Replies

1. 
   DanH | Jan 28, 2008 06:20am | #1

   Just third hand info that they're pretty decent but more expensive than your standard Sears unit.

   If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
2. 
   England1 | Jan 28, 2008 03:00pm | #2

   Installed the biggest one 4+ years ago. Been very happy with the performance. Service was good too ... lost the controller due to lightning hit. Had a replacement board in three days. I recomend it.

3. 
   formula1 | Jan 28, 2008 08:17pm | #3

   Bought a Water Boss unit in the late 90's before I knew better. They are essentially inexpensive, disposable units. Valve parts are replaceable, but the resin isn't. My resin started going bad (breaking into little pieces) after about 6 years.

   For some extra money you can buy online a real softener with a Clack WS-1 valve. Buy the same unit from a local vendor and spend double your money. The Clack valve is fully repairable (if ever needed!) with simple tools by the homeowner, and the resin is replaceable after the typical life of 10-15 years or so.

   If it ain't broke, don't fix it, just open it up to see how it works!

1. 
   upnorthframer | Jan 28, 2008 08:22pm | #4

   I've had mine for two years.  Haven't been overly impressed with it.  I still get an orange build up in my toilets and hard water stains on items.  Somtimes I think i'm just burning up salt for nothing.  But maybe i'm missing somthing..... I have the bigger unit from menards, i think the 700. 

   upnortframer

   "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!!!"

1. 
   TomW | Jan 28, 2008 09:47pm | #5

   Orange stains are from high iron and a water softener is generally a poor way to remove iron.

1. 
   upnorthframer | Jan 28, 2008 10:05pm | #6

   What do you recommend for Iron?

   upnorthframer

   "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!!!"

1. 
   TomW | Jan 28, 2008 11:03pm | #7

   I had very high iron and manganese levels and installed a pyrolox filter purchased from http://abundantflowwater.com/ .  manganese greensand filter will also do a good job from my research. My system does exactly what I needed it to. I have no more staining issues and the bad taste and smell are gone as well.

   I have no affiliation with the company listed above other than the fact that they gave me the straight scoop on water treatment options and sold their systme at a reasonable price. Customer support after the sale was excellent as well.

   There are a lot of snake oil salesmen in the water treatment biz, Do your research before you buy anything.

2. 
   HootOwl | Jan 28, 2008 11:33pm | #8

   Definitely sounds like you have troublesome iron deposits in the media. 

   Well water or city?  If city, they aren't doing their job very well.  If well water, do you know the iron content of the raw water?  Ferrous iron or ferric iron?  Some of both maybe?  Do you know the PH of the water?  If not, you can likely have both of these items checked for free at a local plumbing supply house.

   If  a well, are you chlorinating?  If so, then you are converting ferrous iron to ferric iron. To the last of my knowledge, Water Boss claimed to handle ferrous iron up to 10 ppm. Good luck with that.  We had a WB about 15 years back.  5 ppm is closer to the truth. And they won't handle ferric iron any better than any other conventional softener.  IOW, they don't.  Many conventional softeners claim to handle X amount of ferrous iron (usually 5 ppm), but don't bother mentioning the difference between ferrous and ferric. The average consumer just sees the word iron in the claim/hype and that's all that registers in their head.   

    The way that WB gets the smaller footprint is by compressing their media.........whereas most softeners have non-compressed media. One of the potential problems with compacted media is that the water flow thru the device is more likely to "channel"/bore a path of least resistance.  Then no significant softening takes place at all.

   Ferric iron will readily slug a conventional softener, as well as a WB.  Even ferrous iron will slowly build up on/coat the resin beads of any conventional softener and that needs to be cleaned off periodically.  If you don't, then the resin bed actually starts to "tea-bag" the stuff into the water running thru the machine...doing the opposite of what you want it to do.  How periodically depends upon the iron content of your water, the other ingredients in your water......and the acidity of your water.  If the water is too alkali, then it's harder for the resin to get scrubbed clean of accumulated ferrous iron during regeneration.

   Without any more info, I'd suggest you start out by purchasing a large bottle of Iron Out. (Any decent hardware store or dept will have it.)   Comes as a powder which you mix with water, pour in the  softener's tank and then cycle the machine.  Read the bottle for the recommended rates. Give it a healthy dose the first time and see what you get as a result.

   You might need to treat the machine twice with a heavy dose.

   If it works, great. You can also add some of the powder when you put your pellets in.  Layer of salt, top with a little IO.  Another layer of salt, little more IO.  This way it feeds automatically with each cycling. How much IO to how much salt will depend. Let experience be your guide and adjust accordingly. 

   If IO doesn't get rid of all/enough..... of the iron, then you either have a serious build-up of ferrous iron or you have some ferric iron in there, too.  Either can usually be removed with the use of some muriatic acid and a skimmer style sump-pump. Mix about 4 - 6 ounces of MA in about 2 1/2 - 3 gallons of water in a bucket.  Disconnect the machine from the house plumbing. WB units use to have hose connections.  If they still do, then this should be a fairly simple procedure.  If no hoses, you may have to install some stop valves and pipe in a bypass arrangement to provide for  total isolation of the machine from the house plumbing.... and a couple boiler drains to allow for hookup to the sump pump as the "new alternate" supply to the softener. (You can use  a double female hose from a washing machine to hook up to the pump and a boiler drain.) When you're ready, lower the pump into the bucket and plug it in. It's now circulating the "cleaning agent" thru the machine. The "in" side of the softener is hooked to the sump pump discharge and the "out" from the softener is right back into the bucket, of course.   Let it circulate like this for 15-20 minutes.  The circulating water will likely turn a disgusting shade of reddish brown in a few minutes.  This is a sign that the iron is coming loose from the resin bed.  When ready.......shut off the pump,  hook back up to the normal water supply and immediately  regenerate/purge the softener.

   When you're done with the sump pump, circulate a bunch of clean water thru it.

   PS- If your ferrous iron level is higher than 5 ppm or you have ferric iron in the raw supply water, you'll likely need to install some different or additional devices/measures to remove that if you're to have a long-term hassle-free clean water supply. 

   Edited 1/28/2008 3:43 pm ET by HootOwl

   Edited 1/28/2008 3:51 pm ET by HootOwl