"How often should I regen if I have iron in my system?" With iron I'd say every 4 or 5 days and you'd need to do routine maintenance with Iron Out or a similar product. "Should I go with the two tank Softener? if so, do I need two control valves? If not, then how does the 2nd regen?" You'll be fine with a single resin tank softener regenerating at 2AM unless that poses a problem for you. "Would I still need the Acid Neutralizer if I get a new system?" Your PH is low so a neutralizer is indicated. Make sure they supply a tank with a top dome plug so it's EZ to add media when necessary. "Is resin cleaner the same as Iron Out? How often should I use it? Do I just pour it in the canister? Which one?" Resin cleaner is Iron Out or Super Iron Out and you can buy those locally and use them yourself. I'll post an EZ regimen when you decide what to do. "Should I move my Hot Water heater closer to the system?" Why? "Using the calculations in these threads, I will need a 48K Softener. Is that the same for all tanks?" A 1,5 cu ft softener may be correct but the neutralizer will increase the hardness the softener must remove so that has to be considered. You may require different tank sizes for the different apparatus because the different media has different characteristics. "What system would you recommend? My wife is always complaing about the laundry, showers, etc. So I want to do this right the first time." Sounds like you found a local water treatment pro that knows what they are doing. Call a competitor and get other quotes and details on the recommended hardware and post them here. "I will have 2 bypasses for this system (factory and 3-ball)." A VERY good idea.

GardenWeb Community, I need your assistance. I am needing to size a water softening and whole house filtering system for my home and there are many different approaches I have found on the web with different values, peak vs. average flow rates, etc. Based on the feedback I have read thus far from Justalurker and aliceinwonderland_id on this site I am leaning towards a Fleck softening system but not sure which one. Also looking for ideas on a whole home filtering system based on the below test results. We live in Anchorage, Alaska and we just bought a 6000 sqft., 3 bed 3.5 bath house with 3 people living in it (wife, 2.5 yr old daughter, and myself). All appliances are high efficiency Frigidaire Professional series, Triangle Tube Prestige Water heater, etc. A recent water test was performed by a local sales company and the basic results are as follows: TDS: 125 ppm Hardness: 10 gpg pH 7.0 Total Alkalinity 120 ppm Total Iron 0.1 ppm Total Manganese 0.2 ppm Coliform: Neg colonies/100mL Nitrate: 5.09 mg/L Arsenic: ND ug/L Let me know if any additional information is needed in order to provide any recommendations. Any recommendations are welcomed and I genuinely appreciate the assistance in advance. Regards, Derek

Oliviag/ bring back Sophie When there is a water quality problem, the very first step is to identify exactly what it is that needs to be removed and how much of it is present. Then you use the appropriate filters to accomplish that. You don't do it the other way - go look for filters and hope that it addresses the water problem. You have been taking random guesses at wildly inappropriate filtering suggestions. In this case the OP (Diane - not a guy) has said they have: Iron: We don't know what type or how much other than "high" Hardness: 40 grains per gallon - which is extremely hard Tannins: Apparently high These are specific problems - with known and specific filtering solutions. For example, a filter that can remove taste and odor, will not remove hardness. A filter that removes sediment will not remove tannis. High levels of Iron can clog everything up and needs to be cleaned up first. We know exactly what the chemistry is and how to successfully treat these problems - without any guessing or magic or fairy dust. It's been done in millions of applications for decades. All of these problems require a backwashing filter. It should make sense that if you have a lot of something that you are removing from the water with a filter - you have to actually get rid of it. If you are vacuuming a dirty house, you have to eventually empty the vacuum canister -- it's the same idea. There wasn't any device in the link that you provided that addressed any of the OP's concerns. Not one of the devices removed hardness. None removed iron, none removed tannins. To the extent that some of them contained a carbon filter, they could - in some application - reduce chlorine and tastes / odors. That's it. Most of the claims ranged from completely unprovable to outright fraudulent. Here's a tip: 99% of "scale inhibiting" devices in the residential market are bogus - particularly things with magnetic windings around a pipe and anything that mentions "salt free softening". It was telling that one of the filters on the list that offered "salt free softening" had a performance data sheet - it would remove chlorine - which is what any carbon filter will do. BTW: What you were looking at was not a legitimate review - you understand that don't you? This isn't someone who has tested any of these systems or even has any knowledge of water chemistry or water treatment. This was a "paid reviewer". The entire site is bogus and is constructed simply to earn credit for linking to Amazon. I have already told the OP what I would do - she posted this elsewhere.

I'm not a plumber, but I've never heard of a "water pressure booster". And your issue may be more complicated than just adding a gizmo. Since you're on a well, you have a well pump with a pressure switch and a pressure tank. And somewhere in the vicinity of where the line comes from the pump, you should have a gauge. You should know what the cut-in and cut-out points are and you can get that by watching the gauge as the water is left running so that the switch cuts in & out. Get those numbers first. "Normal" is 40psi cut-in and 60psi cut-out, roughly (some people like 30/50, some 50/70, but normally it's a 20psi range). Once you know that, then you can determine if maybe the pressure switch is set wrong, or if your pump isn't generating enough pressure (less likely, but possible). Or if the gauge is reading roughly correct, then the problem is downstream from there, and perhaps indicates a clog or other partial blockage. Does pressure seem low if you only turn on one tap, or is it only if you turn on multiple taps? Is it constantly low, or seem to swing between "good" and low? Depending on what's been replaced over the years, and who did that replacement, you may have an imbalance that needs a little professional TLC. While well systems aren't overly complicated, there is a bit of a delicate dance that plays out between all of the parts.