On 2 Feb 2004 08:36:18 -0800, (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!



Right AFTER regeneration is when the iron gets through on my Water
Boss softener. I think all the movement during the softeners
regeneration process breaks the particles free. Typically I just run
a faucet for about 10 seconds or so. It's most noticeable if a toilet
is the first fixture used right after regeneration. The water in the
bowl will be a little cloudy, flush the toilet again and everything is
fine. If not flushed again the iron settles out after a few hours and
leaves the orange film. A little bit of Iron Out in the bowl and it
disappears like magic. It's pretty minor and doesn't effect sinks,
tub or Jacuzzi.

I've kept the cloudiness at a minimum by programming my softeners back
flush time to it's maximum setting, using iron reducing salt and more
frequent regenerations (every 400 gallons).
About every 4 months I do use Iron Out in the softener. When I
replaced my well pump the softener took a big hit after disturbing
100' of 20 year old poly tubing. I was getting really nasty brown
water after regeneration which didn't clear up until 50+ gallons were
used. I contacted Water Boss and they sent me instructions on their
approved process of using Iron Out (not in the regular manual). The
crap that came out was mind boggling. I repeated the process 4 times
until things finally cleaned up. Now I just use it regularly to keep
it operating at its peak.
The Iron Out should be completly flushed away during regeneration
process but I don't believe any softener is going to be 100% fool
proof...to be on the safe side, every time I use the Iron Out, I do
wait a few hours and then manually start a second regeneration. Also
just as a precaution the 10 year old house rabbit goes on bottled
water for a few days.

I also recommend contacting the manufacturer of your water softener to
find out what process they recommend. Mine was quite a bit different
than the generic instructions on the Iron Out bottle.

George