Water Softeners and Air Filtration Systems - Water softener location and salt dammage to furnace
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julieferrari
02-10-05, 07:11 AM
Hello, I just bought a water softener and have not installed it yet. A friend of mine is a Heating and Cooling professional and told me that I can not install the softener next to the furnace or the hot water heater because the salt from the softener will corrode them. I have a slab home and the laundry room is 8x8 room that has both the furnace and hot water heater in it. The water softener is contained in a housing. the brine tank and salt holder are in a plastic case. If anyone knows if this will be a problem please give me a shout. thanks Julie
Gary Slusser
02-10-05, 08:57 AM
A... water heaters are glass lined so nothing in water can get to the steel of the tank until the glass is broken/cracked BUT... a softener does not add "salt" to the water, only sodium and all waters contain some sodium so why doesn't that apply to all heaters even though there is no softener?
Frankly your guys don't know enough to discuss the subject but do know enough to scare you. The amount of sodium added by a softener is dependent on your water hardness, you get roughly 7.875 mg/l per grain per gallon of hardness removed.
The real problem with installing your softener close to the water heater is that doing so may allow hot water out of the heater and into the softener during its regenerations which can cause the distributor tube to fail which allows resin into your plumbing. That is a very serious and time consuming problem to fix that can be very expensive to clean out. Not to mention it ruins the softener and the resin etc. has to be replaced. So... it is said that you should install the softener with 10 lineal feet (of tubing) between the heater and the outlet of the softener. Yes you can make a loop in the plumbing so the softener sits right next to the heater.
Gary
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Company Name Removed Only
Doug Aleshire, Super Moderator 2
Frankly your guys don't know enough to discuss the subject but do know enough to scare you. The amount of sodium added by a softener is dependent on your water hardness, you get roughly 7.875 mg/l per grain per gallon of hardness removed.
The real problem with installing your softener close to the water heater is that doing so may allow hot water out of the heater and into the softener during its regenerations which can cause the distributor tube to fail which allows resin into your plumbing. That is a very serious and time consuming problem to fix that can be very expensive to clean out. Not to mention it ruins the softener and the resin etc. has to be replaced. So... it is said that you should install the softener with 10 lineal feet (of tubing) between the heater and the outlet of the softener. Yes you can make a loop in the plumbing so the softener sits right next to the heater.
Gary
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Company Name Removed Only
Doug Aleshire, Super Moderator 2