Sizing water softener for best efficiency
 

So I'm hoping to buy the proper sized softener to use salt efficiently. Hardness is 23 GPG, on city water, 2.5 bathrooms, 2 people in the house and pretty much never have guests. I've attached my actual water usage for the past 3 years below. Average has always been under 3,000 gal. per month, but there have been spikes. The Sept spike from this year is when I needed to use the hose to help water some small sod patches, so that is a rare occurrence. We also got a new more efficient washer late last year and have recently upgraded our dishwasher as well. not sure what specifically, if anything, caused the usage spikes in the past. I was looking at the Fleck 5600 SXT 40,000 grain w/1.25 cu. feet of resin. Thanks in advance for any help.

Try
http://www.qualitywatertreatment.com/water_softener_sizing.htm

100 gals per person per day is normal according to some handbook I once saw at Border's but our water company tells us it's 70.

Thanks for the link. So since I have actual usage numbers, should I size this based on averages or based on the rare spikes in usage? It would appear that I would be safe using 3,000 gals month as a starting point, so when the usage would spike at 4k gals would that ust mean i would use more salt during that particular period?

Most quality softener heads of today use some sort of gallon counter, so they know when it's time to backwash. Most of them are preset to backwash while your sleeping. On some this time can be changed. The Clack that I sell is very programmable and probably the best head on the market. Your water usage isn't important, the unit can handle all the functions automatically when needed.

Most households get along just fine with a 1 to a 1-1/2 cubic foot unit. I wouldn't recommend anything larger than that.

Be aware of these units that claim they don't use salt. They are the same units we sell. The difference is, they recommend using Potassium Chloride instead of Sodium Chloride. It's at least double the cost and less efficient.

If you want to get pricing, IM me.

From the link I get about 1700 grains/day to be removed.

Wouldn't you by-pass a softener for outside water?

I certainly would. Especially if your filling a swimming pool or watering the grass. The one cubic foot is only good for removing approximately 36,000 grains of hardness before another backwash. So at 15 grains per gallon, you only have 2000 gallons to use.

Check out the pie chart in the link below.
http://www.southwestpropertymanagement.com/documents/Water%20Survey.pdf
I'd have thought lawn watering was a much smaller percentage.

One of my largest pet peeves is these bureaucrats telling the citizenry that we are running out of water. I always ask: Where is it going to go???

They must have meant desalinated & potable water, free of perchlorate. :rolleyes: