Hope all are well and healing up for the spring camping season. My camping kicked off to a quick start with many race weekends up at the track. Now while on a 7 week break for any local events (I dont travel to VIR anymore, they sadly treat workers/volunteers as 2nd rate spectators these days).
So it's been back to house projects and chores. The first project on the list started over a month ago when it seemed my water softener went on strike. Maybe not a complete stike, more like quiet quitting on me. I started to notice we needed more soap, and saw less suds. It was after forcing a regeneration and checking to make sure I didn't have a salt bridge, I had to recall the last time I bought salt. And that was the week before I left for Disney!!! Now our salt usage was about 10 lbs a week, and I was checking it this whole time and till we had issues it did not occur to me that we had an issue.
After some more diagnosis and looking at the age of our little whirlpool 36k grain softener it was determed the resin was at the end of its life. So it was on to finding a new softerner, and while I was at it I was interested in a better sediment filter system for the well. The old standard 2.5x10' filter worked, but lasted 45 to 60 days, and then usualy had a decent amount of heavy sediment in the bottom of the filter. Plus I really hated that the filter was not well supported outside the 3/4 copper pipes holding it up.
So I started my research on a new replacement. I had one local company come in and quote me 4k to replace the current softener and filter. When I asked about how they would support the filter, he said he could add a 2/6 from the ceiling to add some support. I wasn't too hot on that idea or the price, which lead me to looking at going DIY. After looking at some systems I finally settled Matrixx system from US Water Systems in Indiana. Their rep helped me size the system based on a recent water test, and plan out a good filter upgrade including a 30 micron spin down filter I can flush monthly and a 4.5x20" 5 micron sediment filter which should last me 9-12 months between changes. All in price of 1989 shipped....I deicided to go this route.
With the parts ordered and on their way I deicded to upgrade all the pipping from the pressure tank through the softener from the exisiting 3/4 copper to 1" PEX as its easier to deal with (for me), and then tie back into the house 3/4 when done. So I planned it all out and all my connetions, and 250 dollars in plumbing parts (still cheaper then copper equivilent) and lumber and I was ready to upgrade.
As a backup we filled the RV with 60 gallons of water while the well was down for this. In the end we only needed a little of it, but it was nice to have. I then got to work on removing the old building a new wall for the filters to mount on, and then start the repumbing work.
It only took 3 extra trips for parts I forgot to get, or for under estimating how many crimp rings I needed. Yet after an long day of that and time lost to trips to get more parts, it was finally installed and leak tested.
I was pleased the only leaks I ran into where a few fittings that just needed an extra quarter turn around the pressure gauges and the spin down filter. I did take the time while the well was down and depressurized to check and adjust the pressure tank air pressure. So far the system has been performing great. Water flow and pressures are greatly improved over the old setup!!!
Next up is the fun weekend of weeding and mulching. One of these days I will just start paying someone else to do that work......
PS: I added pressure gauges after each filter to monintor drop and know when it was time to flush the spin down filter, or replace the main sediment filter.
