Portable Water Softener, Recommendations

[lowejug]

Originally Posted by emerkel

I was looking at an old thread about this and someone there mentioned the RV-PRO10000

Does anyone know or have any experience with these? They have what seems like a fair price but there could be a good reason for that. I just started looking and know absolutely NOTHING about water softeners.

Thanks,
Eddie

this is the unit I have...

my experience has not been that great ... right off the bat outta the box I could not get the test strip to be in the soft range color.

I would test it and it tested hard.

finally after several attempts in regenerating it with research of others of how to do it..( let it regenerate 4 times longer than recommended and shake the unit really hard) I got it to test
soft.. the second time around I just replaced the resin and that worked.. bottom line... a circus act
to get this unit to work and many frustrating moments... I wouldn't buy it again .. jmo

[cwr321]

I bought the H2O to go 16,000 grain unit with high-capacity resin. My water stayed extremely soft on a six week trip without recharging. I recharged it yesterday with two containers of table salt, couldn’t have been easier. If I remember correctly it cost about $200 on Amazon. I gave it a five star rating. Works great. You can tell when the water is getting hard when you see water spots on your shower door, less leather, but you can usually confirm with test strips that you can buy at Home Depot.

[Bulabarry]

I just purchased the TravelSoft water softener for our new Anthem. I spent a lot time investigating which unit would be best for us. I chose TravelSoft for several reasons. It is a high quality unit that has been around for many years. It seems to be the easiest unit to backwash, regenerate and drain without having to disconnect hoses or move unit. It has a unique valve system that allows you to backwash, soften or bypass. It also has a separate drain valve to remove all water when storing. This is the most expensive unit in its size category (10,000 grain) but well worth the price due to its ease of use and quality construction. The TravelSoft also uses solar salt which is available at Lowe’s, etc and costs less than the table salt that other manufactures use so you will save money in the long run. I use test strips to determine if I need to hook up the softener and to determine when a regen is needed. I bought the unit directly from the manufacturer who shipped it immediately for $10 shipping. Check it out on the WEB.

[soliver]

https://602abcwater.com/products/por...ty-10x18-large

The above link will show you a softer almost identical to "On the Go". I have had both and slightly prefer the 602 product. Small upgrades such as brass hose fittings, metal handle, larger capacity for salt (not all that much more, but more).

[rorr1821]

I have a ABC water softener 16,000 grains which I purchased in desperation after the Travel soft fell over and broke. The Travel Soft was over 10 years and was a good unit. I will be replacing the ABC with a more user friendly unit that will regenerate itself automatically. The water in Texas is so hard the ABC need to be regenerated almost every other day. I test the water with Hack test strips so the hardness is confirmed.

The units I have looked at are:
Compact Fleck 5600SXT 16,000 grains
Water Boss 700 22,000 grains
Water Boss 900 36,000 grains
I also understand that there is another water softener installed by NIRVC but I have no information on that unit.

The prices for these unit's are within $30 of each other. The higher the grains the less regeneration frequency. The Water Boss has had some negative reviews but the number of unit in the field are much higher than the Compact Fleck. The Fleck has no reviews that I could find. The Fleck control head is considered to be very good unit so probably it is a good unit. The down side is the 16,000 grain capacity.


Price is a consideration but performance is more important to me.

Has anyone used any of these units in very hard water with good success? Also does anyone know the correct way to tap into the gray tank for the regeneration line or is there a hidden plugged hole already in the tank for future use?

Comments are welcome.

[voltdoc]

Originally Posted by rorr1821

I have a ABC water softener 16,000 grains which I purchased in desperation after the Travel soft fell over and broke. The Travel Soft was over 10 years and was a good unit. I will be replacing the ABC with a more user friendly unit that will regenerate itself automatically. The water in Texas is so hard the ABC need to be regenerated almost every other day. I test the water with Hack test strips so the hardness is confirmed.

The units I have looked at are:
Compact Fleck 5600SXT 16,000 grains
Water Boss 700 22,000 grains
Water Boss 900 36,000 grains
I also understand that there is another water softener installed by NIRVC but I have no information on that unit.

The prices for these unit's are within $30 of each other. The higher the grains the less regeneration frequency. The Water Boss has had some negative reviews but the number of unit in the field are much higher than the Compact Fleck. The Fleck has no reviews that I could find. The Fleck control head is considered to be very good unit so probably it is a good unit. The down side is the 16,000 grain capacity.


Price is a consideration but performance is more important to me.

Has anyone used any of these units in very hard water with good success? Also does anyone know the correct way to tap into the gray tank for the regeneration line or is there a hidden plugged hole already in the tank for future use?

Comments are welcome.

Thanks four that info. We too have a manually regenerated On-the-Go unit and while it works well, the manual regeneration proceess is becoming tiresome in high hardness conditions and I'm also looking for an automatic solution. I too would be interested on the best place to tap into the gray tank.

I also ran across this Belgian made product which are compact and requires no electricity. Does anyone have any real world experience with these?

Delta WATER TECHNOLOGY - Home

[Pknappe]

Fleck is one of the largest manufacturers of residential and commercial water softener valves. Another one is Autotrol. Both private label valves for other companies.

[GrandPaPat]

I am researching water softener plus DI capabilities for capacity, ease of use and auto regeneration. I went to the Kinetico storefront in Estero and they want nearly $4k for their total system installed in RV.

