Culligan Water Softner?

[MUCHO]

Hello does anyone know aproximately how much one of these would have cost brand new? Mark 89 unit.

[quadman]

Culligan = $$$

A couple of unsolicited thoughts on water softners in general....

First of all, WS's waste a lot of water. Second, who needs all of that salt added to their diet? Can it really be that good for you? I mean, there is a reason you can't water your lawns and gardens with "soft" water conditioned with salt.... because it will kill them dead.

Yet, one certainly can't argue the merits of soft water. Less detergent = cleaner clothes, no lime scale build up in the shower or dishwasher etc. So, how can one get "conditioned" water with all or most of the hard metals removed without the use of water softners that use salt, or other incredibly wasteful water users like reverse osmosis or ionic exchange beds?

One of the coolest products I've seen in a LONG time is magnetic water treatment. Once installed, it uses miniscule amounts of electricity, ZERO salt and doesn't waste one drop of water. Plus, with use over time, you end up with totally clean copper plumbing since it will break down all of the lime scale build up in your copper pipes. Water from this conditioner doesn't kill the lawn or the Mrs prize winning roses and you can use it for the aquarium. I don't see any down side to a product like this. Any other thoughts out there?

http://www.equinox-products.com/HardnessMaster.htm

http://www.easywater.com/

http://www.stopwaterscale.com/index.htm

Sorry for the thread-jack Mucho. But I've recently been looking into conditioning our own water. I figured it would be easier to clean up our basement without all of the lime scale on the walls after the flooding. :p

[skullguise]

John, thanks for this info! I think I'll be looking into it too! We seem to have a mild water hardness issue, but for this little $ it would be worth checking out a solution.

[TJV]

I tried the magnetic gizmo and it absolutely doesn't work! The only thing it cleaned out was some dollars out of my wallet!:hissyfit:

[quadman]

I tried the magnetic gizmo and it absolutely doesn't work! The only thing it cleaned out was some dollars out of my wallet!:hissyfit:

Interesting.... Which unit did you purchase? How long did you use it? How did you make the determination that it in fact didnt work? Did you cut into your pipes and check before and after?

The science is proven. Maybe you had a defective unit or one that was poorly designed. But, they do most certainly "work" if installed correctly (which as I understand it is critical to insure the proper magnetic field).

[TJV]

Interesting.... Which unit did you purchase? How long did you use it? How did you make the determination that it in fact didnt work? Did you cut into your pipes and check before and after?

The science is proven. Maybe you had a defective unit or one that was poorly designed. But, they do most certainly "work" if installed correctly (which as I understand it is critical to insure the proper magnetic field).

It has been a few years ago, and I'm sorry I don't remember the brand. I do remember the hard water I was dealing with, and absolutly no change after the magnetic system was installed. We kept it installed for about a year and half as I remember. Not all science supports the claim either see: www.csicop.org/si/9801/powell.html

[phipp01]

Culligan = $$$

A couple of unsolicited thoughts on water softners in general....

First of all, WS's waste a lot of water. Second, who needs all of that salt added to their diet? Can it really be that good for you? I mean, there is a reason you can't water your lawns and gardens with "soft" water conditioned with salt.... because it will kill them dead.

Yet, one certainly can't argue the merits of soft water. Less detergent = cleaner clothes, no lime scale build up in the shower or dishwasher etc. So, how can one get "conditioned" water with all or most of the hard metals removed without the use of water softners that use salt, or other incredibly wasteful water users like reverse osmosis or ionic exchange beds?

One of the coolest products I've seen in a LONG time is magnetic water treatment. Once installed, it uses miniscule amounts of electricity, ZERO salt and doesn't waste one drop of water. Plus, with use over time, you end up with totally clean copper plumbing since it will break down all of the lime scale build up in your copper pipes. Water from this conditioner doesn't kill the lawn or the Mrs prize winning roses and you can use it for the aquarium. I don't see any down side to a product like this. Any other thoughts out there?

http://www.equinox-products.com/HardnessMaster.htm

http://www.easywater.com/

http://www.stopwaterscale.com/index.htm

Sorry for the thread-jack Mucho. But I've recently been looking into conditioning our own water. I figured it would be easier to clean up our basement without all of the lime scale on the walls after the flooding. :p

John sorry but you are so far off base with this I need to respond. First off the salt added to the water is equal to the salt contained in 2 slices of white bread. Also outside faucets should NEVER be routed thru a WS as they are not designed to filter that much water that quickly. the salt is used to "backwash" the iron and hardness that the filter media attracts to it. The filter media is/was called "Cat-ion". It looks like very small caviar. And with a demand filter head it will only backwash itself after a set amount of gallons used and usually at night time/early AM when water demand is not great.

