Hard Water to Soft Water

[Baldie]

Helpful advice please, I have a house in Phetchabun with my Thai wife for some 10 years, when we visit, I seem to always spend the first week replacing valves /filters etc that have become clogged and defunct due to lime scale with the knock-on effect of problems with water pumps and hot water heaters, it's a problem which I now seek to try and lessen.

I have a couple of those stainless-steel bombs that filter the water but no idea how to clean/back flush refurb etc this is a something I will address once we have sorted my wife's leave to remain in UK and can spend more time in LOS but from my amateurish research these filters don't really deal with the hard water issue or maybe I'm reading it wrong.  Can anyone be so kind as to advise whether there are any proven water softeners in Thailand that actually do work that I can get fitted to the system in the first instance.

Please make that an idiot's guide that a numpty like me can follow.

Many thanks in anticipation of all/any assistance. Regards pd

[Lacessit]

There are about 8600 water softener items listed on Lazada. You need one that is cation exchange resin based, ignore ones with activated carbon.

The resins are regenerated periodically by flushing with salt ( sodium chloride ) solution.

 

https://www.chemaqua.com/en-us/Blogs/how-sodium-cycle-water-softeners-work

[CharlieH]

Go into Big C Phetchabun, theres a store in there that specialises in everything "water" . Get the proper external water filter fitted about 16k. That will solve most of any future issues.

Its then going to cost around 6k each year for the cleaning and replacement  resin filter substances.

 

 

[unheard]

@Baldie

I'd suggest testing your water in a lab first.

Only then you (or any contractor) will know for sure what problematic minerals need to be removed.

Also, what kinds of "valves/filters" and how often do you replace on a regular bases?

[retiree]

6 hours ago, Lacessit said:

You need one that is cation exchange resin based, ignore ones with activated carbon.

The resins are regenerated periodically by flushing with salt ( sodium chloride ) solution.

This is the standard way it's done worldwide.  When the resin is exhausted it must be replaced (any hardware store sells bags of it), or renewed with salt (both cheap & easy) or it just lets the hard water flow through.   

 

If you're not using it, Lime-a-way is handy for cleanup inside -- I see it's on Lazada and Shopee.  HomePro sells "HG" limescale remover, probably the same stuff. 

-- Retiree 

[Muhendis]

This hard water problem is a pain for me too. I normally use surface well water which is quite soft and easily filtered, but sometimes in the dry season the well runs dry. I then use bore hole water which is rich in calcium dissolved solids (2000 ppm). My resin filter works to remove about 10% of this and a Reverse Osmosis filter gets the figure down low enough for drinking. I tried some electronic gadgets that pulse a coil round a water pipe. That didn't work.

I had a look at this company ( https://voltea.com/technology/ ) which does ion exchange by electrolysis but the price was higher than the cost of vale/pump repairs. So I'm still in square one and living with it. There is no cheap and easy fix for this but the best seems to be whole house RO and regular filter maintenance.

[HarrySeaman]

9 hours ago, Lacessit said:

There are about 8600 water softener items listed on Lazada. You need one that is cation exchange resin based, ignore ones with activated carbon.

The resins are regenerated periodically by flushing with salt ( sodium chloride ) solution.

 

https://www.chemaqua.com/en-us/Blogs/how-sodium-cycle-water-softeners-work

The problem with these is that when these ion exchange systems work they exchange sodium ions for the other ions in the water such as calcium ions.  This increases the sodium content of the water and thus your sodium intake, which is already high enough in the normal Thai diet to cause high blood pressure and cardiac health problems.

 

My parents put one in their home in the US but when their cardiologist found out about it he immediately made them stop using it.  Great for the laundry but terrible for their heart health.

 

For drinking and cooking the best solution is one of the water purifiers that fits under your kitchen sink.  These include a particle filter, an exchange resin, and then a final reverse osmosis filter that removes the sodium and other ions from the water.  Some have a fourth filter.  These water purifiers have a pump that supplies the necessary pressure for reverse osmosis, and there is a purified water storage tank.  A tap is fitted on or next to the kitchen sink.  To to the Home Pro web page and search for "water purifier".

