Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: spambait@milmac.com (Doug Miller)
Subject: Re: Water softener timer or 'on demand' for well water?
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 12:49:28 GMT

In article <98b108af.0408122110.3cbb6a6d@posting.google.com>, darfordfarquar@yahoo.com (darford) wrote:
>I'm building a new house and it'll have a well.  The hardness is
>moderate to high, and there's a moderate amount of clear iron.  The
>water softener the GC recommends is a large unit to handle the iron,
>but he recommends a clock timer system regenerating every six days or
>so.  I've always used 'on demnd' systems in the past with city water.
>
I never could figure out why water softeners use a six-day timer instead of 
seven.

>The GC says that with the higher iron content it's better to
>regenerate on a regular schedule to 'flush out the iron' and the resin
>bed will last longer.  He say's that with an 'on demand' unit there's
>more risk of iron lingering in the resin.
>
>Sounds like 'B' as in 'B' and 'S' as in 'S', and I'll just use more
>salt.
>
>Any opinions?

My first house had city water (moderately hard) and a timer-driven softener. 
Second house had well water (extremely hard, with high iron content) and a 
timer softener, which eventually died and was replaced with an on-demand 
softener. Third house has a timer softener and well water (moderately hard). 

We used the least salt, and had the most uniformly softened water, with the 
on-demand softener. And we never had a problem with the iron.

If and when the current timer softener dies, I definitely will replace it with 
an on-demand unit.