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/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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2030448 No.2030448 [Reply] [Original]

I got hard water. And Chicago's Lake Michigan water is crap, and it's mixed with local well water where I am; Which is using polluted ground water.

Does anyone know of any good central water filters? I'm not talking about those crappy ones you put on each faucet, but the ones that you would see on houses that catch their own water from the roof runoff, and have to filter all the chemicals out acquired from the shingles. That's just one example, but one of those kinds of central filters.

Or is that just what a water softener is? I honestly don't really know.

In that case, does anyone know of any good water softeners? My house used to have one like 20 years ago, I don't know why they removed it, the water's still crap.

>> No.2030455

>>2030448
You're a faggot, OP

Some friendly suggestions for posting:
- First ask Google, then ask /diy/. Your question will probably be better received if you do s

>> No.2030468

Sterling water softeners are decent. It's what we install. I can post Monday with what filters and housings we use. What is your house plumbed it? With cpvc it's fairly simple for any ol retard to throw it together so I'd have faith in basically anyone to be able to do it. Basically you'd want to throw a filter at the source for the house, then you can run into the softener and tie back into the existing plumbing with softened water. Post pics nigger

>> No.2030471

>>2030455
Does it matter? I did (briefly) look up what a water softener is just to be sure, but I don't know if it's quite the same as the filter I've seen in the application I described. They kept calling it a filter, and not a water softener.

>> No.2030477

>>2030468
I don't really know how to interoperate "What is your house plumbed it?" But I assume you want me to describe the water setup at my house. It comes in through the basement, where the meter is, then it goes next to the furnace where the water heater is and where the water softener was 20 years ago, and then from there it goes to the rest of the house. It's all copper pipes.
Like I said, there was a softener there 20 years ago, so there's this weird bend in the pipe where it was at. I was just gonna de-solder the pipes and put on a valve there and connect it with flex hoses. like I did my water heater.

>> No.2030483

>>2030468
>>2030477
And I should clarify that the bend in the pipes where the water softener was is before the water is distributed to the rest of the house. But it's after the meter of course. So it's basically at the source.

>> No.2030492

>>2030448
What an odd question to place on a chechnian river rafting forum

>> No.2030500

>>2030492
Idk, it's called /diy/ so I figured people here would be into that Home Improvement stuff.

The show, not actually the work. It's still 4chan. Have you SEEN aut/o/?

>> No.2030512

>>2030492
what materials do you use for your raft

>> No.2031006

>>2030512
Mostly poplar birch and some hickory. Hardwoods float better being more dense but as a member of the raft club shouldn't you know? We caulk with oakum like men

>> No.2031014

>>2030477
Flex hoses is niggery anon. At least use good quality pex and plumbites if you want to be a nigger

>> No.2031238

>>2030455
You're the faggot.
>>2030448
Water softeners have a gravel bed then a resin bed. Some even go further and have extra layers like sand and anthracite coal but this is usually not the case. Water softeners will filter to a certain extent, but will do very little to remove chemicals that are soluble in water.

>> No.2031297

>>2031014
Plastic pipes are stupid. Copper is where it's at.

>> No.2031299

>>2031238
What are those filters called that filter out chemicals then? I wish they specified what kind of filter the house had that was capturing roof runoff water. All I remember is that they kept calling it a "filter" and that if the test came back with too high amounts, they would need another one. They were testing for chemicals being leeched from the roof shingles.

>> No.2031302

>>2030448
Mechanical engineer here. Some experts in the thread might have mor niche experience than me. But what I'd recommend is a water softener setup with a filter. Most COME WITH filters as part of the setup, which should help you alot.

Another thing to consider if your water is pretty dirty is a centrifugal separator. Pools and cooling towers have these as part of the system. You'll need a small circulator pump to go with it.

>> No.2031305

>>2031297
This. I'm getting reports of even Uponor plastic/PEX piping is failing with pinhole leaks everywhere.

Copper is king.

>> No.2031350

>>2031305
Just when I thought things couldn't get any cheaper, they do. Let me preface the following by saying I don't really go to the hardware store that often, but I didn't even know they were using plastic water supply pipes until last year. And I never thought I'd see plastic paint buckets before. I mean I'm fine with the paint buckets, but not the pipes. Unless they're drainage pipes. But even then, drainage pipes can crack and leak something worse then fresh water.

>48 year old black water pipe in my house cracked at a joint, and flex seal just keeps leaking around the edges.

Also I thought black water was called brown water. It sounds 10 times funnier though. :)

>> No.2031352

>>2031302
Do you know what those filters are called that filter chemicals?

>> No.2031353

>>2031350
*Sorry, Flex Tape. Not the Flex Seal.

>> No.2031506

>>2031352
Usually activated charcoal filters (for removing organic contaminants) or ion exchange filters (mostly for heavy metals, but a water softener uses ion exchange to remove calcium etc too)

It's foolish to just spend a lot of money to install a water softener if it's not going to be useful for your particular water source. In a lot of parts of the country, there's just no real point to using one, and they add sodium to your water which isn't great for watering plants. Some "health" people feel like the 1-2g a day of salt added to your drinking water may not be helpful either.

What I am saying is; you should either get your water tested professionally (it's less than 100$) or look to your city/water company's testing analysis report to see what kind of filter to use.
There are a lot of companies that offer "free" water testing, but it's usually just so they can call you and try to sell you expensive systems that you might not need.

Most household water filtration in the USA comes in the form of filter housings that you install into the water line which can be equipped with industry standard filter cartridges of different types. Activated carbon for removing chemicals, spun polyproplyene for removing sediment etc etc. Reverse osmosis is almost never used for the entire house, as it would be very expensive to do, and often has other downsides such as causing corrosion to metal fixtures.
Water softeners are another option and are almost always combined with other filter types.

I've had a water softener company try to sell me a 3000$ system for use on a water well supply that had less than 15ppm of total dissolved solids. In other words, the water was already incredibly soft and in no way needed that system.

>> No.2031528

>>2031506
I mean I'll get a test done, but trust me, I got hard water.

I don't wash the electric kettle all the time, but there's this white chalky crap that forms at the edge of where I usually fill it and at the pour spout. And if I have a pot of water that I'm boiling there's more of that chalky crap that forms above the water line. The faucets and showerheads got that crusty shit on it. And the water doesn't taste very good either. It's like swimming pool water diluted with crappy mineral water. It smells a bit like a pool too.

I don't know why they removed the water softener 20 years ago. They didn't really switch completely to Lake Michigan water, they just started adding Lake Michigan water to the well water we already had. The well pumping station a few blocks from me is still very active. Not that the lake Michigan water is any good anyway.

>> No.2031532

>>2031528
Yeah, that does sound like the perfect scenario for a water softener

>> No.2031540

>>2031532
I'm imagining that when I get a water softener, I'll look back on this and be like "HOLY SHIT I CAN'T BELIEVE I USED TO THINK THIS SHIT WAS NORMAL!" I mean I've been living like this my whole life. I've only now just started taking it seriously, since I started to realize how terrible things are. I'm 20 years old. When you realize some things while you're still young, usually you're not fucked for life. And I'm not just talking about the water filters.

>> No.2033155

Bump