RV Water softener

[stegosaurus]

Not sure if this is the proper location, but I'm considering a water softener for tis winter in AZ. The water there is hard as a rock out of the Colorado River. If we don't soften it I think it's going to be a problem with clothes washing etc. Looking for recommendations and sources. We want one that is easy to add salt for regeneration.

[Martind4]

We have an On-The-Go water softener that we purchased at Camping World. It is available from other sources, maybe at lower prices.

Ours is easy to regenerate, just unscrew the top and add 1# of regular table salt.

Time between regenerations is dependent on water hardness, just divide the softener capacity (in grains) by the local water hardness (in grains) to get total gallons available. We can usually go for about a month between regens.

[RickO]

We've been using this one Frakco Inc - Portable Water Softener & Conditioner - Fresheners & Softeners - Camping World for nearly 4 years now.

It does NOT meet your criteria of being easy to add salt to. I'd probably look at other options if I had to replace it. It does do a good job but not awfully user friendly.

Rick

[JCM]

Get a full coach (goes into the water tank) RO system. Costs $450 - $600.00 at the Yuma market. We have the "same" water wherever we go. We also use it at home to make 5 gal jugs of drinking water.

[ralper]

A water softner takes calcium and magnesium out of the water and replaces it with sodium. A RO unit takes out 98% of everything in the water. A RO unit is making very close to distilled water. A RO unit sends 3 gallons of water down the waste pipe for each gallon produced.

Buy only conventional water conditioners and not the snake oil that is being touted as the best thing since the invention of the wheel. The new revolutionary snake oil units will separate only your money from your bank account and do nothing for your water.

Find the grains per gallon of hardness and divide that number into the total grain capacity of the water softner to find out how many gallons can be used between regenerations. The average conservative person uses about 20 gallons per day of water. The ultra conservative person can get along on 5 gallons per day but it is a squeeze.

[TechWriter]

I installed a whole house sediment & carbon filter ahead of my On-The-Go water softener + an undersink RO unit that is plumbed so the waste water returns to the holding tank. No fuss, no muss, no waste.

Most of my stuff came from the RV Water Filter Store: Standard Filter Canisters for Whole RV

The owner, Richard Dahl, is very good at matching a system to your particular needs.

[MNRVr]

We finally went to the RO for the whole RV after trying to stay ahead of the super hard water along with the smelly hot water with our water softener. We were backflushing and recharging our small softener every three days (talk about a waste of water and also the salt going into the parks waste water treatment system) after sanitizing the system we can now drink the water from the RV faucet ( no more paying for bottled water and adding to the plastic waste). As far as waste water used for backflushing the membrane, we can either run it to a bush or tree that can use it or run it into the drain. Running it into the drain in my mind is not as bad as running a bucket of salt into waste water treatment systems. In fact most waste water plants can use more plain water to dilute the solids anyway.
Since we left Parker AZ last spring we have been making our own water for drinking and domestic with no problems for almost a year now.
You can buy an Ro system online for under $300.00 or pick on up at the flee market in Parker or Havasu. We use the 50 gallon per day unit and have no problem keeping up with demand, but you if you have a clothes washer you can get the 100 gallon per day unit for a little more money.

[Jr25]

I have the FloPur Pro 10000 installed and have been very impressed with it. Only thing I don't care for is the hole you add salt in is very small. Other than this, I really like it. Camping World's On the Go unit has a much larger cap for adding slat but looked like it required regenerating about 300-400 gallons sooner than the FloPur.

[Doug Sage]

First off I am a believer in water softeners. I am a full timer and have found hard water in nearly every state except for Oregon and Washington. Arizona is terrible! Texas isn't good either. You need a softener or you will have plugged up or restricted water flow through every restriction in your water system This not only includes your aerators on your faucets but also the back flow preventers. My rig has a bunch of those! I use the Travelsoft RV 1200 water softener. It is available through Camping World and also the Water Filter Store, RV Water Filter Store: Water Softeners and Mineral Reduction and probably other places too. You will need some water test strips which come with the softener or can be bought at various stores suck as Wal-Mart. Measure the water and it will tell you when you need to regenerate the softener. The time will vary with the hardness of the water in the area that you stay and the amount of water that you use. We shower in our rig, etc. and go about 2 - 3 weeks between regenerating. By the way, the softeners that only use table salt need to be regenerated much more frequently. Think about it, the Travelsoft needs 10 cups of rock salt and the others use 2 or 3 cups of table salt. How can less salt do more softening than more salt? Anyway, a softener is a bit of a pain to use but it sure saves a lot of problems down the road.