Whole house water softener/filtration system

[shadowpumpkin]

We are looking into getting a whole house filter. I've heard good things about this one:

Homepage: PurHome X-5

It does make sense to also filter the shower- you breathe in the fumes from the water every time you are in there. Union county is changing how they treat the water next month, which is prompting us to make a change.

[Andy CWS]

The filter you have shown is a pretty good. Upflow filters last longer and will do just fine. The KDF (should be KDF-55, not -85) is very effective at reducing/converting chlorine and letting the carbon go to handle other aspects much longer.

The animation shows how it works. My only complaint with that is that there should be a gravel bed below the KDF. This is more cost efficient and more ffective. Ask them and insist that they put in a gravle bed enough to cover the distributor at the bottom.

KDF will last along time on city water (depending on chlorine concentration and total volume used), but is expensive to replace. That is what's driving the cost higher than a straight carbon filter.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

[Schizoid2k]

Originally Posted by flexysteve

A whole house water softener isn't a bad idea but no need to filter your shower and toilet water. An RO system on your sink like mentioned is good but not cheap.

We just Brita our drinking water and take the shower heads off every year and clean them with vinegar.

We have a filter on our fridge and the water still tasted funny. Last week, I bought a Brita and filter the filtered water that we drink. Seems to work pretty well.

[Gary Slusser]

Originally Posted by tiffanyj31

I was visited by a salesperson, who tested my (Charlotte-Mecklenburg) city water, showed me the dirty sample vs. the clean filtered sample from his portable system. He showed us all differences of filtered water vs. our dirty, hard, chlorine filled water (all sampled from our tap and his filtered system). He made a very good case for the system he was selling.

We recently moved into a new home and my husband and I have often commented to each other about the smell/taste of the water, as well as the water spots on the shower doors and pink rings in the toilet bowls that just never seem to stay clean.

Does water quality vary from area to area in the city?

Also, does anyone have a whole house softener system? Which one and what are the benefits (pros/cons)? The system we were pitched is really expensive.

He used a foculant that coagulates hardness minerals and makes the water visibly "dirty". IMO, it is an unethical 'test' if he did not inform you of what was happening and why. Most salespeople using that demo do not inform the person and they are usually selling overpriced equipment.

There are many unseen problems in living with hard water. A water softener is used to solve them. The problems are hardness caused water spots, hard water scale formation in water heaters that greatly increases fuel/power consumption and causes premature failure of the heater. The same for some other water using appliances. Everything washed with hard water has a film left on it and in/on fibers of fabrics/clothes and on all surfaces where hard water is allowed to dry/evaporate. That includes skin, hair, laundry, appliances dish and laundry washing machines, shower heads walls and doors, etc. etc.. Everything washed with softened water cleans easier and stays clean longer.

A pink ring at the water line in pet water bowls and toilet bowls are caused by an airborne bacteria.

Yes hardness content etc. can be very different from one area of a city to another because there are multiple water sources for every city. And at any given time, for multiple reasons, the water company can deliver somewhat different (harder) water to your neighborhood than they normally do.

As to a softener, you should decide if you want to be a DIYer and install one yourself or be dependent on a local dealer, but either way, I suggest a correctly sized softener using the Clack WS-1 control valve. Sizing depends on the number of family members, how many bathrooms and the type of fixtures in them. That dictates your peak demand gpm water usage. A softener's volume of resin dictates the constant SFR gpm (service flow rate gpm) of the softener. The SFR gpm has to be higher than the peak demand gpm or the softener will not remove all the hardness when the peak demand exceeds the SFR.

[ClevelandMike]

Soft water is awesome to live with!!!