On a sidenote I would never recommend Culligan to anyone. I would recommend to speak to a local well driller that installs water pumps and filters. They will usually give you a better deal than Culligan. Also I used to leave the outside spigot next to the driveway filtered so that people could wash their vehicles with softened water. But the other outside spigots I would bypass the filter completely.

Also theres a formula to use to set the backwash schedule of the filter. Most water softers are 32,000 grain softners, meaning that there are 32,000 little beads inside. IIRC they go up to 64,000 grain for residential use. I cant remember the formula but it has to do with the total grains of hardness and the average gallons of water used per day and the size of the softner.

[quadman]

John sorry but you are so far off base with this I need to respond.

No worries.... I'm far from the expert on the subject. In fact, I don't really know anything at all other than what I've been researching lately. Now, there are all kinds of claims as to the amount of added salt to the water. So, not really knowing for sure, I'll leave that alone. Other than those are pretty big bags of salt stacked outside the grocery store and if there is enough salt to kill the grass and flowers, how great is it for you? I don't know obviously, I'm just asking and doing a favorite past time on this forum.... speculating. :p But, the backwashing/re-charging does waste a fair amount of water as does reverse osmosis and de-ionization beds no matter what time of day it happens.

As for the technology of the of the magnetics and how they work, again, I'll say that it's a proven science. Not that it's necessarily as effective as sodium charged ion exchange like a water softner, but there is enough evidence (for me anyway) that there will be an improvement without any detrimental effects to me, or my environment. How the units perform the science, or possibly not, either through faulty design or not installed correctly, well then it won't work properly. That part is pretty simple.

Besides, I just don't have room for a regular water softner. :D

[phipp01]

Well a typical backwash cycle sends 25 gallons to waste. Thats why its important to either use a "demand" filter head or if you have to program the days in between backwashes to use the formula. Its something like grains of hardness x average GPD divided into what size softner. Its been years since I installed filters, like 15 years. But I do know that the salt was equal to 2 slices of white bread per day because there was a study done and that was a question I was asked alot by potential customers. I know when I was installing them the typical installation was around $1200. Now if it was a side job I was doing you could probably knock $300 off that and still double your money for about 4 hours work.

[MUCHO]

FYI here is my reason:

I have a Culligan Mark 98 that I don't use. The city has outlawed them and they have a program where they will pay for removal and rebate me back a portion of the original purchase price.

It's not worth my time to contact a dealer. My research indicates it probably was 2-3K so I'm going to list 2500.

[Nov]

I'm involved in commercial AC systems and have seen a number of the magnetic type water conditioning systems specifically used on cooling towers to prevent biological growth and the formation of scale. Short answer is "some work, some don't".
Yes, the science is proven but the implementation varies greatly. Again, these are not residential units but are for systems that flow 100's or 1000's of gallons of water per minute. From my experience installation's where the water is not very hard to begin with will have a much better chance for success, but even that's not guaranteed.

[quadman]

but the implementation varies greatly

And that was my point. If a unit is poorly designed or especially if installed incorrectly, you're done. I'm wondering if maybe that's what happened to the previous poster that didn't see any improvement. That's too bad really because if done correctly, the benefits and zero waste or risk to the enviroment are worth the price of admission IMHO.

[Nov]

In one case a reputable manufacturer had his equipment installed on one building and it worked as advertised. Building owner was very happy so he had another system installed on one of his buildings accross the street (similarly sized). Guess what.... it didn't work! Manufacturer confirmed it was installed properly and then replaced the equipment under warranty. Again, no success. :no clue:
They ended up taking the equipment out and the owner went back to chemical type treatment.
Again, this is a lot different from a residential application with once through water but I'm still not convinced that this is the way to go (yet). The manufactiurers have made improvements over the last few year's but there's still some work to be done to achieve consistant results.