Please help with water softener sizing

[ribs1]

Hello Everyone,
My current water softener is just about shot. I need to order a new one pretty soon.
Looking for advice on sizing. These are my test results from the county health department
All results are ppm
Chloride 26
Flouride .37
Hardness as CaCO3 370 (21.6 gpg)
Iron 1.8
Sodium 9
Sulfate 76
Manganese <.05
PH 7.6
Bacteria, nitrates, nitrites etc. are all 0

We have 2 adults and 2 kids. We have 3 bathrooms. No big water hogs like hot tub etc.
I have attempted to test my flow rate. Using the method described on budget water.com I came up with 13.55gpm.
Using the bucket method I filled a 5 gallon bucket in 34 seconds. This was done at a hose bib in my softener room just after the pressure tank. This method results in about 9gpm

I am comfortable with diy but have no plumbing experience. I am planning to order a softener online and assemble it myself. I plan to hire a local plumber or handyman to install the softener.

Also considering an iron filter like filox, catalos etc.
Any opinions on the best place to order?
Thanks

[Tom Sawyer]

48,000 grains should be about right. Go with a metered demand unit if your budget will allow. Either Clack or Fleck

[ditttohead]

48,000 grains should be about right. Go with a metered demand unit if your budget will allow. Either Clack or Fleck

Sorry Tom, I saw your reply after I replied. No offense meant on the 1.5 Cu. Ft. system. It will work perfectly, the 2 Cu. Ft. would just be slighly more efficient. But... the difference would be like bragging that my car get 45 MPG insted of 43 MPG.

[ribs1]

Thanks for the advice so far fellas.
Budget is not really a concern. I plan to live in this house forever so I would like to get the best possible system for long term success. Obviously I don't want to waste money, otherwise I would just call the local culligan or kinetico guy. I don't mind spending the money for the ideal size softener and a filox iron filter if necessary especially if it will save money long term on salt, maintenance etc.

Thanks

[ditttohead]

Pre-treatment, a Pyrolox/Filox system, 9x48 tank is slightly undersized but due to your available water supply it will be the largest I would recommend. You mentioned testing the water from a hose bib, this should not be done due to the small port size on most hose bibs. You can replace the hose bib with a ball valve/hose bib that is full port and get a much more accurate reading. If you can get 13 GPM then a better choice would be the 10x54 Pyrolox/filox system with a Fleck 7000SXT valve. Follow that with a 12x52 Softener with the Fleck 7000 SXT controler and you will have a great unit that should last many years.

As a side note, Pyrolox/Filox systems take a lot of water to start up. Do not be surprised if the water comes out "dirty" for a long time during the backwashing cycle. I would recommend putting the unit into backwash and let it run for a couple hours to clean the maganese Dioxide media. The Pyrolox/Filox filter media is dirtier than dirt.

I have some contacts that will sell direct, pm me if you want more info. I do not sell but I know a lot of good distributors of this equipment.

[Gary Slusser]

Ribs, I would not suggest an iron filter for only 1.8 ppm of clear water iron. A correctly sized softener will have no problem removing it and all that is needed is to clean the resin and valve internals once every 4-6 weeks with a 1/4 cup of Iron Out dissolved in 1-2 gallons of water and poured into the water in the salt tank and either catching it the night it is supposed to regenerate or do a manual regeneration the night you think it will regenerate.

You will save the price of the filter and any maintenance plus a lot of water, reducing pump wear and water use and keep drain water flow to a minimum. Plus floor space.

Using the info at the link in my signature, you would need to add only 8 gpg (2*4) to your already 22 gpg of hardness and program for the best salt dose to get a regeneration on average of every 7 days with a 24hr reserve of 8K. That should be a 2.5 cuft softener.

[ditttohead]

I would recommend a 2 Cubic foot softener and pre-filtration, Filox/Pyrolox would be ideal but the backwash rates of Pyrolox are difficult.

Some in here may recommend a 1.5 Cu. Ft. softener, this would be fine as well. The slightly larger 2.0 cu. ft. unit will increase efficiency slightly.

Your general water test looks decent, nothing really stands out.

Iron removal may be done with a birm system. I am not a big fan of birm, but I do have several customers that sell a lot of them successfully. As long as the oxygen levels in the water are adequate, the birm works fairly well. Pyrolox almost always works, and the media lasts a long time as long as it is backwashed regularly. It is just difficult to backwash due to its 25 GPM per Sq. Ft. requirements. Several of my customers backwas it at 15 GPM per Sq. Ft with success, but I recommend higher.


If you decide to remove the iron with the softener, then I would highly recommend the 2 Cu.ft. Again, the 1.5 will work, it is just a question of salt and water efficiency.

Iron removal with a softener can be done, but... it should be avoided. If you are dealing with an extremely tight budget, then a softener will work for iron removal. Otherwise, a proper iron removal system would be a better solution.

Hope this helps.