Well water or municipal water system?

Really would like to see more water condition details... and from a lab test not a water company quality report.

Hardness, pH, TDS, iron, manganese, chlorine, arsenic, copper, sodium, and if on a well nitrates and bacteria.

Any high water use appliances like a hot tub or uber-shower or Jacuzzi?

# of bathrooms?

How did you measure 10 gpm SFR?

Where did you get the 60 gpd water use? The accepted # is 60 gpd/person and has proven to be a reasonable number for softener sizing unless there are specific exceptions or requirements to be considered.

This post was edited by justalurker on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 17:37

It's a municipal water system.

And I'm in a location where I get water from up to 3 different pump stations so the water condition levels fluctuate. I've tested for hardness a few different times and the readings were 16, 22, 17, 19 respectively. I figured 20 as a high side average. pH level also fluctuates. Anywhere from 6.7 to 7.7. I can't see the benefit of getting the water tested if the water condition is going to change the next time they decide to switch a different pumping station on. Is this information really critical for determining a water softener size? Can a system be adaptable enough to deal with constantly changing water conditions?

No high water use appliances currently. Possible deep well bathtub for future bathroom remodel. Hot water heater is going to be tankless when it needs replacing. (Will be soon)

2 full bathrooms.

It took 30 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket in the bathtub.

Normally 2 CCF per month for the past 2 years. 5 times it's gotten to 3 CCF. 748 gallons per CCF. Do all the math and it comes out to just over 54 gallons per day. Figured with the softer water I might make my showers a couple minutes longer so rounded up to 60 gallons per day.

Is your tub a conventional two handle tub (hot and cold) and did you open BOTH faucets fully?

You intend to treat the water that enters your house after having traveled through the water system not the water's average conditions at the treatment facility... right?

Always size for the maximum water conditions.

Correctly sizing a softener is arithmetic and I've never had success with floating numbers in a mathematical equation when I want a finite answer.

"I can't see the benefit of getting the water tested if the water condition is going to change the next time they decide to switch a different pumping station on"

Then I can't see giving you a specific softener sizing recommendation. Just get an average size softener... get my point?

Got the water test results.

pH 7.6
alkalinity 133
chlorine <.1>hardness 17.2
iron <.1>copper <.3>nitrate nitrite <.25>both handles open fully fills a 5 gallon bucket in 30 seconds

the 60 gallons per day is accurate total usage for the both of us.

Going by flow it looks like 1.25 ft of resin would be required. Going by water usage, .5 ft of resin. Since it's only 2 bathrooms, I'm thinking of putting an 8 GPM restrictor on the main water line and going with 1.0 cu ft of resin. Can I lower the salt setting or will that run the risk of hardness breakthrough? Any thoughts on fleck 5600 sxt vs 7000 sxt besides the larger capacity of the 7000? How many days between regeneration is too many? Seems like once a week is ideal, but what is maximum before channeling becomes a possibility?

Including link to the one I'm thinking of getting. Should I upgrade to the C249 resin? Turbulator?

Here is a link that might be useful: link