Water Softener Resin

[Bubbles Galore]

Hi Guys,

I have 2 Trusco twin alternating water softeners plumbed in parallel. I need to do some work on my softener since I am at 4 grains of hardness. The first thing recommended to me by a water specialist was replacing the resin in the tanks. Is this something that any of you have done? Is it a difficult process? At $600 per tank, I'm looking at $2,500 to have the resin replaced and re-bed. If this isn't an overly difficult process, I wouldn't mind doing it. Any and all input is appreciated.

Thanks!

John

 

[mjwalsh]

Hi Guys,

I have 2 Trusco twin alternating water softeners plumbed in parallel. I need to do some work on my softener since I am at 4 grains of hardness. The first thing recommended to me by a water specialist was replacing the resin in the tanks. Is this something that any of you have done? Is it a difficult process? At $600 per tank, I'm looking at $2,500 to have the resin replaced and re-bed. If this isn't an overly difficult process, I wouldn't mind doing it. Any and all input is appreciated.

Thanks!

John

John,

We put the resin initially in our twin Fleck Softeners without any problem because the instructions for the gravel & the tube placement etc was pretty good. I seems like taking the head off without breaking anything could be an issue.

I am pretty sure this has been discussed before if I remember right. Use of Bill P's search capability might help.

mike

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

I've done it, its not hard.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Any tips or tricks for doing it? Each of my 4 units are 40k grains a piece for a capacity of 160k. How much resin is used in each tank? Is it just the resin and the gravel that go in the tank? Doesn't seem overly difficult after watching a few vids on YouTube.

 

[Jeff_L]

Check out the posts here, I remember researching about this topic and I believe someone actually used a shop vac to get all the resin out. However, with a 40k grain unit, maybe a couple of guys could muscle it over to dump out?

Resin isn't messy, it's just weird stuff...

I just replaced my 300k grain unit, so the order of assembly was to put the tube with the spider fingers in first, then gravel, then resin.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Check out the posts here, I remember researching about this topic and I believe someone actually used a shop vac to get all the resin out. However, with a 40k grain unit, maybe a couple of guys could muscle it over to dump out?

Resin isn't messy, it's just weird stuff...

I just replaced my 300k grain unit, so the order of assembly was to put the tube with the spider fingers in first, then gravel, then resin.

How much resin is needed for a 40k grain tank? Is there something special about the gravel used?

Thanks for all the input.

 

[MEP001]

How much resin is needed for a 40k grain tank? Is there something special about the gravel used?

It depends on how it's rated. Each cu.ft. of resin can soften 30,000 grains, but they're typically set up to use 6 lbs. of salt per cycle instead of 15. That yields 20k softening per cu.ft. instead of 30k. If the 40k you refer to is based on your actual softening, then it's 2 cu.ft. per tank. If you're not sure which it is, just measure the tanks.

The gravel is a particular size to make it a suitable filter to keep the resin out of the system. It's fairly inexpensive.

Your tanks are so small it should be a very easy job. You can just wheel them into a bay and dump it on the floor. Unless it's completely degraded, very little of it will flow into the pit; it will just bunch up on the floor and you can shovel it up and throw it away. You can also use a shop vac, or you can siphon it out into a big bucket or trash can right in the room. Depending on the plumbing, the hardest part might be getting the heads off.

At $600 per tank, I'm looking at $2,500 to have the resin replaced and re-bed.

You can get the resin for about $50 a cu. ft. If it really takes two per tank, you're looking at a cost of about $600 for the whole job to do yourself. Softener guys are notoriously over-costly. Someone told me about a local company who charged him more for a USED softener head (not even including labor) than he could have replaced the entire softener for retail.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Is there one style of resin that is better than another or is it all basically the same?

 

[mjwalsh]

Someone told me about a local company who charged him more for a USED softener head (not even including labor) than he could have replaced the entire softener for retail.

In our local case, the bloated price tag also included the wrong sizing so the cV would have caused a serious flow problem for us. Him & his wife were pretty mad at us when we chose to install it ourselves & they put us on their "no longer speaking" terms with us! Just think ... they were offering all that faulty engineering .... for free!!!

mike

 

[MEP001]

Is there one style of resin that is better than another or is it all basically the same?

There are chlorine-resistant resins that will last longer if the supply is heavily chlorinated - that's what breaks it down. If you think it lasted around ten years, it's not worth the extra cost. I've replaced resin that barely lasted two years from heavy chlorine. Otherwise, it's pretty much all the same.

 

[mac]

One other thing you ought to consider when redoing softeners is to downsize them. Most washes I see that have softeners use the softened water for everything. In most cases you can do a little replumbing so that the soft water is just used to mix the chemicals and for RO water. Why use soft water for rinsing?

 

[Jeff_L]

One other thing you ought to consider when redoing softeners is to downsize them. Most washes I see that have softeners use the softened water for everything. In most cases you can do a little replumbing so that the soft water is just used to mix the chemicals and for RO water. Why use soft water for rinsing?

I use soft water for everything because I believe it helps reduce any buildup in the lines/connections by not having the minerals flow through them. Could just be an old wives tale, but it sounds good to me.

 

[mac]

Jeff, on old houses that had galvanized plumbing you could get a lot of buildup. I think that most of that though was simply rust. On pvc and copper plumbing you don't get that.

 

[MEP001]

Buildup in lines and other equipment has less to do with the material of the plumbing than it does to do with the hardness of the water. I've seen plenty of PVC pipe coated with heavy scale that eventually flakes off and clogs up stuff downstream.

 

[Greg Pack]

I've always softened all flow but think it is probably overkill. The price of salt has risen dramatically in the past couple of years, so I'm rethinking this. I believe it would save me about $75/month of so.

 

[MEP001]

I can see saving a lot not softening the rinse cycle of an auto, but IMO everything else should be.

 

[Jeff_L]

My rinse cycle is fed by the waste product of my RO system. I don't let the waste go down the drain, instead I feed it up to barrels upstairs which are gravity fed to my autos. This reduces my costs per car and uses softened, de-chlorinated water. I haven't yet plumbed it to my self serve pumps, but don't see why I wouldn't sometime in the future.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Your autos should use it all up. Why would you bother to run it to your SS bays? I have a site with 3 autos and 7 SS bays. I use all of my reject and it is plumbed only to the driver side pump (Mark VII, has two) on my least used auto.