dry well.

[George Bokros]

The backwash probably isn't a huge amount of water. I know it isn't from my acid neutralizer and it's clean water...probably can just go on the ground or a simple dry well.

Reply deleted by OP.

[John Lanciani]

It should NOT be drained on the ground. There is salt in tne water and it will poision the ground.

I've been draining my softener to daylight for 20 years, the weed patch at the end of the pipe is just as vigorous as ever. The amount of salt I discharge is trivial compared to the 1,000's of tons of road salt my state DOT dumps on the ground every winter.

[George Bokros]

I've been draining my softener to daylight for 20 years, the weed patch at the end of the pipe is just as vigorous as ever. The amount of salt I discharge is trivial compared to the 1,000's of tons of road salt my state DOT dumps on the ground every winter.

Reply deleted by OP.

[Myk Rian]

We have a Kinetico. Also had an iron filter installed. Because of that, I've considered bypassing the softener.
It works that well all by itself.

[George Yetka]

Avoid culligan. Im a mechanical contractor so i got a deal on their gold equipment. Ive replaced alot of parts in 5 years. Go with fleck. Backwash can go into indirect drain into septic or sewer but not into storm drains. Best solution for dischsarge is to dump in a drywell (dig a hole lay down landscape fabric and fill hole with stone wrap the fabric around it and run a piece of pvc out of it and backfill. It will allow the water to perculate into the ground.

I have the following in order. ground is high in iron and had a little bit of bacteria.
neutralizer
softener
coarse sediment filter
greensand filter
fine sediment filter
UV
RO for drinking water only

The water is completely tasteless after all that. Costs about 650 a year in sal/filters/uv bulb. Filtration causes pressure loss and ph drop. Run system at 70pounds but more like 40 after all that. PH starts 7.1 but gets down to 6.0 or a little below after RO. Public water is accross the street but our town will not allow it

[Derek Meyer]

I've been looking at water softener systems for a while, and I'm leaning towards a citric acid system. They use a citric acid cartridge (food grade) to neutralize the minerals in the water. I've read that the water will get rid of scale on your fixtures, is safe to drink/wash with, and is much easier for the treatment plants to handle. The main downside is cost - the citric acid carts are about $80 to $90 and last around 3 to 4 months.

[Curt Harms]

We have a Water Boss, we've had it since maybe 2000. We recently had to replace one part, a valve that was sticking. There's one powered part on the whole thing, a cam wheel with a magnet embedded in it. Pretty simple. We have public sewer available so no issues with the recharge water. I'm not really sure what's in the discharge water, I'm suspect there wouldn't be much salt (NaCl). My suspect high school chemistry would say calcium chloride and magnesium chloride. An article on how water softeners work from a chemical standpoint:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-do-water-softeners-wo/

[Jim Becker]

I forgot to mention this previously, but see what smaller, local businesses are in your area as an alternative to the "big names". I was fortunate enough to find one here for our acid neutralization system and we've been really happy with their installation and their service. It's a family run, small business. Their price for the "stuff" was noticeably lower than the "names" but high quality, too. A local firm will generally be in-tune with local water conditions, too, since they undoubtedly live with them.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I forgot to mention this previously, but see what smaller, local businesses are in your area as an alternative to the "big names". I was fortunate enough to find one here for our acid neutralization system and we've been really happy with their installation and their service. It's a family run, small business. Their price for the "stuff" was noticeably lower than the "names" but high quality, too. A local firm will generally be in-tune with local water conditions, too, since they undoubtedly live with them.


Fleck (Pentair) sells their heads to contractors who add the tanks, and resins. Put on a private label, and presto they now are a distributor.

[Stan Calow]

Bruce, what is the problem that you're trying to solve with a softener? Health, laundry, calcium buildup? Are you on a private well, or a public system?

[Jerry Bruette]

Fleck (Pentair) sells their heads to contractors who add the tanks, and resins. Put on a private label, and presto they now are a distributor.

That's correct and those contractors can customize the resin to fit the problem you're trying to treat.

The local brand I went with had resin that would handle a higher amount of iron than Culligan, even though Culligan had a better price.