Fix a slow well cheaply (sorta) Part 1

[TerryinMD]

Someone asked about having indoor cisterns.

A B&B in our area has an indoor cistern to hold an ample supply of water for their customers. The tank is stored in the basement of the rental units. I would imagine that the tank is supplied via the same system posted on this thread. From what I remembered, the room was about 12'x12' with the tank in the middle of the room sitting about 4 or 5 feet off the floor. I do not remember seeing any other treatment systems but I can imagine that they had at least a water softener. The water in our part of Maryland is very hard.

 

[patrickg]

Paul, Glad to hear you got it going and safely. I assume you have a septic system and wonder what you had heard about the salt of the water softener going into it. I haven't got a straight story on that yet and am considering a softener in my new house. I like RO (Reverse Osmosis) as a practical and fairly economical drinking water and ice maker water supply. My water tastes great, sweet and cool and tests fine for safety but is really hard. I'm talking bruising in the shower HARD. The hardness isn't a health issue that I am aware of but it is an aesthetic problem in a couple ways.
Ice cubes in a glass of water are a source of entertainment due to the miniature "snow shower" of flakes falling out of the melting cubes down through your water, tea, whatever and forming drifts of sediment at the botom of the glass. Had this problem at my mom's house on the Colorado river and RO cured it + Ro water has no funny taste as it is as good as or better than a lot of the botled water (much bottled water is RO'ed tap water with a label. Coffee, tea, Kool Aid for the kids, whatever even some cooked stuff, it all tastes noticibly better with RO.
The really hard water almost leaves stalagmites and stalagtites in the shower. Well, at least rapid build up of unsightly mineral deposits on shower walls, doors, and fixtures. I'm not a cleaning fanitic but I don't like the looks of yucky facilities. Guess I'll have to go with a softener even if I have to put in a separate dry well to dispose of its effluent.
Safety comment (not for you, Paul, you don't have the problem) for all the folks with or contemplating water softener systems that use salt for recharging the resin based ion exchange unit (vast majority of softeners). Softened water from a salt based system has had its calcium (hardness) removed by exchanging it with sodium. Softened water is just loaded with sodium and could be cosidered a health risk like way over salting your food. Good practice is to not drink it or use it in the preparation of food or drink. ONe simple solution is to plumb tap water to the cold water tap in the sink and the ice maker. A better solution is a RO unit plumbed to a separate dispensiing fawcett at the kitchen sink and to the ice maker.

Patrick (Rural water with a meter and everything within a year)

 

[TerryinMD]

If you do any canning, having a water softener is a must. I have not heard about any health risks with a salt-based water softening system. If it was a problem, I bet we would have been reminded of it by our crazed media sources. However, I just had my septic pumped and the guy suggested that I not have the backflush from the water softener go into my septic tank. He said that after time, the higher salt concentration of the backflush could damage the concrete septic tank. Similar to the damage caused by road salts. He suggested a smaller buried tank with seepage holes into a bed of gravel for just the backflushed water. Still trying to figure out how that will work and not contaminate the soil around the tank after an extended period.

Terry