water softeners

[Rcnewell11]

What is pros and cons of water softners in my fiver

[huronwoods]

Pros:

Much nicer to shower with soft water
No hard water stains on shower door
Water heater lasts much longer
Fixtures last longer
Better for laundry, if you have a washer on board


Cons:

Has to be manually regenerated with salt
Extra weight to carry
One more thing to set up and put away


As fulltimers, we would not be without a water softener, especially in places like California and Arizona.

[Scotter]

Everything as above.
We use one everywhere we go.

[Rob_Fla]

Have no experience with Water Softener, we just been using a regulator and cartridge filter.

Nice looking Pinnacle !!!!!

[CampDaven]

Adds salt to your water.
Better for the skin of the sensitive ones.
Makes lousy coffee.
Costs money.
Been there, done that.
Each to their own choices.

[Rcnewell11]

Thanks on comment nice fiver rob .another thing is where to mount softner in fiver and is it worth it .time will go on and talk to more people about this option .

[Kro1957]

We are going to get one. Will a in line filter under sink for drinking water remove the salty softened water taste?

[spinn]

The only way to get rid of the salt (and salty taste) is to use reverse osmosis filtration (or deionization). Reverse osmosis (RO) is probably the most practical; however, there is a downside(s). First the RO process only harvests about 30% of the water you put into it, so your grey tank will fill fast. Secondly most RO system operate at 30-50 psi, which would be no problem when you are docked but will require you to use your pump a lot more if dry camping. Thirdly RO strips all the minerals from the water, which leaves the water tasting flat and there are some opinions that purified water (RO, Distilled, Deionized) is not necessarily good for you (cant say that i fully agree but wanted to mention it)

I have been wrestling with this for a while and wish there were an easy way to avoid softening the drinking water without relying on bottled water. In our S/B we soften water then use RO for drinking as both my wife and I have high blood pressure and most water softeners use sodium as the ions exchanged for Magnesium and Calcium ions (the typical hardness minerals). On home units you can use Potassium salts to recharge the softening ion bed, this gets rid of the Sodium but makes the water taste even more "off" (IMHO).

Soft water is certainly great for laundry, showering, etc. No water marks, no crusty build up on fixtures and showerhead and can't beat softened water for rinsing your rig and car! That bottled water option is beginning to sound better

Have fun

[hardy1000]

We have a water softner at home and in our RV. Easy and inexpensive to operate just recharge with table salt and your good. If you spend time in Arizona alot of places have very hard water.

[Kro1957]

Spinn, I am not a plumber by trade but have done a lot of it in my home.
I could be wrong, but I would think a person could come off the main line coming into the coach prior to line entering the WS, put in a two way split, one would feed into the softner and the other to a direct water filtration system with faucet stem on side of kitchen sink. That would be the only line that would not be softened. I would think this issue has been addressed before so someone must have a benchmark we could work from. I might make a call to Culligans who do this in residental homes might have a solution for our application.

[spinn]

Originally Posted by Kro1957

Spinn, I am not a plumber by trade but have done a lot of it in my home.
I could be wrong, but I would think a person could come off the main line coming into the coach prior to line entering the WS, put in a two way split, one would feed into the softner and the other to a direct water filtration system with faucet stem on side of kitchen sink. That would be the only line that would not be softened. I would think this issue has been addressed before so someone must have a benchmark we could work from. I might make a call to Culligans who do this in residental homes might have a solution for our application.

Kro1957, thanks for the suggestion I will look into it. My initial thoughts were to treat the water as it went into the holding tank, hence no additional plumbing and hence the drinking water issue.

thanks again - Steve

[hardy1000]

We fill our tank 1/2 with soft water for traveling and when we have hook ups we run city water through the in side of the water softner and from the outside of the softner to the city water hook up.

http://www.portablewatersoftener.com/

[bigmichael]

We're FTers and use a water softener for all the positives mentioned. The washing machine, the shower, eliminate many of the deposits etc etc.

What has worked very well for us is that the softener is connected so that all of the water than goes through the whole house filter in the coach. Then we always keep a filled "Brita" pitcher of water in the fridge. so our drinking water is always ice cold and filtered twice.

[Kro1957]

Michael, The double filtration with Britta gets rid of the soft water taste?