[Smudger]

Thinking of installing a water softener before the ro as we have very hard water and the ro membranes are taking a pounding at present - does anyone use a softener system ? does it work ? any chance of pics

cheers
Darran

[AuRavelling79]

I'm going to appear thick but that doesn't stop me asking damn fool questions, but isn't an R/O just that - a big water softener?

[Smudger]

Not sure !

Hence the question, I see water softeners and they have their own resin, this is put in front of the ro membrane

At present ro membranes are only lasting 8 months - I have de scaled them to bring them back into play but the effect doesn't last that long

Darran

[Spruce]

I'm going to appear thick but that doesn't stop me asking damn fool questions, but isn't an R/O just that - a big water softener?

A water softener is basically a sodium water prewash that removes calcium and magnesium ions from the water and replaces them with sodium ions which are much kinder to r/o membranes. It dumps the metal ions into the drain so in effect works similar to an r/o.

If you are going to venture down this route you need a system that is automatic and commercial. These aren't cheap.  You also need to take professional advise.

I'm sure that Pryors Window Cleaning down in London invested heavily in this technology. I seem to remember Lee put up a video of his latest setup a while back.

[Simon Trapani]

We use an automatic one. Speak to June at Gaps Water.
 
I only have two vans though and a 1000 litre static ibc . I wasn't regenerating often enough before so bought a bigger vessel for the softener resin. You don't wanna be regenerating mid fill as I ideally needed to, not unless you go twin automatic like I think Lee Pryor has. Then you're talking big money I think. Also you want a nice big brine tank to hold a fair few bags of salt. Saves constantly filling the brine tank. Basically I need to backwash/regenerate the resin every ibc tank of pure.

And it does bring down your tds slightly no matter what anyone says. Mine comes out of RO at 2 or 3ppm after a regen but more like 10ppm if I haven't regenerated. Tap TDS is around 256 last time I checked some time back.

A lot of people think they're a waste of time or uneconomical because of buying the salt but I definitely think they're worth it.

Hope that helps.

[Smudger]

Thanks Simon thats very helpful, seems a bit more complicated than I hoped for !!

great picture - ill have a chat with Gaps

Darran

[Splash & dash]

I have ionics pro 5 systems and they come as standard with a water softener, yes they do work but need regular flushing with salt to re generate them , where I live they arnt really needed as we have soft water .