I have a water softener that is about 20 years old.  It was made by Water Conditioning Canada.  It uses a Fleck Meter Initiated valve.  The drain goes into a sink.  I’ve recently noticed a brown sand-like deposit in the sink after a regeneration.  Is this possibly the resin that has broken down?  I’ve checked some of the screens in our faucets and there is no evidence of this “sand” in the water supply.  The user manual tells me that a loss of resin through the drain line can be caused by air in the water system.  We are on city supplied water and I assume there should be no issue with air.  I’m assuming that the resin should look like circular round beads somewhere around 1 mm in diameter.  The “sand” that I am seeing is quite fine, kind of like sand at a beach.  Is there possibly a filter or screen in the system that should prevent this? Thanks.

Answer:  If you are supplied with municipal water, it is very possible that after 20 years the chlorine contained within the water has broken down your water softening resin, and this is what you are seeing.  The normal path of water during the high flow backwashing stage of regeneration is down through the riser tube, up through the resin bed, and out to drain into your sink drain.  However, during normal service operation, the flow is typically much lower, down through the resin bed, and out to your household supply through a screen located at the bottom of the riser.  The lower flow rate and the riser screen may be keeping the resin contained within the water softener, and preventing it from entering your homes piping.  You may also be noticing a reduced softening performance as the resin breaks down.  We would suggest replacing the resin with new material, or simply replacing the water softener completely.  You can take a look at some of the unit that we offer online.  We do ship resin and equipment to Canada, but would need to charge for any additional freight cost incurred.  If you want to replace the resin, and do not know how much is contained in your water softener, just measure the resin tank diameter and height (from the floor to point at which the tank meets the control), and we will be pleased to let you know how much resin you require.

I am in the market for a water softener. My water hardness level is 7. The Pelican water treatment system is interesting. Does this unit really soften water? How does it compare with the conventional salt recharge systems? Or, is the salt free systems a hoax?

Answer: Hoax may be too strong a term to use here.  We don’t believe that any of the companies offering “Salt Free” water softeners are intentionally misleading the public. However, the term “Water Softening” technically refers to the removal of hardness components (ions of calcium and magnesium) from water.  Unlike conventional cation exchange (salt based) water softeners, “Salt Free” water softeners do not remove hardness from water.  Although the company you refer to does not indicate what material is used in their system design, the published data on the site claims a function that is very similar to a media commonly used in salt free water softeners called Filtersorb SP-3, and we would assume that this is what is used.  The claim made on the site is that the media acts as a catalyst to cause the formation of calcium carbonate crystals.  These crystals are said to grow, and when very large, they break-off and are carried away by the flow of water, no longer depositing on piping and fixtures.

The problem that we have here is that the mechanism for this process is not explained, and we do not understand it.  Our company contains a catalyst group, and this group’s technical staff cannot explain it either.  Another question is why a claim to meet  NSF standard 42 is made.  This standard does not have to do with water softening, but is a standard covering aesthetic effects. This standard covers systems designed to reduce specific aesthetic or non-health-related contaminants (chlorine, taste and odor, and particulates) that may be present in public or private drinking water.  Standard 42 is normally met with installation of a sediment filter and/or carbon filter.  There is reference on the site to a German standard developed by a third-party company called DVGW, standard W 512, but although there is considerable reference to a test that was underway in November of 2007, there is no claim that the standard was met after testing was complete.

However, in the not too distant future, our company may give in to popular demand, and also offer a salt free water softener (it seems almost everyone else is).  And although we will not be able to provide any performance guarantees, the system will be identical to larger “combo” systems offered elsewhere, but at a more reasonable price.  The system would contain a Big Blue whole house 5-micron pre-filter (1” inlet/outlet connections), a 1” inlet/outlet head with by-pass on a 10” diameter x 54” tall tank  containing 1.5 ft3 of coconut shell grade carbon, followed by a second 10”x54” tank containing the Filtersorb SP-3 media.  This is a system designed for higher flow rate found in larger homes with 4+ baths, and the price will be around $1800.00 delivered.  Single tank design (pre-filter, Filtersorb SP-3, but without the carbon filter) would be priced around $1350.00 delivered.  As we mentioned, we don’t offer this system at the moment – we have it in stock – we are just not advertising it (a decision to offer it has not yet been made).  However, if you are interested in this equipment, just send us an email or respond to this post, and we will get in touch with you.

Hi, we just purchased a home, and are considering installation of a water softening system.  I see there are many water softeners offered for sale on the internet, and they seem to cost far less then water softeners sold by local companies.  But if we purchase one on the internet (for instance, from your company), can we install the unit ourselves?

Answer: Yes, our softeners are designed for homeowner installation.  If you have ever done any basic household plumbing, it should not be a problem.  You can download water softener installation instructions from our site and give them a read.  We do offer 24/7 technical support to help you out in the event that you have a questions during installation, but if you have no experience with plumbing, you may want to consider having a plumber perform the installation (a plumber normally charges between $200 and $400 depending on installation difficulty).  Let us know if you have any other questions, and thanks!