waters softener placement and other ?ss

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tinkerdiy

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Hello everyone, great site:
I have been going through the process of getting a water softener for my home and I am at the point where I want to say to heck with it and forget about installing one at all. I have been reading through the posts on this site and I might have a little more understanding on th questions going through my mind, but not a lot. I thought I had made the decision on which softener, Kenmore hybrid elite, which is supposed to have a filter for drinking. But, doing more research the stats say it uses 54 gallons during the generation process. I had thought this unit was efficient, but 54 gallons doesn't seem very efficient to me. I had a plumber come out for an estimate and he said he would put the unit at the well. I mentioned I thought it would go inside and he told me there is not a way to do that. Upon my research people do have them inside, as long there is a loop to hook them up. Which I do not have a loop, this is a mobile home. Are mobile homes able to have the loop hooked up? Of course my well is outside and over my water supply. I am not comfortable having that regeneration junky water going over my water supply. And I also wonder if this unit is okay to go outside, with the digital part? I live in north east Florida and we do get freezing temperatures here, two years ago we were in the upper 20's for 4 straight nights. And we also have extreme heat at times in the summer.
So, plumber #2 has recommended a Fleck, and to be put out behind the house on the outside faucet line and there is an outlet right there, which needs to be fixed, so there's more expense. Anyway, Fleck L5600fm, I have searched for and cannot find. The 5600 with different last letters I have found. It seems this just means 5600 with the fine mesh, but I wondered what type, I asked him the grains were and he said 36,000. But, the step down in his L5600tc no mesh and he said it was 24,000 grains. There is only a $100.00 differnce between the two, does this seem right at only $100. difference? Also, these are not the meter. Are these better to put outside?
I had thought about ordering the softener and installing it myself. As my name says, I tinker around, I have replumed my shower and my other tub faucet. But, I still question if there is more little things that one should know before setting one of these up. Thoughts?
Florida-Well
Parts per million
Hardness 269.8 (grains per gallon of 16)
alcium 82.8-- magnesium 15.3-- iron .62 maybe higher-- manganese0.00-- sodium 16.6-- chloride 16.5-- ph 7.5--total carbonates 5.94-- electrical conductivity .54
Plumber #2 said there is only a small amount of sulfer.
The Kenmore hybrid, sounds great because it has a filter built right in that advertises as a never change filter. This sounds too good to be true because it is close to the same price as their hi capacity softener when they are on sale.
Are they okay outside, if they are, do they need a little building built around them or can I just put a cover it when we get our freezes? Is a resin tank cover a good idea?
Any help thoughts would be great?
Thank you
 

ditttohead

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I doubt anyone on this site would recommend the Kenmore anything systems, just from experience and our knowledge of build components, quality, longevity, and serviceability... stick with the Fleck.

If you have done a shower valve with success, I doubt the softener would be any more difficult.

As to the efficiency, consider how many gallons of water a system treats compared to how much water it uses to clean itself. Most modern electronic systems can be programmed for extreme efficiency but at the expense of media longevity and performance.
 

Mialynette2003

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I have install 1000's of softener inside a moble home. Sounds to me they don't want to do the work. Most softeners can be installed outside. It would be better inside, but normally is more expensive.
 

tinkerdiy

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What size softener do you think I need? There are 2 people and approx. 1400 sf, with 2 bathrooms. We are not big water users, but I still want to get a system that doesn't overwork itself.
What is better, meter or timer? HOw noisy are the softeners when they regenerate?
Not sure what this means, .5h/s, 270 tds. This also on the paper when the water was tested.
 

Noyzee1

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What size softener do you think I need? There are 2 people and approx. 1400 sf, with 2 bathrooms. We are not big water users, but I still want to get a system that doesn't overwork itself.
What is better, meter or timer? HOw noisy are the softeners when they regenerate?
Not sure what this means, .5h/s, 270 tds. This also on the paper when the water was tested.

Howdy. Here's my admittedly limited take on this...

I think you'll be fine with a softener with 1 cubic foot of resin. As long as you and the other person are not extreme "water hogs" and consume the average rate of water per day, this should give you plenty of capacity, with room to spare.
Most modern systems are demand units, by the way, which means that they're sophisticated enough to "know" when to regenerate because they measure the water consumption you use instead of just arbitrarily regenerating on a timer. The down side of this is that they require an equally sophisticated microcontroller (circuit board) and more complex instrumentation (a water turbine and sensor) to measure this instead of a simple "dumb" timer mechanism. However, I think that most pros here would agree that these demand systems are worth the extra complexity and are reliable ( I like them, too).

As for the noise, I believe they're all somewhat noisy when they're regenerating, but what's too noisy for you? Since they're manipulating water through a valve and restricting its flow during the various cycles, they will generate some noise. Don't put a softener within earshot of your bedroom or anywhere you want it dead quiet. Most of them will regenerate in the middle of the night (or whenever you want), to alleviate this problem.

Mine is below level, near the garage, and I never even hear it running. At another house I have, the Kinetico was near the bedroom window outside and you could hear it hissing in the middle of the night IF the window was open...

A final note, I don't know what ".5h/s" means, but "270 tds" probably means 270 PPM of Total Dissolved Solids, which is the count of solid particles in your water. Not all of this may contribute to its hardness, though. If it did, though, divide it by 17.1 to get about 16 grains of hardness. Any softener made can handle this. Mine is about the same in SoAz.

Hope this helps.
 
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