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Water softner basics

BillHartmann | Posted in General Discussion on October 5, 2006 04:41am

I disconnected an expresso maker that is being moved to a new house.

It has separate water softner and I also disconnected.

The water softener is a closed tank with an openable hatch on the top.

It has a two fitting on the side. Ball valves with 3 positions, left port (3/8″ threaded), CLosed, and right port (friction fit tubing).

The bottom one was bottom fitting was connected to the water supply on the left and tubing to the to a jug that was used for a drain receptacle (it also has the drain from the expresso maker).

The top fitting had a line to the expresso maker and the threaded side and the other port with nothing on it.

It had both valves set so that it feed water to the bottom fitting and out the top to the expresso maker.

The expresso maker has a lable to regenerate the water softener every 10-14 days.

The lable on the tank indicates that it takes 1 kg of salt to regerate.

I drain the water out that I could through the fittings and closed both valves.

After I move it and reinstall I am going to flush it it up to the line the expresso maker, then hook up the expresso maker and check for leaks then turn off the water supply. I have no idea of how the expresso maker is suppose to work so I don’t want to mess with that.

The question is about the “beads” in the water softner. Do I have to worry about them not being full of water all the time durin the move or being disturbed in moving the tank?

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  1. rez | Oct 06, 2006 08:13pm | #1

    Greetings Bill,

    As a longtime poster Welcome to Breaktime:o)

    This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again.

    Perhaps it will catch someone's attention that can help you with advice.

    Cheers

     

    "When we build, let us think that we build forever.  Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
    Andrew Clifford of Clifford Renovations, who serves as a steward of our history for future generations
    We can imagine something that only exists in our heads, in a form that has no measurable, tangible reality, and make it actually occur in the real world.  Where there was nothing, now there is something.
    Forrest - makin' magic every day

    1. formulaross | Oct 06, 2006 08:39pm | #2

      The softener beads should be fine. They're typically a man-made ion exchange resin. They can be washed/rinsed back into place with water after the move. If they get out, they pose no health hazard.

  2. DanH | Oct 06, 2006 08:51pm | #3

    It's not clear how large this softener is. The danger with full-sized softeners is that, when transported damp, the weight of the damp resin bumping about (say, in the back of a pickup) can damage the "distributors" that feed water into and out of the resin tank. Unfortunately, I doubt that you can (in a short period of time) get the resin dry enough to eliminate this danger (when dry it flows like sand, and is sufficiently light as to not pose a threat), and it's not clear that transporting the unit soaking wet would eliminate it either.

    Probably best you can do is drain it as much as possible, and then transport the unit standing up (less stress on the vertical tubes that way), while buffering it from shock as much as possible.

    I don't believe there's any danger to the resin in having it dry out, so long as it doesn't get moldy or some such.

    If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
    1. User avater
      BillHartmann | Oct 06, 2006 11:09pm | #4

      I don't know the volumne and it is not infront of me to measure, but I sits under the counter top. I am guessing about 1-2-3 gals."Probably best you can do is drain it as much as possible, and then transport the unit standing up (less stress on the vertical tubes that way), while buffering it from shock as much as possible."That is what I did.It is still "sealed", but will hook it up next week and flush and fill it.

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