Easy water softening

[Bryce C]

Hey y'all. I'm thinking about incorporating a water softener in my setup. There is a lot of hard water in my area. I want to remove variables and improve my efficiency and results on the job.

What is the lowest/easiest maintenance water softener that has a small footprint you have found? Does it restrict the flow rate of fresh water coming directly from a home?

 

[Dwain Ray]

I still use the old prochem softeners.(1 cubic foot) I hear some guys use a little one that they get from Costco. But the amount of time between recharge is (or at least if properly done) a lot shorter ( i also have a flow meter and "kinda hardness meter" installed) you can find them pretty cheap they recharge with a dema valve( like a hydroforce). If you get a used one i recommend replacing the resin. It's supposed to be done every 7 or so years

 

[KevinD]

I just had a water softener (Flint and Walling) at my shop and filled my onboard 210 gallon water tanks. Fed the house and shop and had it set to regenerate every 1000 gallons. It has been trouble free for 30+ years except for one timer and installed at 2 different locations.

 

[Dwain Ray]

Not to change the subject but did you get your heat exchanger installed? And did you figure out the pump cavitation problem?

Hey y'all. I'm thinking about incorporating a water softener in my setup. There is a lot of hard water in my area. I want to remove variables and improve my efficiency and results on the job.

What is the lowest/easiest maintenance water softener that has a small footprint you have found? Does it restrict the flow rate of fresh water coming directly from a home?

 

[Bryce C]

Not to change the subject but did you get your heat exchanger installed? And did you figure out the pump cavitation problem?

I just finished installing it all today! I was going to post some updates about it tomorrow. I went and swapped out all my high pressure lines with new ones at our local supplier today, and had some new lines made to plumb in the heat exchanger. It all seems to be working well, no leaks in the lines or fittings, and the cavitation is fixed too. I have 3 jobs tomorrow. I hope it all works well and I finally have proper heat.

The pressure pump is leaking a little bit. It is coming from the pump itself somewhere. It is an old pump, I don't know how old it is but it may of been original with the machine from 2013. That General Pump is now discontinued. I am considering spending the money and just getting a new comparable model, then rebuilding the old one and putting it on the shelf. The floor around the pump is a little crunchy. There were probably long term slow leaks from before I got the machine. I haven't noticed any since I have owned it until recently. It is only showing through underneath the van slightly. I need to nip it in the bud while it is still solid enough to keep trucking without major work...

 

[Bryce C]

I forgot to take pics before I reinstalled the seats. I'll take some soon and share them here :]

 

[Bryce C]

Thanks for sharing about your soft water systems guys. I'll do some research and planning and add that soon. I think it will help a lot.

 

[Dwain Ray]

Thanks for sharing about your soft water systems guys. I'll do some research and planning and add that soon. I think it will help a lot.

I was talking to my supplier. He said if you have culligan or similar water conditioning company in your area you might look into a service where they furnish you with a softener and swap out the tanks on a scheduled maintenance plan. His son does that foe deionized water for window cleaning. For him it was cheaper than owning and servicing himself. Might not be the same for softeners though, you can't regenerate deionizers .the resins are replaced each time instead. But it's worth a phone call to check

 

[Bryce C]

I was talking to my supplier. He said if you have culligan or similar water conditioning company in your area you might look into a service where they furnish you with a softener and swap out the tanks on a scheduled maintenance plan. His son does that foe deionized water for window cleaning. For him it was cheaper than owning and servicing himself. Might not be the same for softeners though, you can't regenerate deionizers .the resins are replaced each time instead. But it's worth a phone call to check

Good idea Dwain. I have heard that name Culligan before. I'll do some reasearch and make some phone calls. That would be convenient!

 

[Bryce C]

Bleeder valve, water heater insulation, and a shelf so I can still throw extra hose and things back there. All stainless fittings with stainless steel teflon tape, hopefully it doesn't need any attention for 5 to 10 years :]

 

[KevinD]

I was talking to my supplier. He said if you have culligan or similar water conditioning company in your area you might look into a service where they furnish you with a softener and swap out the tanks on a scheduled maintenance plan. His son does that foe deionized water for window cleaning. For him it was cheaper than owning and servicing himself. Might not be the same for softeners though, you can't regenerate deionizers .the resins are replaced each time instead. But it's worth a phone call to check

I did the tank swap thing with culligan for a short time. It was a pain in the ass ranking right up there with filling propane tanks for my propane rig.

 

[Bryce C]

Good to know Kevin. Is it just the time involved with taking a trip to swap then out?

Dwain, I got a new live reel fitting for our garden hose. The old one was seized, the previous owner never greased it. $150 for the swivel fitting, man that's an expensive fitting. But it saves so much of a pain in the butt.

I also replaced all my high pressure lines with these, they seem really solid and are rated for 6000 psi. The smallest pressure lines are different just braided steel. The whole rig feels so much better now. Next up, new pressure pump!

