Water Softeners & snake oil

[DVerbarg]

Too much sodium in our bodies is not good. Too much potasium in our bodies is not good. We need a balance between the two. So, does anyone know if I could run a mix of potassium and sodium through the softener? Will I end up with water that has a balance of potassium/sodium? What will the effect be on a septic system?

My educationally "chemically challenged" mind wants to know...

 

[beenthere]

In 34 years, my toilets haven't turned orange. They are white as new. Must be the water. I don't soften that water because it would be more expensive.

 

[Chillimau]

Am I understanding correctly, that you can run Potassium in any softner designed for salt?

Gary

 

[RPM]

Chillimau,

I'd check with your manufacturer on that ... but every one that I have looked at can run both Sodium or Potassium. Of course, I am just looking at new units. One other point - the Potassium salt is sometimes referred to as 'salt substitute' - that may be what's in the literature for your softener.

Patrick

 

[hartsjc]

RPM,

I do not remember the model that I have; however, it is the quad one (hour-glass shape) it removes chlorine as well. It is a little more than the basic one (see picture for a better idea of what I am talking about), which my dad has. Anyway, I paid just under $2,000 to have it installed and everything.

I also know a friend of mine just got one, and kinetico was running a deal. Buy the softner and get a reverse osmosis for free. That is like an $800+ deal, and I LOVE both the Reverse Osmosis and the Water Softner. In fact, the wife says they are both going with us whenever we sell the house.

/James

 

[RPM]

<font color=blue>Too much sodium in our bodies is not good. Too much potasium in our bodies is not good. We need a balance between the two. So, does anyone know if I could run a mix of potassium and sodium through the softener? Will I end up with water that has a balance of potassium/sodium? What will the effect be on a septic system?</font color=blue>

Great question - and I don't know the answer for sure. I do know that both Sodium (Na for Natrum) and Potassium (K for Kalium) are base metals and have the same reactive tendencies (did you do the science experiments in school where you put a little piece in water?). I also know that Potassium sits right above Sodium on the periodic table. You also see both Potassium Chloride and Sodium Chloride mixed together in some table salt substitutes.

There may be an issue with mixing them in solution with water though. Not that they would react together - but they may not mix well in solution. Some mixtures of salts in solution will stratify - it may be that all the Potassium Chloride sinks to the bottom of the container or some such thing - this may not be desirable. There may also be some wierd scavenging that goes on with the iron/Calcium on the resin beads. The Sodium may displace it first - but the Potassium may then displace the Sodium as it is slightly more reactive etc.

All in all, probably best left to the Chemists and Doctors (I'm not either). After all, Potassium Chloride is one of the three chemicals injected when you administer a lethal injection! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Patrick

 

[fractal]

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

Regarding ... If you have septic and field system and do not reqire softening why overload the disposal system with salty water?

Excellent question - that's one of the considerations.

<hr></blockquote>

That would be one of my main considerations for a rural installation. We have hard water around these parts and the use of water softeners has increased the salinity of our sewer water to the point that they have to mix the output of the treatment plant with fresh water in order to get the salinity low enough to use the water for road-side irrigation.

I would be VERY reluctant to use a salt based (either sodium salt or potasium salt) re-ionizer agent water softener if I knew I was dumping that salt water into my ground.

I don't know anything about iron filters but I do know that the basic ion exchange water softeners are nasty on the environment (unless you happen to live by the ocean and can direct dump the salt water only into the sea ). The demand units are a little better in that they adjust to your usage and only flush hundreds of gallons of salty water into the waste water system when needed to recharge the ion exchanger. The timer based ones flush whenever programmed whether needed or not. Set too often and you waste water and salt. Set too infrequent and you go through periods of no treatment.

You might also consider whether your pump can handle the volume of water needed for the softener to cycle.

 

[DVerbarg]

Patrick,

My water test results were:

Iron: 1.1 mg/l
Hardness: 410 (not sure but believe units are mg/l)
pH: 7.4
Nitrates: None detected
Sulfate: 250 mg/l
Turbidity: 13 (turbidity units)
Total Dissolved Solids: 590 mg/l

Also had small amounts of manganese, sodium, zinc, and flouride. The test covered 94 different substances in addition to bacteria counts (none detected).

Let us know what you find in your iron removal quest.

 

[RPM]

DVerbarg,

Thanks - all of the input has been helpful. I'm now waiting for the sales rep to send me information on the iron filter (he left behind a sheaf of literature on the softeners). Once I have that I'll better be able to judge between the two approaches (and look up more info on the web).

In the meantime, one thing I neglected to mention was that I did use the web site of the Water Quality Association (which I stumbled across while surfing the web) to try and find reputable people in the area. The guy who I found the best to deal with was registered / certified with them. The real snake oil guys were not (and hadn't heard of the WQA either). So it seems that the WQA may be a good place to start if any of you are looking ...

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wqa.org/>http://www.wqa.org/</A>

Patrick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The house I'm living in came with a water softener and
a reverse osmosis filter for our drinking water. Do you
know how much of the extra salt the reverse osmosis
unit will take out?

TIA.