I'm not sure what the formulation of Iron Out on the store shelves today
is but when my wife brought some home this weekend I started looking. A
recent patent issued to Iron Out, Inc. (#6297208) describes an improved
product that utilizes fluoroboric acid. The MSDS for fluoroboric acid,
among other things says:

The product [fluoroboric acid] causes burns to eyes, skin and mucous
membrane.
Ingestion may cause gastro-intestinal irritation, nausea,
vomiting and/or diarrhoea.

The argument that is frequently advanced is that Iron Out and other like
materials are introduced with the brine in the softener and the brine
solution with the added chemicals are then passed over the ion exchange
resin during the regeneration process and then the resin is back washed
and rinsed with water. Supposedly all brine and chemicals are removed
this way. In theory it may work but in practice I submit that it may
not. I sometimes can taste salt just after a regeneration so the rinse
is not flawless. Of more concern is what happens when the seals in the
softener mechanism wear out or fail so that the brining, backwash and
rinse operations do not occur as intended. Then you could have large
unintended amounts of residual brine and chemicals mixed with your
"softened" water.

I don't like adding anything toxic to the water my family or I drink.
Even if it "may" be removed before I drink it. Machines do fail and the
risk of possibly ingesting something toxic is too great.

RB


Chris Szilagyi wrote:
Hello,
I am curious to know if adding Iron Out to a water softener is toxic
for drinking? Also what are the long-term effects on the softener
itself from doing this?

We do not drink the soft water directly, we run it through a reverse
osmosis filter, but our pets like to drink straight from the faucets.
We have noticed an orange tint that builds up over time on various
things that use the water (dishwasher, sinks, etc). From reading
these groups it would appear that using Iron Out may help. I have
read and been told it can be added to the softener, but I wanted to
see how safe this is first.

Thanks for all feedback on this issue!
--
Chris