Where in the water system should a water softener be installed??

Answer 1

The water softener should be installed at the cold water inlet to the house. That way, both your cold and hot water faucets throughout the house will have soft water. You should check to see if there is an outside faucet that is connected to the soft water in the house. If there is, you should remove the faucet and put a cap on the pipe. You can run a pipe around the outside of the house with hard water (i.e., before the water softener) to replace the faucet that you disabled.

The softener uses an ion-exchange resin to replace calcium and magnesium ions in the water, which cause the hardness, with sodium ions. Wikipedia, in the reference below, has a good explanation of the principle of operation.

If you're concerned with the higher level of sodium in the soft water, you can install a reverse osmosis filter for drinking water at your kitchen sink. It will remove virtually all the minerals and salts in your water, and most other contaminants. And it just so happens that it does a better job and lasts longer if the inlet water has been softened.

Answer 2

The most practical place is usually close to where the water line enters the home. Most people for economic reasons do not use soft water for out side watering, but every thing else does.

A word of caution do not install it less that 10 feet from you water heater. If it should happen to back flow the hot water from the heater could damage some of the plastic parts of the softener.

Answer 3

I live in the south where we don't have basements, so the best installation place in a southern home is typically at the water heater location. The plumbers will usually bring in the main water line from the meter to the water heater and branch out from there. Some (very few) houses are using a branch manifold system, but 99.9% around here don't. Tie into the line at the cold water side before it goes into the water heater.

Answer 4

Home water softener systems are pressurized water conditioning devices. These systems force hard water through a bed of cation exchange media for the purpose of exchanging the objectionable calcium and magnesium ions for sodium or potassium ions. This process results in softened water, which is more desirable for home use. Hard water is water that has a high mineral content, typically calcium or magnesium. When it enters your home from your water source, it can leave deposits or “scale” on plumbing fixtures, appliances and other everyday objects. It can clog pipes and reduce the efficiency of appliances. And it affects your everyday life from cooking to cleaning to doing laundry.

Answer 5

When you install a softner make sure you keep a raw water line outside for outdoor use. Installing it on the main water line is the easiest but when you water your yard your using the softened water and you will use up alot more salt.

Answer 6

Personally I have soft water everywhere in my house, as I ran the lines directly from the water meter to the water softner then to the supply lines for the cold and hot water.

Understanding water softners is a key here as a lot of people have a misguided opinion of them.

Most people are under the assumption that soft water has sodium in it, and that is first and foremostly a false statement.
The water does not filter through salt. The water goes through a filter if you will of glass type pellets that chemically react and have all the minerals from the water attatch to them. Once these pellets become saturated to the point they are not effective, the softner will go through a cycle to clean the pellets. Most water softners these days are fully automatic and set the cycle to recharge by themselves.

When a water softner is in re-charge mode, the tank where the salt is located, floods with water to make a salt water solution.This solution is comonly refered to as a brine solution. This solution, is then circulated into the filter vessel inside the main tank. The salt attaches itself to the minerals that have been attatched to the beads inside the filter. As we all know, salt eats metals and minerals, thus this is how the filter beads get cleaned. Once the cleaning process is completed, the system back washes itself to rid the filter of all sodium residue left over from the salt water solution. The system then reopens to complete another round of water softning.

A properly functioning water softner will provide you with clean, soft and sodium free water for many years.

It's also nice to know, that any trace amounts of sodium that goes through the system is so minute that if you were to drink 25 litres of water in a day, you'd injest about as much sodium as there is in 1 slice of bread.

The benefits of soft water is cleaner dishes, clothes, hair, skin and bathroom fixtures. The added benefit is that it costs less for detergents, shampoos, cleaners and your household chores benefit from these features.

Answer 7

Right after the pump or, after it enters the house. You don't want all your connections on the softener either IE: the toilet, outside bibs, etc. these could go around.

Answer 8

just past the water main you can find in basement

Answer 9

WELL, FILTER, SOFTENER


CITY METER, FILTER, SOFTENER!