Good Lord, Whatta Job.

[Hoot]

Well, a couple of weeks ago, realizing that my 15 year old water softener wasn't softening water like it should, ole Mr. Fixit decided to save some money and just replenish the resin beads since the mechanics were in order. I regularly treat it with Iron Out and clean the brine tank annually. It wasn't a contamination problem and the water flow sensor works fine as it cycles regularly. Anyway, I ordered the resin beads last week and they arrived a couple of days ago. It was slated to be an unusually warm day today, so I hooked up the hose and around 11 AM and started. It's 10:30 PM and I just finished cleaning everything up. Uff da, this dog is beat and my feet and I are not on speaking terms. Hopefully, my Neuropathy doesn't act up tonight as I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep.

All I can say is I'm glad I don't do that for a living, by the job. We could have bought a new softener, but they run around $500-600 these days. My luck being what it is, something mechanical will fail next week. At least I had the forethought to buy an identical, functional, used one at a garage sale a couple of years ago for $25.00, so I'm sitting good.

I've never done a bead replacement, but there was an excellent guide online. What did we do before the internet? Anyway, I was surprised to discover that the beads are hardly what I would think of as beads. I was expecting BB sized or something. The C-249 looked like coarse potting dirt. The old beads I flushed out looked like amber sand. My old beads came about 2/3s the way up the tank, but I bought a cubic foot and put more in than the original charge. Probably 7/8 full. Hope that doesn't wind up being a mistake. When I ran the sanitary tub afterwards, the water came out looking quite rusty colored for about 3 minutes then ran clear. I ran every spigot and shower in the house similarly to see and they all ran clear as well. I'm also looking forward to a nice, soft-watered shower in a few minutes. I got salt in places that do not need salting.

Hoot

[Ghost Dog]

Them zeolite pellets are a bear to deal with.

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Our water is pretty good. Got some good lathering and washes soap off squeaky clean. Most of this area of Texas uses lake water and it's nasty. But I'm am fortunate to be on well water. And it makes awesome iced tea.

[commander faschisto]

Hey, Hoot...There are commercially available resin bead cleaners (mostly citric acid, I think) that you can run through the resin bed and it will clean it right up fer ya, to get a good fresh start on the recycled beads. The "beads" are really tiny, to increase the surface area per unit volume. The ones I've dealt with looked like coffee grounds. I install a lot of softeners for customers here in the OKC area, due to the liquid limestone that passes for water in these parts (underground aquifer). Keeps me busy replacing everyone's clogged up plumbing fixtures!

[Hoot]

Hey, Hoot...There are commercially available resin bead cleaners (mostly citric acid, I think) that you can run through the resin bed and it will clean it right up fer ya, to get a good fresh start on the recycled beads. The "beads" are really tiny, to increase the surface area per unit volume. The ones I've dealt with looked like coffee grounds. I install a lot of softeners for customers here in the OKC area, due to the liquid limestone that passes for water in these parts (underground aquifer). Keeps me busy replacing everyone's clogged up plumbing fixtures!

Yep, I read about my options before I took a course of action. I borrowed a couple of water pressure gauges from the property services dept at work and the water pressure drop through the softener was more than what I read was a sign of needing to replace them all, so that's what I did. Boy everyone's happy today at the house. The water's soft again and we have a noticeable increase in pressure. Funny how you don't notice the loss when it's over a long stretch. I've seen the results of not softening it the water and have soaked my share of shower heads in a bowl of vinegar. It's really noticeable in the coffee maker as the kitchen faucet does not get softened. The hot water in the coffee maker produces snow flake sized lime wafers in as little as a month for the amount of coffee I make. Our local water hardness is 24 grains per gallon. On a scale of 1-10, it is rated at 1.6 for drinkability. A local fellow from the gun club had me help him replumb his farmhouse which was built in 1917 and when we cut out the old 3/4 inch black pipe to replace it with copper, the inside diameter was reduced to around 5/16 inch and it wasn't rust. Looked like the cross-section of a ham bone without the marrow. When I lived in Minneapolis proper, we got our water from the Mississippi and it was fantastic by comparison. Made a great cup of coffee.

I'm sore as a ... well you know, today. I'm out of shape and humping the hardware up and down the cellar stairs countless times yesterday took it's toll. I can't begin to imagine doing this for a living, without some young buck helping me. My wife and daughter are a waste of time as i can lift more with one hand than the two of them together can with four. They were out yesterday, spending the money I saved us.

Hoot

[commander faschisto]

Man, you waited too long...should've gotten out of the house before they did.