First you will need to find a water testing lab. It is possible you may be able to call a local water treatment plant and see who they use. This may be difficult as only about 25 percent of water is treated in Mexico. This may be better in San Miguel with a fairly large influx of folks who are used to treated water.

At a minimum, you want to know: pH, TDS (total dissolved solids),hardness, iron, manganese, sulfur, sulfate, chlorine (possibly, if it is added to local water), suspended solids, nitrates, arsenic (particularly if water will be used for drinking, tends to be a problem in the area), coliform bacteria. Once you have that information in hand, your treatment needs can be determined. Realize, up front, that if you install it DIY, you will be the one your client calls if there is ever a problem. You may not have a choice, given the lack of response from Culligan.

How many people will be in the home? Is it a residence or a vacation property? Number of baths? Any high water usage appliances, showers, pools, etc? Can you estimate water usage?

That should get us started.

Mexico is notorious for power outages. They have 120v/60hz, so that should be no problem. But certian water treatment systems work better under dubious electrical supply services.

Water pressure fluxuations are also a big problem.

As mentioned above, get all the data needed for a good set up. What type of water piping is there? Galvanized, copper?

You'll want to get something that is easy to maintain and has a long service history (meaning: reliable equipment).

Furthermore, I would suggest a drinking water system that will handle one of Mexico's most infamous stereotypes.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

You can locate a certified independent lab proximate to you here... http://www.epa.gov/safewater/labs

You can contact a lab and inquire about testing procedures and collecting samples. They will provide containers and instructions for doing so.

Understanding that you want to provide the best and most complete service for your very important customer, are you sure you want to get involved in water treatment as a middleman?

Even the most reliable water treatment equipment will need service or repair or a part at one time or another and your customer will expect a timely response in those instances and you won't be able to provide that.

You may want to discuss this situation with a local (to you) water treatment professional and see if they have suggestions. They may be willing to assist you by providing the testing, the equipment, some training, and spare parts to keep on hand.

Personally, my choice would be a Kinetico softener. That is the only water softener that does not require electricity and that seems to me to be an advantage in your scenario. They have a good reputation for reliable service in the field.

If not a Kinetico then definitely a Fleck control valve based water softener... the industry standard.

Thank you all for your advice. In reference to some of your comments, we have someone trying to get a hold of the local water company to help us with water testing. We tested (with a swimming pool kit!) the pH and chlorine - the pH as reported by the local "expert" is basic and there is little or no chlorine - but this is not enough info.

The house we are building is for a couple that are starting to spend more time in San Miguel than in the states. Although their family is small, they have grandkids and lots of friends so we expect them to have lots of people visiting from time to time. The house is large (10K sqft), and has 7 bathrooms - it is not finished yet (we are 4 months out still), but we have installed NSF certified CPVC throughout, except for a little copper here and there. In terms of power, it seems power issues, at least in this part of the country are not a concern - we can say it is as reliable as in the US, and certainly better than California sometimes.

In terms of the setup, we are getting fairly good pressure from the street (40psi) - but we know occasionally there are drought issues so we installed a cistern - the idea is to condition the water before it goes into the cistern, and use the conditioned water using a constant pressure Goulds system - that way, the softener would not be subjected to large variations in usage (when the house is packed) and we would not have a problem when there are water restrictions from the water company.

Any comments? Are we on the right track? We certainly do not want to become the water treatment middleman, but we are a little bit trapped in the middle and there does not seem to be anyone out there looking after our customer's needs - also, we are looking at other projects, and it seems this will be a nagging question we need to answer. Thanks for all your help - and let me know if you can provide pointers into reliable online suppliers - if we need to do this by private email, let me know.

A comprehensive water test is the first step. If water pressure drops below 40psi then there may be problems with the softener in regeneration.

This is not a simple or common installation and it is a large home. This will require premeditation and expertise. For now, and in the future (since you will end up being the water treatment support for your customer), bringing in a pro for consultation may be the best direction to go.

I'll repeat from my previous post... you may want to discuss this situation with a local (to you) water treatment professional and see if they have suggestions. They may be willing to assist you by providing the testing, the equipment, some training, and spare parts to keep on hand.

private email may be better...

If you or the homeowner are going to be a DIYer, the Clack valve is the best valve because of its ease of repair.

Fleck is having some problems with a couple of their control valves. The Clack is a copy of the Fleck seals, spacers and one moving part in the water stream piston design. Three ex Fleck engineers have designed the Clack line of controls. They had 70+ years of experience with Fleck. Clack is a larger and older company than Fleck also. For all but two residential Fleck controls, they require special model specific tools to replace the seals and spacers. The same number of seals and spacers are in the Clack design but one finger takes them all out in one piece instead of individually as the Fleck requires.

With the possibility of frequent variations in water pressure, you may not want a Kinetico water powered control valve. The Fleck and Clack controls are electric but the Clack has power outage protection in one version for 2 hours and another with a watch style battery that keeps the time set for up to 8 hours of no power. One or two Fleck valves have a battery. All Clack valves' programming is held in NOVRAM for up to 99 years. So if the power comes on in 2 or 8 hours, you don't have to do anything, if it's off for longer than that, you only have to set the time of day correctly.

The Clack has the same if not better quality than Fleck and it can be totally rebuilt in less than 30 minutes using nothing more than a pair of channel lock type pliers. The parts are much less expensive than Fleck, and that is by design; it was designed to be the easiest and quickest to repair, with the lowest priced parts. You can buy parts from the all independent dealers that sell Clack, Fleck, Autotrol or Erie controls.

The control valve has all the moving parts of a softener and that's why the quality and ease of repair is so critical to the quality and service free operation of a softener.

The Kinetico requires parts to be bought and changed to be able to change its settings. It usually will require a sediment prefilter. A softener with a Clack or Fleck control will not need a prefilter unless the water is visibly dirty. Kinetico is proprietary and you can not buy parts except through their local dealer. Clack and the others are sold thorough independent local and online dealers.

By the way, I should have started by saying that the homeowner realizes that we are not going to bring the water to drinking quality standards - they are concerned about the hardness but understand we are not going to install a water treatment facility to bring questionable water to NSF standards. The family understands they will have to buy bottled water for all their drinking water needs.

Why does the owner "realize" that? It is not all that difficult. You will need to follow certain standards but even pretty bad water can be made potable.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II