lipinskifb
LLaker
Long time lurker, first time poster.. (Warning - this is going to be a long post....)
I'm looking from some recommendations and advice from the many experts here on an overall water treatment system.
We recently moved into a house on a well, and since moving in, my wife has had problems with her hair (dyed blond) turning orangish, and her hair breaking when she combs it (says it's tough to comb through). I know nothing about hair, but I do know she did not have problems in our former house on a municipal supply.
Currently in the house is a Waterboss 700. When she first started with the problems, I turned up the setting on it to use more salt (powerClean setting). As a last ditch effort (to be cheap), I installed a Whirlpool whole house filter w/ backwash (GAC, I believe) after the softener. That helped a little, but still not enough.
We are in the middle of a partial remodel and have the ability and desire to replace all the treatment equipment.
I had the raw water tested through watertestamerica.com. Here are the results (I omitted anything that was nd):
House situation:
- 4 people (2 adults, 2 kids)
- 1 full bath (shower, no tub), and we are currently adding a second, half-bath.
Some of my own observations:
- Water is clear when it comes out of the raw tap.
- Water turns cloudy after sitting for 8hrs+
- There is a lot of visible sediment when first turning on the tap
- Hot water stinks (rotten egg, but not real bad)
We did have kinetico out and his results were much worse than my test. He claimed my TDS was around 510, My Iron was 7-8 (He did not state if that was ppm or what, exactly), and he said very hard water. They recommended their top-of-the-line softener to the tune of $4000 (including a reverse osmosis).
The last important piece of information is that we are planning on tearing down our house in 2-3 years and building new - which would include a new well becuase the current one seems ot be a old 2" well with a outside pit where the pump and tank live, and is just a mess. I have no clue how deep, etc.
Based on my test results and observations, I was planning on the following (in order from well to house):
- Lakos Twist2Clean sediment filter/spin-down
- Whole house 25 micron filter (4.5x10)
- Fleck 7000SXT-based softener with SST-60
- Whole house 1 micron filter (4.5x10)
- Plus a reverse osmosis for sink & ref.
- Lastly, replace HWH with a new yet cheap 40gal Elec since we will only use for 2-3 yrs.
At a high-level, does this sound sufficient? I was thinking about an iron filter before the softener, but with 3.21ppm Iron, it seems I do not necessarily need an iron filter.
Secondly, what size softener?
I know that is based on flow rates, and I'm a bit confused there. The plumbing in this house is a hot DIY mess from the former owner. There is some 3/4 PEX mixed with 1/2 copper, and even 3/8 copper. I have been replacing everything that I can with 3/4 PEX on the main run(s) and 1/2 PEX to each fixture. I can't replace everything though...
I can do whatever necessary to determine whatever flow rates would help dictate the size. But, do note again, we will be tearing down in a few years and that will be a whole different plumbing system. I would prefer to try to buy this softener and use it in the future house (I know that's quite a guess without knowing).
My initial thought is to go with a 64k softener, standard tank (non-vortex), using SST-60 with a 1" Stainless bypass.
(Honestly, I was hoping to find something that stood out in the results that would be affecting the Mrs' hair so badly. I know the Waterboss is currently not ideal, but it should be softening to some extent and removing iron. I'm not too sure if a new softener alone will solve her problem, and she will be unhappy that we didn't go with Kinetico that promised to make the water better than city water. - I know, I know...)
I'm looking from some recommendations and advice from the many experts here on an overall water treatment system.
We recently moved into a house on a well, and since moving in, my wife has had problems with her hair (dyed blond) turning orangish, and her hair breaking when she combs it (says it's tough to comb through). I know nothing about hair, but I do know she did not have problems in our former house on a municipal supply.
Currently in the house is a Waterboss 700. When she first started with the problems, I turned up the setting on it to use more salt (powerClean setting). As a last ditch effort (to be cheap), I installed a Whirlpool whole house filter w/ backwash (GAC, I believe) after the softener. That helped a little, but still not enough.
We are in the middle of a partial remodel and have the ability and desire to replace all the treatment equipment.
I had the raw water tested through watertestamerica.com. Here are the results (I omitted anything that was nd):
Color | > 10 mg/L |
Conductivity | 330 umho's |
Hardness (CaCO3) | 250 mg/L |
Iron | 3.21 mg/L |
Manganese | .02 mg/L |
pH | 6.94 |
Sodium | 3.00 mg/L |
TDS | 220 |
Turbidity | 5 ntu |
House situation:
- 4 people (2 adults, 2 kids)
- 1 full bath (shower, no tub), and we are currently adding a second, half-bath.
Some of my own observations:
- Water is clear when it comes out of the raw tap.
- Water turns cloudy after sitting for 8hrs+
- There is a lot of visible sediment when first turning on the tap
- Hot water stinks (rotten egg, but not real bad)
We did have kinetico out and his results were much worse than my test. He claimed my TDS was around 510, My Iron was 7-8 (He did not state if that was ppm or what, exactly), and he said very hard water. They recommended their top-of-the-line softener to the tune of $4000 (including a reverse osmosis).
The last important piece of information is that we are planning on tearing down our house in 2-3 years and building new - which would include a new well becuase the current one seems ot be a old 2" well with a outside pit where the pump and tank live, and is just a mess. I have no clue how deep, etc.
Based on my test results and observations, I was planning on the following (in order from well to house):
- Lakos Twist2Clean sediment filter/spin-down
- Whole house 25 micron filter (4.5x10)
- Fleck 7000SXT-based softener with SST-60
- Whole house 1 micron filter (4.5x10)
- Plus a reverse osmosis for sink & ref.
- Lastly, replace HWH with a new yet cheap 40gal Elec since we will only use for 2-3 yrs.
At a high-level, does this sound sufficient? I was thinking about an iron filter before the softener, but with 3.21ppm Iron, it seems I do not necessarily need an iron filter.
Secondly, what size softener?
I know that is based on flow rates, and I'm a bit confused there. The plumbing in this house is a hot DIY mess from the former owner. There is some 3/4 PEX mixed with 1/2 copper, and even 3/8 copper. I have been replacing everything that I can with 3/4 PEX on the main run(s) and 1/2 PEX to each fixture. I can't replace everything though...
I can do whatever necessary to determine whatever flow rates would help dictate the size. But, do note again, we will be tearing down in a few years and that will be a whole different plumbing system. I would prefer to try to buy this softener and use it in the future house (I know that's quite a guess without knowing).
My initial thought is to go with a 64k softener, standard tank (non-vortex), using SST-60 with a 1" Stainless bypass.
(Honestly, I was hoping to find something that stood out in the results that would be affecting the Mrs' hair so badly. I know the Waterboss is currently not ideal, but it should be softening to some extent and removing iron. I'm not too sure if a new softener alone will solve her problem, and she will be unhappy that we didn't go with Kinetico that promised to make the water better than city water. - I know, I know...)
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