The Compact Auto Fleck 5600SXT is about $500 and throw in another $500 for DI hardware and another $500 for valves, PEX and install. I already have the little ryobi electric pressure washer and foam cannon. Am I missing something or is this the no brainer it looks like?

[lowejug]

Originally Posted by GrandPaPat

I am researching water softener plus DI capabilities for capacity, ease of use and auto regeneration. I went to the Kinetico storefront in Estero and they want nearly $4k for their total system installed in RV.

The Compact Auto Fleck 5600SXT is about $500 and throw in another $500 for DI hardware and another $500 for valves, PEX and install. I already have the little ryobi electric pressure washer and foam cannon. Am I missing something or is this the no brainer it looks like?

I have searched out water softness pretty regularly now for a few years..
and di spotless systems ...

where i live the water is terribly hard...

I have found no real magic product yet...

at the end of the day I have a on the go unit 16,000 grain in my coach. ( it softens the water but doesn't make it spot free}

and a cr spotless di 20 for washing... it does work but resin replacement is needed often..

have tried the di rinse 100 which is supposed to give hundreds of gallon of spot free water..
HA... no way.. it was pretty minimal,, at least this last bag of resin i bought from the company just did not seem to go very far...

tried the watts 10,000 grain for the portable in my coach.. that was frustrating and was hard to keep regenerated..


have read about the exspensive automatic systems people get @ nirvc but I don't want to give up the room in my coach...


so I will keep reading/searching and waiting for newer and continued technology..

[DebbieMH]

Originally Posted by lowejug

have read about the exspensive automatic systems people get @ nirvc but I don't want to give up the room in my coach...

I haven't measured it, but the "room" you give up in your coach is the size of two OTG softner containers. The piping is above the two containers, so you aren't giving up any "floorspace" for that. Anyway ... we just finished a 8,000 mile, 17 state trip this summer and I had to add salt once .... that is it. Never even checked on it - had beautifully soft water everywhere we went. No worries, no carrying out containers, no manually regenerating. No brainer to me, very pleased with the system. Best RV Water Softener and Filter System | Motor Coach Water Filtration

You can call Jim and he will send the system to any RV shop/repair place you want him to for installation, so you don't have to go to NIRVC if you don't want to. I had a local group purchase/install it for me and it took a couple of hours, but that is it. I know one person on this forum that installed it himself, and wow .... he sure did do a nice job (Mark)!

[GrandPaPat]

I just read several other threads going back to 2014 about the whole house filter. The discussion was about filtering all the water entering coach starting in 2015 models versus filtering only the water coming out of the fresh water tank in prior model years. I did not know this until now, but because that whole house filter is before the fresh water tank in 2015 and newer models the filter cartridge should NOT be an activated carbon filter if you do not routinely draw from that tank. You do not want to remove the residual chlorine from the water in the tank if you do not regularly use that water. I don't think it needs to be daily use, but certainly not weeks of non-chlorinated water sitting in that tank. This may be obvious to most owners, but right now I am just not sure what type of cartridge I put in there a couple of months ago.

[lowejug]

Originally Posted by DebbieMH

I haven't measured it, but the "room" you give up in your coach is the size of two OTG softner containers. The piping is above the two containers, so you aren't giving up any "floorspace" for that. Anyway ... we just finished a 8,000 mile, 17 state trip this summer and I had to add salt once .... that is it. Never even checked on it - had beautifully soft water everywhere we went. No worries, no carrying out containers, no manually regenerating. No brainer to me, very pleased with the system. Best RV Water Softener and Filter System | Motor Coach Water Filtration



You can call Jim and he will send the system to any RV shop/repair place you want him to for installation, so you don't have to go to NIRVC if you don't want to. I had a local group purchase/install it for me and it took a couple of hours, but that is it. I know one person on this forum that installed it himself, and wow .... he sure did do a nice job (Mark)!

Thanks... I appreciate the link and your experience with it..
I will give it a read...

[Surmotor]

Originally Posted by DebbieMH

I haven't measured it, but the "room" you give up in your coach is the size of two OTG softner containers. The piping is above the two containers, so you aren't giving up any "floorspace" for that. Anyway ... we just finished a 8,000 mile, 17 state trip this summer and I had to add salt once .... that is it. Never even checked on it - had beautifully soft water everywhere we went. No worries, no carrying out containers, no manually regenerating. No brainer to me, very pleased with the system. Best RV Water Softener and Filter System | Motor Coach Water Filtration



You can call Jim and he will send the system to any RV shop/repair place you want him to for installation, so you don't have to go to NIRVC if you don't want to. I had a local group purchase/install it for me and it took a couple of hours, but that is it. I know one person on this forum that installed it himself, and wow .... he sure did do a nice job (Mark)!

I also have Jim’s system and love it, put salt in it every 3-4 months and forget about it. Also have the DI system which last 6-8 months of washing the coach and having it built-in makes it easy to wash the windshield in very little time

[W0GEN]

After much pondering I decided to purchase a $270 portable unit that I will simply set outside the coach using a pre-filter ahead of it.
Here is what I bought:
https://amzn.to/2QekfZI,

And then I am using the following pre filter:
https://amzn.to/2CZ4NNc

This winter will be our first experience with living out of the RV for 3 months, and perhaps I will better understand and justify a more expensive unit...
Time will tell!