[Lee.]

Hi

I live in a hard water area, I would like to soften my water pre R.O. because It will protec the membrane, but how do I soften the water. I have seen 25ltr bags of water softener can i just simply put it into a cannister like I would use for the D.I. unit. is there any other cheaper way of doing it?

[marc al]

  Lee

   I live in a hard water area too (tap water in excess of 350ppm minimum), my RO has been running for over a year now and I haven't even had to change the pre-filters yet, the only thing I change is DI resin approx every 5 - 6 weeks. If you are regular with your back flushing you should not need to soften the water first, I think that would cost you more than DI resin and new pre filters once a year.

   Marc

[steve k]

once you have water softening resin in place you do not need to replace it.
It goes before ALL other filters in the same type of cylinder as DI resin...it becomes the first filter.
Its job is to remove calcium and magnesium particles from hard water.
The water softening resin is flushed clean of the magnesium and calcium about every 400 litres of water made.
This is done by flushing a salt water solution through the resin container for about 15 minutes with the solution going to waste.
It is designed to prolong the life of a RO membrane in a hard water area.

I have one on my system and I haven`t changed water softener resin or DI resin since May, 2005.
My RO produces water at 004TDS and after DI it is 000TDS.