Looking for latest / best Water softener solutions installed at the equipment pad

[tomas21]

Moved from HERE

I live in SoCal and it’s true what they say that “it never rains in Southern California.” So even though our water isn’t too hard, after adding water almost daily in the summer and then hardly getting any rain water in the winter to offset and runoff the calcium, the calcium levels eventually get too high and so I have to go through the tedious process of emptying the pool about 2/3 and refilling.

We are installing a water filtering and softening system soon and we got one with a high capacity in hopes that I could use the softened/filtered water most of the time going forward so as to not ever have to deal with high calcium levels again. But I just wanted to check in with the experts here and make sure there isn’t anything I need to be worried about with that. Obviously I’m starting with a full pool of “regular” water so not filling it up with filtered soft water (the system couldn’t handle that of course) but just want to use the softened filtered water for my daily (less now during winter) addition of water.

Thanks for any insights!

In a similar boat ... my CH from the City is 200-225PPM...

What solutions have others used at the equipment pad to install a softner for the autofill... based on plumbing... wouldn't be able to install it elsewhere?

 

[tomas21]

After 2+ years of having our new pool, I see that our CH just climbs with 200-225ppm coming from the city... + with evap and SoCal temps

Curious what are the latest / best solutions you all have come up with installed in tight areas around the pad to bring down and keep CH in check.

I have seen some Portable solutions with various flow meters to gauge usage ..

• What softener solutions at the pad?
• Flow meters?
• Ease and general maintenance and regen process?
• Any other considerations?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Your choice is either a whole house water softener (assuming you have a service loop to handle it) and running a line outside to the autofill OR using a large RV softener that you have to service/regenerate manually.

Show us your equipment pad, your autofill line and any details about your home if it’s possible to install a whole house system.

 

[tomas21]

@JoyfulNoise - Based on our current setup I will need to install at the pad area... whole house isn't an option given the only main line is part of our irrigation mainline.

Some pictures of the pad area..
- Copper pipe on the right side has a threaded tee ... pvc goes from that down to the anti-sphion valve to fill.... area is tight but can try to get creative.

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• tomas21
• Jun 25, 2022

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• tomas21
• Jun 25, 2022

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• tomas21
• Jun 25, 2022

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• tomas21
• Jun 25, 2022

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• tomas21
• Jun 25, 2022

 

[JoyfulNoise]

For an automated water softener you need a drain line into the sanitary waste sewer. When a softener regenerates, it creates a brine solution that is used to displace all of the retained calcium in the exchange resin. The brine solution gets flushed out by several rinse/baskwash steps. So there needs to be a place for all that water to go and it can't spill out on to the ground as the brine is nearly a fully concentrated NaCl solution. There are softeners designed for outdoor use but they are a bit more expensive. A drain line is a must and it cannot be hard plumbed - it has to be a gravity drain into the sewer with a P-trap.

You might look into locating the softener wherever the nearest sewer connection is and then run the water source to and from that location.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Here is a thread you may have seen on RV softeners. I do the manual regeneration at about 2500 gallons now. It's not the best solution but it works for me.

RV water softener for auto-fill line

Any do's/don'ts for plumbing rv water softener in water fill line? I want it easy to remove as I think they all require manual regeneration.

www.troublefreepool.com

THIS is the hose and gallon counter I use now. It's a bit more robust than the Orbit model.

 

[AUSpool]

If its possible diverting rainwater from the roof to the pool will help with a bit of dilution when it rains.

 

[tomas21]

Curious if anyone has entertained a product like this... small compact, and you just swap filter once exhausted...not sure its ability to remove calcium...

6-Layer RV Water Filter with Stand and 0.5 Micron Filtration, 3/4" GHT

 

[PoolStored]

not sure its ability to remove calcium

It does not...

 

[JoyfulNoise]

They do sell small, portable ion exchange resin filters that remove calcium. They have to be manually regenerated and can typically process a few hundred gallons of water at a time. Using the filter you show there as a pre-filter to an RV water softener would extend the useful life of the ion exchange resin as chlorine and heavier metals like iron tend to damage the ion exchange resin.