Help: Water Pressure System and Water Softener for Home

[soulweaver]

I am looking for a water softener and a water pressure system for my parents' independent house. So far the house has been working without either of these. The house is on the first floor. The overhead water tank is on the third-floor. The home area is about 4000sft. There are 4 bathrooms, one kitchen, one wash area. If there are any specific details required, please do ask, I will do my best to provide them.

I am looking for a water softening system (priority) and a water pressure system (not a priority) - the current water pressure is perfectly adequte. If there is something that can be localised only for specific bathrooms (only one or two are in use, the others are for rare occasions when there are guests), at a lower cost, I would not mind that either. But the water softener should be for the entire house. The water tank capacity is about 3500 litres.

What brands/models should I go for? And what would be the damages and possible issues?

I have never done this before, so any advice will be appreciated!

 

[blr_p]

If there is something that can be localised only for specific bathrooms (only one or two are in use, the others are for rare occasions when there are guests), at a lower cost, I would not mind that either.

@6pack picked up a booster pump some time ago. If you search older posts you can get more details.

Small enough to be used on a per bathroom basis. So get another. Comes on when needed and should be good enough

But the water softener should be for the entire house. The water tank capacity is about 3500 litres.

What brands/models should I go for? And what would be the damages and possible issues?

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To get an idea and If you can get service in your area.

Where are you based?

Have you measured your water hardness? It's important to know that figure first and what the range will be before spending on a house softener system so that it can cover the higher readings if required.

eg. With cauvery water in bangalore it's soft during to monsoons (60 -80)ppm total hardness and gets harder in the dry season where it's (150 - 175) ppm. Not hard but moderately hard. Above 200ppm is hard and you should see scale forming everywhere above that figure.

These are not tds measured as tds has nothing to do with hardness but comes from a water hardness kit you can get from Amazon or directly from the seller

 

[soulweaver]

Have you measured your water hardness? It's important to know that figure first and what the range will be before spending on a house softener system so that it can cover the higher readings if required.

This is good information. I didn't think of it! Exactly why I asked. Will get the kit from Amazon and get this done.

The house is in Hyderabad.

 

[blr_p]

Will get the kit from Amazon and get this done.

https://www.amazon.in/Total-Hardness-Test-50-1000-Tests/dp/B016QERCFO/

There used to be a 250 test kit version but it has since disappeared on Amazon

That brand is well known and this particular kits working range is wide enough

There's others not that established and charging half as much. How reliable ? No idea

No harm getting additional readings and see for yourself.

The house is in Hyderabad.

Water is hard there but does it get still harder in the dry season. If the water is river sourced then that's a possibility

 

[soulweaver]

Will look into all these things. Thank you so much for all the patience and help.

 

[belictony]

Water softener operates based out of resins. Some resins are made to treat hardness upto 1000ppm-2000ppm. Beyond that only an RO system can help.

Assuming hardness is less than 500ppm, you can go with a water softener with cation resins with 10%DTB to have longer life for the resin. Typical lifenof resin is 10-15 years if maintained well.

Maintenance is regeneration of the resins (which gets deposited with calcium and other minerals) from the water using concentrated salt water(which removes the calcium and other mineral deposits) followed by a rinse cycle.

These maintenance requirements depends on the quantity of resin, hardness and the amount of water used. Choosing resin capacity and the FRP vessel size plays a big factor in how frequently you need to regenerate.

There are manaul regeneration models and automatic ones available. Automatic is a little better overall as it regenerates as soon as the defined water quantity is consumed (measured using flow meter). Keeping adequate salt in the brine mixing drum is still required for automatic softener.

I am using one for the last 1.5 years.

 

[soulweaver]

Thank you for the detailed explanation! Which one are you using? Any recommendations?

 

[kage]

@belictony can you also give a breakup of the costs? Inital and running.

Thanks!

 

[belictony]

Thank you for the detailed explanation! Which one are you using? Any recommendations?

I am using one from one of the local suppliers.

@belictony can you also give a breakup of the costs? Inital and running.

Thanks!

I spent 22500 on the vessel with resins and 2500 on plumbing. Total 25k.

Vessel size is 13*54 inches which can hold 75Litres of Resin and can handle 4500 litres of water before requiring a regeneration.

Some implementation requires a pressure pump to be installed along with a secondary tank to store the treated water due to loss of pressure in the pipes or showers inside the home and also needed for the regeneration and rinse.

I didn't install both as the submersible pump motor provided enough pressure to the 2nd floor where I installed, for the regen and rinse cycle. I went with a two way bypass valve which ensured that I can operate the softener in the below two ways:

1. Water motor --> Softener --> overhead tank --> home
2. Water motor --> Overhead tank --> Softener --> home.

This ensured that i didn't need any additional tank for storing treated water but a bit additional cost on the plumbing for 2 way valve and pipes.

