Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] Water Softener necessary?

03 January 2016

Re: [DIY] Water Softener necessary?

Sorry for the misunderstandingJan...my fault.

I have no problems with the 'feel' of softened water. I do not consider it slimy but there is a difference... my skin feels clean..without the softner if feels...rough ?

No problems with my hair.

Hate the taste but that doesnt matter because we buy filtered water at the grocery store.

We had an under the counter filter for a little over a year. Since we have a country well and live in an agricultural area we are concerned about farm chemicals. Our filter was supposed to last 6 months. When I had water tested at 2 and 3 months and found that strange things were getting through, we removed the filter system and started to fill jugs at the store.

Joyce aka Mom aka Nana

On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 2:19 PM, 'oakridgefarm@gmail.com' oakridgefarm@gmail.com [DoIt_Yourself] <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Wasn't what I wanted to hear :) Aside from the expense to purchase and maintain ——how is the feel? What does it do to your hair? Is it slimy feeling? Any difference in the taste of the water? Any other pros/cons to just having one?? A spot for it might present a problem, I'll have to do some looking at the actual size, then the pricing

Jan Flood
oakridgefarm@gmail.com

On Jan 2, 2016, at 10:02 AM, Joyce O theoldhen@gmail.com [DoIt_Yourself] <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

If you have 'hard' water or a lot of iron in it, you should get a water softner. Our first home had a lot of iron. Even with the water softner we still had some iron come through. In the house we have lived in for 30 years now, if we didnt have a water softner we would have a real problem with our faucets.

When my kids were younger, we had a problem with the softner. I could not afford to have a service man come out for about 8 months. Finally had to get him out here because 3 or 4 of our faucets had corroded because of the white lime.

The hardness can be tested 'in home.' Around here. there are stores that offer free testing.

Our softnener was installed in the 70's by the previous owners.Maybe even before that. I have had a softner repairman here at least 3 times to replace parts. He also sells new ones and rebuilt ones. He recently quoted me $650 for a rebuilt softner...they are less than that in stores. His new one is about $1,300 and I am not going to pay that when I can buy one at Farm and Fleet for less than $500.

A water softner salesman told me many years ago that we could use salt blocks. The 50 pound blocks and have good results. I have used blocks since then even thought other softner sales people say my system wont work right. A large block breaks down slower than the bagged chips.Just like large chlorine tablets break down slower in a swimming pool thank the small ones.

Good luck

Joyce aka Mom aka Nana

On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 8:58 AM, 'oakridgefarm@gmail.com' oakridgefarm@gmail.com [DoIt_Yourself] <DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

[Attachment(s) from oakridgefarm@gmail.com included below]
We have hard water here, the new hot water heater already had a deposit on the elements. Of course the plumber recommended a water softener, $2000. But I've never had one, and never had a real problem even when we did live in a place with hard water. So what's the solution? I don't want to spend another $2000 if it's not necessary. Is it worth it to buy a test kit to determine just how hard the water is??

I envisioned all types of problems in rebuilding our barn - but didn't anticipate all this. We've not even started on the barn yet!!

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Jan Flood
oakridgefarm@gmail.com