040711 2230 - rdkapp posted:

Water softeners are great! We love ours. We have our entire house on
softened water. They do, however, increase salt intake. It is fairly
minimal, but it may not be good for those on a low sodium diet. Check with
your doctor.


I lived in a subdivision of 52 homes that were fed with a water system that
had two water pumps and wells, both were extremely hard water. When we move
into the house, I found that the water system in the house had a pressure
that was so low that when taking a shower, if someone flushed the toilet,
you were all done taking a shower until the toilet tank filled up. I had
bought a couple of RainBird water sprinklers for watering the lawn and there
wasn't enough water pressure to work those. I checked with a neighbor and
he clued me in. The 3" mains in the street get this orangy pulpy sediment,
and it plugs up the 3/4" taps that go to the houses, and also gets into the
plumbing in the houses. I didn't know this when I bought the house. He
told me that some of the neighbors had their lawns dug up and new lines put
in, costing a few thousand bux. He also told me that he had fixed his own
situation by turning off the main valve in his basement and taking the
plumbing apart and then opening the valve -- which was a gate valve -- and
then pushing a metal electricians fish tape down the length of the line to
the street and cleaning out the line in that way. He said he would help me
do the same. When I opened up the main valve in my basement to shove the
fish tape into it, the water only bubbled up about an inch above the top of
the valve. As we shoved the tape through the pipe, we hit about three
clumps that we had to force the tape through, and with each clump the water
shot up about a foot higher. The last clump was at the street connection
when the water shot up and hit the ceiling joists. We quickly removed the
tape from the pipe and shut off the gate valve. The excess water ran down
into the sump just a little ways away. This was certainly a lot cheaper
than digging up the yard for a new line, and it only took about an hour. I
thanked him for the help, and put the plumbing back together. I had to run
the water in the sink for a few hours after that to get the red pulpy crap
out of the pipes that had settled there, but the water pressure was great.
I'm relating all this as a prelude to what I did following this episode.

I decided to redo the plumbing, installing new copper lines in the house,
which had galvanized pipe. In doing so, I installed, after the main gate
valve, a Cuno water filter with a 20 micron filter cartridge. After that I
had the Culligan water softener. I ran unfiltered water to the two outside
water faucets for watering the lawn. I ran filtered water pipes to the
toilet, and a drinking water tap at the kitchen sink, which was a separate
small faucet beside the main Delta faucet. All the other water in the house
was softened water. It really made a world of difference in washing
clothes, washing hair in the shower, sudsing for bath or shower. And for
drinking water in the kitchen there was no salt added. It tasted like hard
water, but it wasn't distasteful, and it made good coffee water, depending
on individual taste. We got used to it. The Culligan man came once a month
to take out the old and bring in the new. It worked out real well.

An offshoot from that...

I made up a system of brass valves and had a 5000 PSI portable tank with
some flexible fittings and a garden hose. The subdivision suffered greatly
from this water pressure problem, and for a few bux I would relieve their
anxieties by blowing, under extreme pressure, their service water lines back
into the large main, and, therefore, restoring their water pressures in
their homes. I connected the garden hose to the system of valves and would
give the main a jolt with the pressure tank, and then quickly switch the
valves and allow the water to come back and out the garden hose into their
yard, therefore washing out the red pulpy crap from their main water line
under their yard. Sometimes it only took a half hour to clear the water.
One took several hours. The homeowner held the hose and watered his lawn in
the process. When the water became clear, he would shut off the valve.
They were all thankful that this process was available for them and that
they didn't have to spend BigBux and have their lawns tore up. It worked
well all 'round.