In process of replacing my water softener I did some looking into home and pool use. Terms are shortened or simplified.
1. Concept.
A water softener is similar to a sand filter in water flow but has resin in it that has salt attached to it. When water with calcium passes through it the resin lets go of the salt and grabs the calcium, after a period of time or gallons flowed through it the system back washes and the resin that has calcium attached lets go of the calcium and grab onto the salt. Water is a solvent and grabs calcium and such as it washes over surfaces, this is why hard water does not clean well as it is already loaded up and soft water washes soap off easy.
Exact Effects.
A water softener can treat one grain (Grain/gallon or 17.1 ppm CH) of hardness per grain of rated capacity. For example, my water is 250 ppm or 14.6 gr/gal rounded up to 15 gr/gal, my 64,000 grain softener will able to treat 4266 gallons of water before a regen. My control unit is set for 300 gallon reserve capacity so it recharges at 3966. The price of the softened water is 8 ppm salt added per gr/gal, 8 x 15 = 120 ppm salt added to the water, with us being knowledgeable pool people we know this to be a non issue unless your drinking this water with a low sodium diet, in case you can use potassium salt.
Practical Use for Pools
Well my 24' x 52" pool is 12,400 gallons so it would take a long time of filling and doing on demand regens, waiting, and then repeat till full, and then having foaming issues when full due to 0 CH, this is not practical. Setting the softener on bypass and filling the pool to 250 CH and then doing all top ups to the water with soft water will maintain 250 CH forever, with only rains washing over surfaces picking up calcium and running into your pool as a source of CH (thanks Dirk). My softener is a Fleck 5600SXT control head with a 64,000 grain tank, cost me $640 off amazon and not much to install as i been doing mechanical room renovations. That cost compared to the labor of draining a pool or messing up your chemistry and ruining your pool along with the side effect of house faucets and equipment actually working really make this a no brainier.
Sizing.
I took the typical TFP approach and went with 'biggest you can get' or 'double size'. The bigger size was 96,000 grains and running in the $900 so it was 64,000 for me. If your into sizing, look into yearly evaporation, gallons per inch in your pool, and figured capacity in gallons, or just get a 64,000 grain.
RV Softeners for CH Reduction
I have an idea that one can purchase a rv softener and a gallon meter and hook it up to the pool and flow the softener to capacity and then manually regening the unit, if anybody does this please report back your results, seems too labor intensive but doable.
Final Thoughts
My last softener would reduce the CH from 250 to 220, my dishes were not clean, dishwasher was getting broke, my faucets were plugging up, shower heads getting ruined, cat bowls would need to be tossed out, and my daughters eczema was getting worse. This is the best purchase I have made in my life.
1. Concept.
A water softener is similar to a sand filter in water flow but has resin in it that has salt attached to it. When water with calcium passes through it the resin lets go of the salt and grabs the calcium, after a period of time or gallons flowed through it the system back washes and the resin that has calcium attached lets go of the calcium and grab onto the salt. Water is a solvent and grabs calcium and such as it washes over surfaces, this is why hard water does not clean well as it is already loaded up and soft water washes soap off easy.
Exact Effects.
A water softener can treat one grain (Grain/gallon or 17.1 ppm CH) of hardness per grain of rated capacity. For example, my water is 250 ppm or 14.6 gr/gal rounded up to 15 gr/gal, my 64,000 grain softener will able to treat 4266 gallons of water before a regen. My control unit is set for 300 gallon reserve capacity so it recharges at 3966. The price of the softened water is 8 ppm salt added per gr/gal, 8 x 15 = 120 ppm salt added to the water, with us being knowledgeable pool people we know this to be a non issue unless your drinking this water with a low sodium diet, in case you can use potassium salt.
Practical Use for Pools
Well my 24' x 52" pool is 12,400 gallons so it would take a long time of filling and doing on demand regens, waiting, and then repeat till full, and then having foaming issues when full due to 0 CH, this is not practical. Setting the softener on bypass and filling the pool to 250 CH and then doing all top ups to the water with soft water will maintain 250 CH forever, with only rains washing over surfaces picking up calcium and running into your pool as a source of CH (thanks Dirk). My softener is a Fleck 5600SXT control head with a 64,000 grain tank, cost me $640 off amazon and not much to install as i been doing mechanical room renovations. That cost compared to the labor of draining a pool or messing up your chemistry and ruining your pool along with the side effect of house faucets and equipment actually working really make this a no brainier.
Sizing.
I took the typical TFP approach and went with 'biggest you can get' or 'double size'. The bigger size was 96,000 grains and running in the $900 so it was 64,000 for me. If your into sizing, look into yearly evaporation, gallons per inch in your pool, and figured capacity in gallons, or just get a 64,000 grain.
RV Softeners for CH Reduction
I have an idea that one can purchase a rv softener and a gallon meter and hook it up to the pool and flow the softener to capacity and then manually regening the unit, if anybody does this please report back your results, seems too labor intensive but doable.
Final Thoughts
My last softener would reduce the CH from 250 to 220, my dishes were not clean, dishwasher was getting broke, my faucets were plugging up, shower heads getting ruined, cat bowls would need to be tossed out, and my daughters eczema was getting worse. This is the best purchase I have made in my life.