Running cost is very cheap. I do regen every 15 days with 8-10kgs of salt. Salt without iodine is important and Indian govt doesnt allow non iodized salt, so procured it from some manufacturing plant which gets WTP salt(water treatment plant) which doesnt have iodine at Rs.6/kg. Monthly cost is 2 times regen*10kg salt*Rs.6 per kg = Rs.120. Very cheap to maintain but initial investment is high.
I would suggest you to take a water testing report from a nearby lab which usually costs Rs.750 to identify exact composition of the wayer.

There are water testing kits available in amazon for hardness but not reliable.
Ex. Aquasol indicated less than 25ppm(soft) hardness whereas Bionix indicated 150ppm which is moderately hard.

 

[soulweaver]

Thank you for all the information. If I manage to get things in order, I will keep you guys posted here.

 

[belictony]

Your proof for the system working is water taps in bathroom or kitchen. Clean them well with a limescale remover product and after 1 month of installation check whether limescale is present. If its present, there is something else in tbe water other than calcium and manganese which the softener cannot filter. Hence the water testing report is crucial.

 

[blr_p]

I would suggest you to take a water testing report from a nearby lab which usually costs Rs.750 to identify exact composition of the wayer.

A good idea as it will show other minerals in the water. Manganese & Iron isn't good for the resin and would need to be filtered out at an earlier stage.

There are water testing kits available in amazon for hardness but not reliable.
Ex. Aquasol indicated less than 25ppm(soft) hardness whereas Bionix indicated 150ppm which is moderately hard.

Aquasol has been reliable but you have to follow the instructions to the letter. The titration method they use is much more granular and accurate than these wide range hardness strips. Trouble is you don't get the easy to read ones on Amazon. They come with dishwashers and the strip is from some European company. The ones sold on Amazon are from China and for the most part useless as it's difficult to gauge the colour visually

In theory there should not be more than a 10% difference.

The second solution bottle has am issue where when inverted it pushes out more liquid at the start which affects reading. So invert first let the excess drain and then add to the tube.

Helps to do three tests to catch user error

 

[k_m_Arya]

Bepure A28 Automatic Whole House Water Softener | Ideal for converting hard water to Soft

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@belictony Any idea if above product will be good?

 

[belictony]

Bepure A28 Automatic Whole House Water Softener | Ideal for converting hard water to Soft

Buy Bepure water softener for home to get soft water and keep your skin and hair healthy. Save electricity costs by preventing scaling in home appliances.

www.bepure.store

@belictony Any idea if above product will be good?

The resin capacity is just 28 litres. Won't be adequate for a family of 4( will trigger multiple regen cycle within the same week).

A good idea as it will show other minerals in the water. Manganese & Iron isn't good for the resin and would need to be filtered out at an earlier stage.

Aquasol has been reliable but you have to follow the instructions to the letter. The titration method they use is much more granular and accurate than these wide range hardness strips. Trouble is you don't get the easy to read ones on Amazon. They come with dishwashers and the strip is from some European company. The ones sold on Amazon are from China and for the most part useless as it's difficult to gauge the colour visually

In theory there should not be more than a 10% difference.

The second solution bottle has am issue where when inverted it pushes out more liquid at the start which affects reading. So invert first let the excess drain and then add to the tube.

Helps to do three tests to catch user error

I noted the same issue in Bionix. If you shake it there will be one or two drops that will spill on inverting the bottle without squeezing. Considering that factor, bionic report 150ppm and aquasol reported less than 25ppm. We followed the exact measurements of 10ml water, 1 spoon of TH2, 10 drops of TH5 and 1 drop off TH3 to turn light blue. We followed another approach to test how much is the exact ppm and we noted 6ppm. Still there are limescale deposits on tap and hair loss during bath. Trying to get a water test to identify if there are any other substance in the water.

 

[blr_p]

I noted the same issue in Bionix. If you shake it there will be one or two drops that will spill on inverting the bottle without squeezing.

So both results are wrong

Considering that factor, bionic report 150ppm and aquasol reported less than 25ppm. We followed the exact measurements of 10ml water, 1 spoon of TH2, 10 drops of TH5 and 1 drop off TH3 to turn light blue.

which Aquasol are you using. What is the number code?

We followed another approach to test how much is the exact ppm and we noted 6ppm. Still there are limescale deposits on tap and hair loss during bath.

Then the result is incorrect. I wonder why

Check if the kit has expired. Even in that case I doubt there would be such an error