Water softener salt gurus?

[mscher]

Our water softener (insert name here)does a pretty good job of removing iron from our well water. It appears that we do not have lime or sulfer. <br /><br />I use Morton "iron out" salt, that is about $1 or so more than "system saver" or regular salt.<br /><br />Am I paying more for something special, other than the name "iron out"? Is it all just salt?<br /><br />What do you all use?<br /><br />Thanks

 

[ndemge]

Re: Water softener salt gurus?

I don't know about this "magic salt" you speak of, but I've got a lot of Iron from our well.<br /><br />2 Inline filters before it hits my water system seems to have taken care of it completly.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Water softener salt gurus?

Depending on how high the iron level is in your water, the use of a salt with 'iron out' is not a bad idea. The 'iron out' in no way aids in the removal of iron, it is an acid that aids in cleaning of iron oxide off off the resin beads.<br /><br />Water softeners (sodium ion exchange) effectively remove iron in it's dissolved state (clear water or ferrous iron) by exchanging the dissolved iron ions out of the water stream. Physical filters will have absolutely no effect on dissolved iron.<br /><br />Conversely, iron oxide (rust or ferric iron), being a particle, will not be removed in the ion exchange process and will go right through the lightly packed resin bed. You must use a physical barrier filter to remove iron oxide.<br /><br />Assuming that your water's iron content is 100% dissolved, a small amount of it lingers behind, in the resin bed, after the recharge process and will convert to iron oxide. If this is allowed to occur long enough, the resin bed can become fouled with a substance it was never intended to handle.<br /><br />The 'iron out' simply drives the iron oxide back into a solution which is then flushed out the drain along with the backwashed salt brine.<br /><br />Aren't you glad you asked?<br />

 

[ndemge]

Re: Water softener salt gurus?

Wow<br /><br />....How do you come to know so much about FEO2?

 

[kd6nem]

Re: Water softener salt gurus?

Impressive answer, Boomyall! Excellent info. Have you been in the H20 treatment business?<br /><br />The one (uncommon) exception I would point out is that one type of physical filter WILL remove dissolved iron. Reverse Osmosis. And this is NOT something anyone would normally want to try, in fact you'd want to avoid, since membrane units for these are costly and will foul quickly if exposed to excessive iron. All the more reason to keep your softener healthy if you have an RO unit. If you have too much iron for the softener to handle then you need to step up to a manganese greensand filter. But if a softener will do the job by all means use the softener.

 

[bbracken]

Re: Water softener salt gurus?

Boomyal speaks the truth. It's just removing a layer of ferric crud. If you don't really have an iron problem, just buy a bag of the high price spread every few month. Or, buy a jar of sodium hydrosulfite powder ("Iron Out"} and put some in the brinewell just before a manual recharge.

 

[TELMANMN]

Re: Water softener salt gurus?

If you have sometype of home store near you or even a pet shop which has fresh water aquariums than get a test kit. I know that pet shops have litmus type kits that all you have to do is put in the water and wait 30 secs. than compare to a diagram on the container. It seems to be cheaper at the home stores but either one is ok. This will tell you ph, water hardness etc. Once you know what you need than you can go from there.<br /> Once you find out what water chemistry you have than you can get the proper salt etc. <br /> Depending on your water conditions a pre-filter can help(minimum cost) and then reg. salt/potassium(depending if someone has an issue with salt) or a filter at the end of a seperate drinking faucet.