Hi there Bobcat, I know this is a topic of hot debate, and I don't mean to touch off a war here.....but here's another opinion.
I live west of Seattle, with fairly hard water. We are always in the 8+ range for pH, and TDS run pretty high, maybe 200-300 or so. I had the softener float a couple of times in the past and cause a pump to burn out (sucking air and no water), so I removed it altogether a couple of years ago. I use filtered water from the house supply, i.e. running through a 2-stage GE filter system that I bought at Home Depot for about $200. So far, I have no issues with scale or clogging. I am careful to drain the hot water boiler whenever I clean, to keep the solids from getting ridiculously high in there, but otherwise I have taken no protective actions. I descaled once at about two years, and am due to descale again. One of these years I plan to replace my brew boiler tank just so I can cut the old one in half and see whether the whole descaling question is much ado about nothing or not. I also have a bore scope--anyone know if I can easily open a hole into the boilers so I can have a non-desctructive look inside? I may well be sorry down the road, but to date the softener seems like an unnecessary part, at least in my particular location and water supply. I have seen friends on well water who have rust lines in their toilet, etc. and I think in their case I'd probably use bottled water anyway. Just some thoughts to consider. bmc On Dec 4, 2010, at 6:10 PM, Dan Hagelin wrote: > The way I do it requires that you have a suitably long piece of plastic > tubing. I attach the hose to the nipple of the softener gizmo, and then put > 3 big tablespoons of salt in a full reservoir of water. I then submerge the > gizmo in the reservoir and siphon the whole tank of salt water through it. I > repeat the process with fresh water and then at then end of the tank test > that the last bit of water doesn't taste salty. If it happens to still taste > salty, and it never has, you can run another reservoir of fresh water though > it. > > I assume this process works, but I've never tested the water for hardness > before and after so I don't really know for sure. It makes me feel better, > though! > > > > On Dec 4, 2010, at 4:15 PM, HERMAN wrote: > >> i always put mine in a glass of water until it fills and the just connect it >> to the hose. i'm sure there are better ideas but it will be full of air and >> your pump will lose it's prime if you don't fill it with water. >> >> --- On Sat, 12/4/10, Bobcat <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> From: Bobcat <[email protected]> >> Subject: Charging the softner???? >> To: "Brewtus" <[email protected]> >> Date: Saturday, December 4, 2010, 7:06 PM >> >> I just received a new softner cartridge, identical to the original >> one, and there were no instructions on how to charge it for use. Can >> someone tell me what to do before I put it into use, and what future >> maintenance I'll need to do and how often? >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Brewtus" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en. >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Brewtus" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Brewtus" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Brewtus" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en.
