Softeners and Water Pressure

**hobiecatter** · 09-27-2011, 12:06 PM

I have city water at about 10 grains of hardness and have been researching on local plumbers to install a water softener.

This one plumber builds his own units using a Fleck 2510 valve with 1.5 cu ft resin. He has put many in the neigborhood and I have no complaints so far.

The one thing I've come to question so far is sizing. He doesn't go into as much detail in sizing our unit as everyone on this forum does. He's put the same unit in about half of the houses on our block and reccomends the same for us. The only thing he asked was how many people and how many bathrooms.

One thing that I am wondering about now is that I also need to have a Pressure Reducing Valve installed first. We found out our pressure on the outside bibs are at 100psi. I have not noticed any issues or high pressure facuets in the house, but as I read more, there is posibility for a disaster at those levels. I don't really want to take any chances of flooding since we have new hardwood floors

Now, once I get the pressure reduced to a suitable level, lets say @60, won't that drastically change the SFR in our house? Will it make much of a difference to requestion the sizing of the softener, or should I just go with the one he reccommends?

I don't know what the neighbors' water pressure is, as they probably don't either, but I don't think any of them have installed a PRV.

**mialynette2003** · 09-27-2011, 01:10 PM

If he has installed many in the neighborhood with no complaints, than he must be doing something right. If it is a fair price and his customers are happy with his work, I'd use him. The water can only flow as fast has the faucet will allow. In other words, if you have a 2 gpm faucet than installing a pressure regulator will not reduce the flow at the faucet.

**rjh2o** · 09-27-2011, 05:48 PM

The 2510, 5600, 1500 valves with that configuration will supply 10-12 gpm flow rate. 100psi is the max pressure for most water softeners. It would be best to reduce pressure to 70 psi. Reducing the pressure simply reduces the pressure not the SFR because if you are getting 25gpm from the city supply you can only get 15gpm flow rate through a 3/4" line at 60psi or 100psi. If your home has 3/4" plumbing the SFR rate is 15gpm, 1" 20gpm. A better choice for a valve may be a Fleck 7000 (1") and 1.5 cu ft of resin. This will supply the 15gpm needed for most modern homes and families usage. If there is chlorine in the water you may want to consider a 1" (in-out) carbon tank before the softener and re-bed it yearly, or sooner depending on your usage. You can set the 7000 10x54 softener at 12 lbs salt for efficiency. All these settings depend on how many people in the home and no iron.
RJ

**hobiecatter** · 09-28-2011, 12:01 PM

The Fleck 7000 is 1.25" not 1" I am thinking I need to keep at a 1" though right?

**rjh2o** · 10-01-2011, 04:23 PM

Yes you need to keep it 1" plumbing through the valve. You can just plumb 1" in and out of the valve and this will help keep the flow rate up for the home. Now with that valve and 1.5 cu ft of resin you will get the 15gpm peak when needed. There will always be a pressure drop across the resin bed, generally 10-15 psi pressure drop. The higher the PEAK flow rate the higher the pressure loss. So at 70psi and 15gpm peak flow rate you may experience a pressure drop of 15psi. If the neighbors do not have PRV's they are asking for trouble with their water treatment systems.
Good luck and good water,
RJ

**rjh2o** · 10-01-2011, 05:15 PM

Yes you need to keep it 1" plumbing through the valve. You can just plumb 1" in and out of the valve and this will help keep the flow rate up for the home. Now with that valve and 1.5 cu ft of resin you will get the 15gpm peak when needed. There will always be a pressure drop across the resin bed, generally 10-15 psi pressure drop. The higher the PEAK flow rate the higher the pressure loss. So at 70psi and 15gpm peak flow rate you may experience a pressure drop of 15psi. If the neighbors do not have PRV's they are asking for trouble with their water treatment systems.
Good luck and good water,
RJ