 

[Bryce C]

I left my old heat exchanger in place for now. I have no idea how to access the backside of the 2 bolts behind the drivers seat side of the waste tank. It is underneath the vacuum outlet of the waste tank, which looks like it is surrounded by solid steel in each direction. I would need to access the backside in order to properly plug the holes if I remove the factory heat exchanger bolts on that side. I sense that I am missing something because they had to access it to install the thing. Meh...

 

[Dwain Ray]

Good to know Kevin. Is it just the time involved with taking a trip to swap then out?

Dwain, I got a new live reel fitting for our garden hose. The old one was seized, the previous owner never greased it. $150 for the swivel fitting, man that's an expensive fitting. But it saves so much of a pain in the butt.

I also replaced all my high pressure lines with these, they seem really solid and are rated for 6000 psi. The smallest pressure lines are different just braided steel. The whole rig feels so much better now. Next up, new pressure pump!

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Thats real expensive for a live reel swivel. Thats about what i pay for a rx20 rotary swivel. These are what I've been useing on live reels for as long as i can remember. Every 2 or 3 years i put in a $7 seal kit. I just pop a spring clip off the end, pull the block off, remove & install 2 oring like seals a dab of parker lube oring stick it back on good for a couple more years. I get um from Windtrax car wash supply

 

[Dwain Ray]

Good to know Kevin. Is it just the time involved with taking a trip to swap then out?

Dwain, I got a new live reel fitting for our garden hose. The old one was seized, the previous owner never greased it. $150 for the swivel fitting, man that's an expensive fitting. But it saves so much of a pain in the butt.

I also replaced all my high pressure lines with these, they seem really solid and are rated for 6000 psi. The smallest pressure lines are different just braided steel. The whole rig feels so much better now. Next up, new pressure pump!

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You should maybe put a 45°or2 to stop this hose from pinching . I put 2 so as to angle it properly then a short leader hose to a 3/8 qc then my hose has a standard male garden hose fitting to male 3/8 qc. Sorry for the picture quality, I'd taken more and better photos if i knew i was going to use um this way. Instead of expanding and screen shooting parts of the 700+ photos i have of the frankinstien build

 

[Bryce C]

That makes a whole lotta sense Dwain-o. I'll do that, thanks bud!

 

[Bryce C]

I did pay way too much for the swivel fitting. It was just readily available at my supplier when I was in his parking lot replacing a ton of lines and fittings on my machine. It is really nice though, and has a grease fitting on it. Hopefully it will last for many years.

 

[Bryce C]

Now there is 1 single part in my truckmount that is nicer than yours

 

[Bryce C]

I used my Blue Baron heat exchanger for the first time today. The thermal relief valve is shot and my waste tank kept filling up. I'll clamp the rubber hose shut or install a brass plug for now until the new one shows up.

The heat is great, it takes a long time to make its way to my wand though. The system heats quickly when I fire up the tm and open the valve to allow hot coolant to flow into my hx. There is just a lot of cool water in the 150+ feet of solution line that needs to get out of the way. I suppose I should blow off a lot of water through a tool before I go in and start cleaning so I can utilize heat on my first wand passes...

The heating capacity is deep though. Seems like the more I pull on it the hotter everything gets. There is 80 feet of tubing in the Blue Baron hx, and I added about 4 gallons of engine coolant to install it ️

 

[Dwain Ray]

I used my Blue Baron heat exchanger for the first time today. The thermal relief valve is shot and my waste tank kept filling up. I'll clamp the rubber hose shut or install a brass plug for now until the new one shows up.

The heat is great, it takes a long time to make its way to my wand though. The system heats quickly when I fire up the tm and open the valve to allow hot coolant to flow into my hx. There is just a lot of cool water in the 150+ feet of solution line that needs to get out of the way. I suppose I should blow off a lot of water through a tool before I go in and start cleaning so I can utilize heat on my first wand passes...

The heating capacity is deep though. Seems like the more I pull on it the hotter everything gets. There is 80 feet of tubing in the Blue Baron hx, and I added about 4 gallons of engine coolant to install it ️

Are you pressurizing cold water or hot?

 

[Dwain Ray]

Now there is 1 single part in my truckmount that is nicer than yours

I won't be out done, Im gunna have mine 24k gold plated !

 

[Bryce C]

Are you pressurizing cold water or hot?

Cold water. Although, I just learned today that there is a bypass on the cluster of fittings behind my solution line outlet with a small orifice that allows some heated water back into the water box to mix with the cold incoming water from a garden hose to warm that up a bit. So the longer you run this thing, it really just gets hotter and hotter.

Just a few days ago when I ripped all those fittings apart to address some leaks and play with stuff I lost the small relief orifice, it looks like a paper thin washer with a really small hole in the center. When I reassembled everything I had no pressure! Found the little part, possibly the smallest part in my machine and put it back in. Runs great. This machine is fascinating. Anyways now I know what that relief is for, I think, to slowly warm the water box!

 

[KevinD]

Good to know Kevin. Is it just the time involved with taking a trip to swap then out?

Yes along with being quite cumbersome to deal with and always needing a swap when you didn't want to deal with it or near the swap location.