Hard water cleanup

[marknpeg]

We've spent the last three months in a place with very hard water, and without a water softener. We're starting to realize that is a mistake - shower spray is all sprangly, the shower door has a nice "castle rock" effect now, other faucets require a bit of cleaning, etc. Definitely looking into a water softener setup and looking for recommendations. I've seen the big outside tanks some folks have, but there's gotta be a more integrated solution.

But my real question, we now have three months of buildup in the pipes and I want to clean it out. I know I can use something like CLR to clean up stains and deposits outside the pipes, but what can I run through the system to help inside them? Any suggestions?

[TonyDi]

You can try running white vinegar through the system. However I don't know what strength you would need. I do know you'll have to let it sit for a while and then flush the lines.

[Thor29.3inAZ]

As mentioned, white vinegar. Depending on how much build up you have, which sounds like a little more than normal, a higher concentration will be needed and time set for a while. I myself, would run CLR in a small amount through the system and then flush it out. Then use the vinegar. We have hard water but run a charcoal filter. It helps but doesn't filter it all out.

[J Birder]

There probably is not as much buildup inside the pipes as you think. The buildup occurs when hard water sits on a surface and then evaporates, leaving the calcium behind. As there is very little evaporation inside the pipes, there is very little buildup.

Joel

[Mrb1ll]

I'm building a deionized water system for washing/rinsing the RV but bought double of everything with the intent of having one unit in the coach and one for home use. I'm now trying to figure out how to treat all water as it enters the coach. It is an expensive treatment for a sticks & bricks house but probably not that bad on an RV. After all, how much water do you really use? We have use bottled water for drinking and cooking so the rest is showers, washing, laundry and toilet. I find myself being rather water conscious in the coach so I don't think I'll break the bank doing a deionization system for all the water.

At home, and for drinking/cooking in the RV, we use a Britta type system for drinking water BUT use filter cartridges from "www.zerowater.com". These are amazing, NO, make that AMAZING, at removing the dissolved solids in water. I used a senor system to check my tap water for TDS (total dissolved solids) and got a reading of 671 (that's someplace around clear concrete). Ran that water though the filter and the reading was 4. If you want a real visual/word demo of how well this works, I ran red wine thru and it come out clear, just like a glass of water. I don't drink as a personal choice so I didn't "try" the treated red wine to see if the alcohol remained. The filters have a little window on them that changes from purple to green when it is time to replace.

They are available online, Walmart, Target, and other retailers. If you visit the site they have coupons too. Cost is around $12-15, depending on how many you buy and they have programs to automatically ship at certain points/periods. It is more expensive than other filters but I've yet to find one more effective and is also is certified for lead removal. We have a humidifier (live in Las Vegas and a high humidity day is 15%) to add some moisture to the air. Was using distilled water at around $1 per gallon/per day or the humidifier would get "white" in two weeks from the crud in our tap water. Now I use the ZEROWATER filter treated water and have had NO crud on the machine in six months of near constant use.

No, I don't work for the company, but when you find something good you stick with it. These are GREAT.

[Mrb1ll]

Originally Posted by Mrb1ll

I'm building a deionized water system for washing/rinsing the RV but bought double of everything with the intent of having one unit in the coach and one for home use. I'm now trying to figure out how to treat all water as it enters the coach. It is an expensive treatment for a sticks & bricks house but probably not that bad on an RV. After all, how much water do you really use? We have use bottled water for drinking and cooking so the rest is showers, washing, laundry and toilet. I find myself being rather water conscious in the coach so I don't think I'll break the bank doing a deionization system for all the water.

At home, and for drinking/cooking in the RV, we use a Britta type system for drinking water BUT use filter cartridges from "www.zerowater.com". These are amazing, NO, make that AMAZING, at removing the dissolved solids in water. I used a senor system to check my tap water for TDS (total dissolved solids) and got a reading of 671 (that's someplace around clear concrete). Ran that water though the filter and the reading was 4. If you want a real visual/word demo of how well this works, I ran red wine thru and it come out clear, just like a glass of water. I don't drink as a personal choice so I didn't "try" the treated red wine to see if the alcohol remained. The filters have a little window on them that changes from purple to green when it is time to replace.

