Home Improvement Today?

KCl is EXPENSIVE. Where did you buy it?

But I was thinking about this! Any unit will work regardless if K or Na?

 

Aqua Pure FLECK 5600 HIGH PERFORMANCE CONTROL VALVE

 

I was buying it at Lowes, I don't recall it being that expensive. If I remember correctly my softener was a Westinghouse (from Lowes) and it had a setting for either K or Na. I know I could definitely tell the difference between the two.

 

Why not hold onto the electric dryer until you're sure the gas line can/will be done? Once it's confirmed with the code office & your contractor agrees to do the work, well then I'd initiate the exchange process.

 

What size is the gas line to the water heater? If it's 3/4 you will be fine with using that to also supply the dryer. If it's 1/2" it will probably not cover the BTU's of both the dryer and water heater.

Code wise you should be fine running exposed black iron along the garage wall. It will need to be strapped every 8' or less but your plumber will know that. I'd also suggest running the gas line down the garage wall then making the penetration behind the dryer. That keeps all the pipe work on the garage side except for the nipple that goes into the laundry room. It will look cleaner that way.

 

Yea check on the codes. I think in some state you cant run a gas line like that. would need be direct. How much is it to cut a hole in the all and opposed to running it up and down? I personally would not want to see a line in running along the ceiling and wall. Doing sheet rock work isnt a big deal really. Prob be way cheaper no?

A typical water-softening system removes calcium and magnesium ions from hard water and replaces them with sodium ions. I had installed a whole home filtration and water softener system since my city water is not great. You could instantly tell the difference in the water. The way it felt, smelled, and tasted. I highly recommend at least a water softener. if you want to protect your pipes and appliances, shower hears, etc. When we go out to eat out some where and have water we can tell the difference right way. its wild.

 

If you're running the fleck softener only you need inline sediment and carbon pre-filters. Sediment filters will keep debris out of the resin tank and the carbon will filter smell, taste, and bacteria.

Have you tried regenerating your fleck system again to see if it clears it up? You can use potassium or salt. Potassium is supposedly healthier, but we use Mortan Salt softener pellets. I would think the taste is from the untreated water, possibly the resin itself, or something other than the salt. Have you considered a reverse osmosis system in the kitchen? They're about $200-$300. https://aquasureusa.com/collections/premier-reverse-osmosis

Our Phoenix city water is awful, so we've first purchased a Halo 5 whole house water filter/conditioner. It removed the chlorine and some other junk from the city water, but we still weren't satisfied. So we added an Aquasure 48k grain softener (pretty much the same as fleck) and an additional inline wall mounted sediment and carbon filter. I also have a DI Rinse Pro-100 ionized water tank (not in picture) for spot free car washes.

If I were to do it again I would have never bought the HALO 5. It's really over priced for what it does or doesn't do rather. I would have done sediment filter, carbon filter, and then the Aquasure softener or even one of Aquasure's "Fortitude whole house water filters" before the softener. (It's basically a giant sediment and carbon filter.) https://aquasureusa.com/collections/fortitude-whole-house-water-treatment I probably would have gone one size larger on the softener too like to 60k grain. Ours regenerates about once a week as does the HALO 5.

Yard tool racks were installed before the water system, so excuse the mess...

 

I'd just keep the electric dryer. Our house is mix of gas and electric and we have the option to use either for the Dryer. Our dryer crapped during the shutdown this year and Lowes had an electric LG DLE3400W in stock so we bought it without hesitation and had it delivered the next day. https://www.lowes.com/pd/LG-7-4-cu-...VmSCtBh0QdgJgEAQYAiABEgIEd_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Nobody else had squat in stock and we felt blessed that we didn't have to wait weeks or months for a major appliance. It doesn't have a light inside, but it works great and is extra large capacity.

As far as a preference I prefer gas for water heaters and cooking ranges, but electric for ovens. We installed a gas tankless water heater a few years back and plan to run a gas line to the kitchen from the outside wall soon to replace our aging electric cooktop/oven combo.

 

Sometimes simple is the best option...

 

Started scraping popcorn off the ceiling today. Hallway complete. Dining, foyer ...and living room up next. No pics cuz F popcorn!

 

I hate popcorn so much I just threw new 1/2" on the lid. It was $9 a sheet and I hung the whole kitchen, living room and hallway in 3 hours. I called in a favor from a buddy to tape and mud it. Scraping it was an option but it was way faster and less messy doing it the way I did. lol

 

We have a triple filter for the drinking tap in the kitchen. It does a great job. Of course does not remove dissolved minerals.

