Water Softener Question

[rodney_morgan]

I have always had a lot of iron in my well water. This resulted in toilet bowl and clean clothes always turning red. Oddly enough the red (from what I was told) is actually caused by a type of bacteria that likes the dissolved iron levels not caused by rust. Anyhow, my water otherwise is very soft just about no dissolved calcium or other minerals. Currently I rent a softener from Culligan for close to

25.00 a month. I would like to buy my own softener to do away with this monthly bill. Culligan told me the softener they installed is better at cleaning up iron then ordinary store bought softeners. Since they could be slightly biased I am wondering if any readers have a similar experience and if a normal 30,000 grain Kenmore softener will work just as well. My house is 1 bedroom with two occupants so 30,000 grain should be plenty.

Thanks

[Bill]

[Gary Slusser]

No softener will remove IRB (iron reducing bacteria), you have to kill the bacteria and then filter the water to remove the rust (ferric, red water iron). None of the big box store brands are very good quality. They only last 2-5 years before they break and they don't work well for 'high' iron.

You can't beat a softener using the Clack WS-1 control valve. Especially if you want to be able to repair it yourself when needed. It is the easiest and fastest to repair and has the lowest priced parts. The only tool you need to completely rebuild it is a pair of slip joint pliers and you can do that and have the water back on in roughly 30 minutes. That's if you can use a pair of pliers and read English while you look at the pictures showing you how to do it.

Gary Slusser Quality Water Associates

[Dottie]

We live in FL where there is a lot of rust in the ground water. There are a lot of wells around us that people use for their sprinkler systems and you can see the red stains on the driveway and side of the house. We have a water softener,(GE) that we've had for about three years now....before that we had another brand. Anyway we don't have a problem with rust stains in laundry or anything like that ... but we do see a pink ring around the water in the toilet bowl, no matter how often it is flushed. It's caused by the bacteria in the water. It's the only place we see it. My husband installed the water softener and I think if he can do it, most anybody can...when it's replacing one with another.