Water Softner Setup

[pete_c]

I've never needed a water softner until I moved into current home. The iron content was so high in this home that the water looked red from the tap and was turning the toilet bowels / clothes red. I had a local water softner company put in both a softner and a water purification system. (I'm cluesless)

An Autotrol Performa Prosoft with 960 serial control was installed.

In the last 6 plus years I've replenished it with 7 bags (40lbs each) of salt every 2-3 months. Not to bad (I though) but kind of a pain to carry the 7 bags of salt from the driveway to the basement.

Speaking to some of the neighbors they only utilize 1 40lb bag or less a month.Ha

So I decided to tweak mine but have no idea as the settings are somewhat cryptic.

Wondering if anyone out there has "tweaked" their softner. I was used to hard water before and still have a hard time dealing with the softer water.

It would be nice to tweak it in such a way to continue removing the iron and to be on the harder than the softer side.

The adjustments mention:

Level 1 parameters
Time of day - easy
Time of regeneration - easy
Hardness of water - value depends on a level II parameter
Salt amount - value depends on a level II parameter
Capacity of unit - value depends on a level ii parameter

Level 2 parameters
Refill controller
Brine draw value
backwash time
slow rinse time
unites of measure - easy
calendar overide - I put in a value of 7 to move the nightly backwash to that but its still going on.
reserve type
fixed reserve capacity
salt capacity change lockout

Finally factory defaults - wondering if I should start all over?

 

[Ira]

There's no way to know what your settings should be without knowing the hardness of the water (usually in grains/gallon, aka "gpg") and the iron content (usually given in ppm).

 

[pete_c]

Thanks Ira.

I know and I am guessing right now. The iron content was high enough to turn everything red. The hardness was unknown. I just want to have it utilize less salt as its a pain to carry 7 40lb bags down into the basement.

 

[Ira]

If you really don't care about the hardness, I'm curious as to why the dealer sold you a softener. What else did he sell you, i.e., what is the water purification system (maybe a reverse osmosis system for drinking water?)?

A softener can only remove about 5ppm iron. Above that and it doesn't do very well and will foul quickly. There are better ways of removing iron if you are okay with the hardness of your water. Do you know what type of iron is in the water?

Disclaimer: I'm not a water treatment specialist or a softener expert/dealer, but I do have a softener used to remove about 20gpg hardness and 2ppm soluble iron.

 

[pete_c]

For many years lived in a home (30 years) where water was hard (lime) but not difficult to live with. It was fine.

In the newer home we didn't think we needed a water softner until we noticed all of the neighbors had one. In addition we had red stains / clothes. The solution was to get a water softner (to remove some of the iron).

We called a local service and had them install a water softner and a reverse osmosis setup.

Some of the neighbors also have iron extractors.

The town has been revamping its water system (maybe removing more iron?) and is doubling our water rates. I can live with the hardness if the iron content is low (not red).

Did a quick google search and found our town iron water level in 2009 was that iron content usually ranges from 0.7 to 4.0 mg/1. Found some more docs.

WELL NO. 3, LABORATORY NO. B42552

mg/l me/l mg/l tne/l

Iron Fe 1.2 Silica SiO2 15
Manganese Mn 0.05 Fluoride F 0.2 0.01
Ammonium NH4 0.06 0.00 Boron B 0.3
Sodium Na 22 0.96 Cyanide CN 0.00
Potassium K 5.0 0.13 Nitrate NO3 0.0 0.00
Calcium Ca 220 10.98 Chloride CI 7.5 0.21
Magnesium Mg 100 8.23 Sulfate SO4 540 11.23
Alkalinity(asCaCO3)465 9.30
Arsenic As 0.00 Hardness(asCaCO3) 1000 20.00
Barium Ba 0.0
Cadmium Cd 0.00 Total dissolved
Chromium Cr 0.00 minerals 1280
Copper Cu 0.06
Lead Pb 0.00
Mercury Hg 0.0000
Nickel Ni 0.0
Selenium Se 0.00
Silver Ag 0.00
Zinc Zn 0.5 pH (as rec'd) 7.5