They are available online, Walmart, Target, and other retailers. If you visit the site they have coupons too. Cost is around $12-15, depending on how many you buy and they have programs to automatically ship at certain points/periods. It is more expensive than other filters but I've yet to find one more effective and is also is certified for lead removal. We have a humidifier (live in Las Vegas and a high humidity day is 15%) to add some moisture to the air. Was using distilled water at around $1 per gallon/per day or the humidifier would get "white" in two weeks from the crud in our tap water. Now I use the ZEROWATER filter treated water and have had NO crud on the machine in six months of near constant use.

No, I don't work for the company, but when you find something good you stick with it. These are GREAT.

I should have mentioned how much water I can filter per cartridge. The company says I should get ~8 gallons based on our exceptionally hard water which would make the treatment expensive. However, I've kept records of how many gallons I get per filter and average around 16-20. That makes my water at a price comparable with distilled but I need not go to the store to purchase. I was given about 50 filters at a trade show and gave most to friends, keeping a few for myself. I didn't know how good they were at that time. Now I wish I had been stingy. LOL

[simplecamper]

There are portable water softeners on amazon. I have seen them used before.

[paz]

Originally Posted by marknpeg

...Definitely looking into a water softener setup and looking for recommendations. I've seen the big outside tanks some folks have, but there's gotta be a more integrated solution...

Because portable water softeners have to be manually recharged as opposed to home units that are permanently installed and recharge automatically, you have to have access to the unit to be able to disconnect and reconnect hoses, to remove the lid to add salt, etc. Therefore, it would be hard to integrate them into your RV plumbing system.

When we had a motorhome, the wet bay was big enough to keep the water softener in there, but now that we have a 5th wheel it has to sit outside. It's a small price to pay to keep the plumbing clean.

Originally Posted by marknpeg

..But my real question, we now have three months of buildup in the pipes and I want to clean it out. I know I can use something like CLR to clean up stains and deposits outside the pipes, but what can I run through the system to help inside them? Any suggestions?

You can use CLR on the shower doors, especially if they are glass, but check the instructions for use on use on plastics. For the shower head and faucets, the best way non-toxic I have found to remove hard water is to soak them in white vinegar.

Running something through the plumbing to clean out deposits would be tricky. I wouldn't worry about it that much since you were only in a hard water area for a few months. There are a lot more deposits on things like the shower head and faucet aerators than inside the pipes because the areas that are exposed to the air allow evaporation of the water to take place leaving more minerals behind.

[Indy54]

I've owned this one for over 2 years. Works great

[marknpeg]

Originally Posted by J Birder

There probably is not as much buildup inside the pipes as you think. The buildup occurs when hard water sits on a surface and then evaporates, leaving the calcium behind. As there is very little evaporation inside the pipes, there is very little buildup.

Joel

Thanks, makes perfect sense. One of those...I shoulda thought of that...moments.

Originally Posted by Mrb1ll

I'm building a deionized water system for washing/rinsing the RV but bought double of everything with the intent of having one unit in the coach and one for home use.

This is something I want to do, and I've seen what some other folks have done. The other aspect of the hard water is washing the coach and the toad, spots everywhere.

My wife also posted a question on Xcapers and what we're hearing all around is that you definitely need a good water softener and the external tanks that I didn't want to deal with are really the best solution. Since we're headed west in a month, the time to get it done is now so there will be an order placed this weekend.

[Indy54]

[Clay L]

After we started using our Mark 8000 Flopur water softener we had little pieces of white scale that flaked off the pipes in our faucet screens for a couple of years. I was told that the soft water dissolved and loosened the scale.

[marknpeg]

Done, easy enough to set up and after washing some dishes we reran the hardness test. Went from 200ppm to between 40-80ppm, and will likely get a little better as the plumbing flushes out. I like Indy54's option too, might have to see if I can mount it near the wet bay. The Oasis is next door, but I've got some options.

[marknpeg]

Oh and the lemonade tastes better too!