The system should regen tonight, but the bandaid taste is almost gone - of course I can't detect it at the drinking faucet (carbon filter) just the other faucets. I'm guessing tomorrow it will be gone.

BTW our Lowe's had like zero salt of any variety left. I am not sure if they are just idiots or this is an actual shortage. Will check HD and others this week.

What the hell would happen is I use 50/50 NaCl and KCl? Probably would favor the more soluble? Or the salt that has more affinity for the resin beads.

HERE IS THE YACKER: Wife wanted soft water because of Ca an Mg build up and how it makes her skin rough. NOW she doesn't like the Na taste and says "slippery". UGGGGGGGHHH!!! I told her she can use less soap.

 

You should be able to adjust the "softness" of the water. Ours is different water softener but i can adjust it

 

Not sure. The manual is unclear on the subject. Will investigate. Thanks!

 

maybe this help?
https://www.aquatell.ca/blogs/aquat...eck-5600sxt-softener-valve-for-max-efficiency

 

Id go for it. Same deal was in my house and I ran a new line. $1100 sounds steep. You can run yourself for probably $200 in material. If you don’t have a threader the local stores can cut and thread to length. Gas dryer is much more efficient and your electric bill will thank you.

 

Give it another day or so, sounds like the smell is clearing up. You'll get used to the slippery feeling. Ours is most noticeable right after regeneration and dissipates as it gets closer to the next regeneration cycle. At 48k grains mine is set to cycle every 2500 gallons, which is about every week or so. (We use lots of water and our hardness level ranges from roughly 300-350ppm.) The Aquasure lowers it to less than 10ppm.

The Fleck should allow you to modify some settings if needed like brine draw time and longer rinse times after backwashing, but I've always left our Aquasure on factory settings except for the regenerating schedule (every 2500 gallons).

We always buy 5 or so bags of salt at a time as HD and Lowes will give a discount with larger quantities. Haven't seen a shortage here in AZ, but people are nuts these days so I like to stay stocked on several essentials if I can afford it. Our grocery stores carry salt near the checkout at the front of the store, so you might check yours too. Btw, you can mix salt and potassium pellets without issue.

My understanding with resin softeners is the calcium and magnesium minerals are absorbed by the resin and the salt or potassium is used to wring out or rinse the resin during regeneration. Some of that makes it into the water and that's why you get the slippery feeling. The resin has a limited lifespan depending of water hardness (usually many years) and will eventually need to be replaced.

These types of softeners are different than the non resin type which just dump salt or potassium into the water flow as you use it. Having used both types I can say the resin softeners are the only kind that actually soften the water as they remove calcium and magnesium.

One last thing, our city water is full of excessive chlorine which is another reason I suggested the carbon filter before the softener. Too much chlorine or salt will eat away at your plumbing and isn't healthy, but you'll be fine with the Fleck and the carbon filters.

 

Next project will be removing this door frame between the living room and kitchen.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, folks! We will talk to the plumber again today and I will reply to each of you below.

We don't have an electric dryer. We moved into a new house and the previous owners took the appliances.

When the plumber came by for a quote he said that the line is big enough to handle both. If it wasn't then I think we'd just return the new gas dryer and deal with an electric.

I'm going to rely on the plumber for code compliance and that's what he's waiting for - making sure with the city that they don't have anything prohibiting what we want to do.

He said that to run the line inside the wall would cost at least double and that he doesn't do drywall repair so we'd either have to do it - which I am terrible at - or hire someone - which would cost even more.

Sorry but we don't have an electric dryer. As above, the previous owners took the appliances with them when they moved out. Supply situation has gotten even worse through the summer so we feel just as fortunate as you did to even get one. For the dryer specifically the Houston area got 400 last Monday at the distribution center. By the time we made the second trip to Lowe's to ask if it was back in stock on Tuesday, they had 3 left.

I've done some asking around and $1100 is apparently fair for the area. Right now for anyone doing professional trades - plumbers, electricians, welders, etc. - there's so much work that they can choose their jobs and charge whatever they want.

I'm not sure about doing it myself. Maybe if we weren't new to the area and I knew someone who could show me the way, but gas lines are too important and the margin too small to try to do it with YouTube as my mentor.

 

I'd just get an elec. dryer. My house is the same setup.