 

Don't buy the cheapest one and don't buy on-line - go to the store.  The reason for going to the store is to inspect the cylinders that hold the filters.  Only buy a system that has two O-rings on each cylinder that holds the filters.  The ones that have only one O-ring always leak.  Pay to have Home Pro install the water purifier so that you have an unquestioned warrantee.

[Lacessit]

4 minutes ago, HarrySeaman said:

The problem with these is that when these ion exchange systems work they exchange sodium ions for the other ions in the water such as calcium ions.  This increases the sodium content of the water and thus your sodium intake, which is already high enough in the normal Thai diet to cause high blood pressure and cardiac health problems.

 

My parents put one in their home in the US but when their cardiologist found out about it he immediately made them stop using it.  Great for the laundry but terrible for their heart health.

 

For drinking and cooking the best solution is one of the water purifiers that fits under your kitchen sink.  These include a particle filter, an exchange resin, and then a final reverse osmosis filter that removes the sodium and other ions from the water.  Some have a fourth filter.  These water purifiers have a pump that supplies the necessary pressure for reverse osmosis, and there is a purified water storage tank.  A tap is fitted on or next to the kitchen sink.  To to the Home Pro web page and search for "water purifier".

 

Don't buy the cheapest one and don't buy on-line - go to the store.  The reason for going to the store is to inspect the cylinders that hold the filters.  Only buy a system that has two O-rings on each cylinder that holds the filters.  The ones that have only one O-ring always leak.  Pay to have Home Pro install the water purifier so that you have an unquestioned warrantee.

It depends on what use the water is put to. For washing clothes and cooking ( unless for soup ) the sodium content is probably not significant. For drinking, completely agree.

As far as full-on water purifiers go, it might be cheaper to go to any 7/11 and buy 5 litre bottles.

[Baldie]

Thank you all for your helpful advice and guidance very much appreciated and will give me some focused research in the coming winter months, note the sodium warning from H but I always buy in drinking water separately so should not be that particular health issue.

The gist of all seems to be cheap no good, good no cheap, my wife is out there now and has organised for the equipment to be serviced next week by the manufacturer Mazuma all resin to be replaced and tutorial on how to maintain for the interim which I suspect after 10 years of neglect will not be cheap but that is on me.

Once again thank you all for taking time to respond. Regards pd

[Brahmz]

You load up your cation exchange resin with sodium cations by passing a sodium chloride solution through it. Then by putting the house feed water through the resin, you exchange the calcium ions in the feed water for sodium ions. You will need a test kit to find out how often to regenerate the resin with sodium chloride. Another method is to use a reverse osmosis membrane system. This will likely be more expensive but need less maintenance. This one works by not allowing calcium ions through the RO membrane.

[Will B Good]

We stuck in one of these bad boys.....amazing. Fully automatic other than topping up with salt occasionally. 

[Muhendis]

Here's an interesting bundle of water treatment knowledge which may be of interest to readers. It was useful to me when I ran into calcium problems.

 

https://aosts.com/does-reverse-osmosis-remove-minerals-from-water/#:~:text=Reverse Osmosis and How to,minerals including cadmium and fluoride.

 

Another problem with high mineral content in water is the electrical energy due to dissimilar metals in a system. For example: Copper in a water heater and a stainless steel water tank will erode the copper because of the electrolytical effect of the mineralized water. That is how we get pinhole leaks. 

So. Dissimilar metals plus mineralized water equals a battery. 

 

[Saanim]

A simple solution: To harvest rainwater in separate reservoirs where the rainwater will sediment (1/2 - 1 day, a regular addition of alum - SaanSom , so easily available and cheap in Thailand can improve the water quality). Then with the intake few cm above the muddy bottom you get quite a clean water for addition to the other general water storage, hence, reducing the water hardness substantially. 

[rwill]

I had a salt one for several years.  I didn't like it.  There are softners that don't use salt too. 

 

I am now using this:    Electronic Water Descaler | YARNA Store

 

It doesn't remove the minerals.  It crystalizes them so they don't stick to the pipes, faucets, nozzles, etc.

I'm on well water and the hose nozzles would clog up in a week.  After going to this I have not seen any scale build up.

There are different models depending on the size of pipe you are using it on.  I bought mine through Amazon.