On 15 Nov 2004 18:02:21 -0800, (Aidan) wrote:

3) Softener. You'd need a duplex model, with two resin vessels, to
ensure a softened supply at all times. A duplex softener would
regenerate as required by a meter, so would minimize the salt
consumption; costs more, though. The resin takes a 1 to 1.5 hours to
regenerate.

It depends on the size of the resin vessels. Mine takes about 20 mins
to regenerate a vessel but will comfortably supply softened water
continuously. Salt consumption with a lot of water use is about 25kg
every 3-4 weeks.

Softened water at 0ppm can pinhole copper hot water pipes
in 2 or 3 years. A blending by-pass valve to give 40ppm is advisable,
but you'd need a serious test-kit.

You can get these from Hach. Cost is about £30 but will do several
hundred tests.

Some softener valves have a small amount of bypass built into the
valve - I believe the newest Autotrol ones do. Mine (Kinetico)
doesn't, so a small bypass was introduced consisting of a screw turn
service valve opened a fraction. It does the job and the ppm value is
consistent over a range of flows through the whole softening set up.




--

..andy

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