Water water everywhere!

[Ulu]

And some of it’s going to be very drinkable.

The water quality in our house was getting bad and I spent some money to upgrade all of the plumbing for the water softener and hot water heater and a new RO system with biological pre-filter and de-ionization!



I still have to clean up the plumbing a little more and I have some emergency overflows stuck in a trash bin at the current moment, but I am concentrating on flushing all of the devices properly and putting in the final DI filter.

The big blue filter is a Pentair.





I realized that I wanted more than just a new water softener, so I hired two plumbers to come and rip out the old plumbing and the old water heater and install a bunch of fine copper pipes & a huge sediment pre-filter.

The biological pre-filter is the 3M Max FO1H. The Ro-DI system is the Aquaticlife classic 100 GPD four stage. I don’t have a UV filter but it is next on my list. I understand that a good one is not cheap and the bulbs don’t last forever.


I just spent my $4000 Tig welder money on plumbing.....But then that’s what I always say when I spend a bunch of money on something that I didn’t want to have to buy. I have some very big plans for that welder and by putting its purchase off I also put off a whole lot of labor.

 

[Ulu]

It's been 8 hours since I installed the DI beads and flushed them. I made a celebratory cup of tea about 2:30 AM and fell dead about 3AM. The tea was better than ever, but had no chance of keeping me awake. I had been up over 21 hrs.

I awoke to a totally dry garage floor, and now I'm going to have a long hot shower in the newly softened water.

We have moderately hard water in the San Joaquin, but no iron. People here would freak out at the brown water in Northeast Minnesota.
That Iron Range ore is in millions of Fords. It is the land of endless fishing and brown stained porcelain fixtures.

 

[deeda]

Seems like an odd place to put the Big Blue filter for servicing and where are the ball valves to allow the water to be turned off to service it?

4000 bucks for plumbers and equipment?

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Yeah, awkward spot for the blue filter. What kind of filter element is in it? And yeah, need a lot more valves.

 

[Ulu]

The system is now 99% functional: still without bladder tank. The water is neutral pH and tastes good. The RO-DI water really cleans out the old SS teapot.

I spent lots more time yesterday testing water, shopping, cleaning up the PEX layout, zipping zipties, drilling thru walls, and setting up the emergency overflow drains to go outdoors. I still need to clean & re-install the old bladder tank, but I need another fitting or two. I did a separate new 3-stage RO and tank under the kitchen sink last year, so now I have 11 or 12 filters to change.

(excluding the 8 fish tanks)

Seems like an odd place to put the Big Blue filter for servicing and where are the ball valves to allow the water to be turned off to service it?
4000 bucks for plumbers and equipment?

It is very difficult to get a local plumber now, let alone 2 guys fast. Wages/prices are quite high in nice parts of California. Fortunately, I am not so rich as to have bought in the wealthiest zips. My rich BARF** friends are getting ritually bled over construction/repair/maint costs.

This year we had 900 structures destroyed by fire right above town, in the middle of a building boom, fueled by the booming local market. I allegedly bribed them to drop their other work and fix mine on short notice. All that being said, I was happy to meet these guys, as we immediately shared many common interests.

The plumber's actual bill was $3150+ tax + I tipped the guys each $100. I know what it's like to fix my toilets and snake my sewers and join crusty pipes. Mel Brooks would say, "It stinks on Ice!" . . . and I wasn't in pandemic situations. Guess where costs have gone lately now that we're on purple lockdown?

For under $900 I bought the softener, & the RODI/bio filters, Pex fittings etc and some $ was discarded to revise the positioning of both the heater and softener and existing plumbing & gas to rotate the heater. It was much more than $4k if you add my time, gas, supplies, etc.

The Pentair filter location is cramped but accessible because most valves are already elsewhere. Three (main supply, flush drain, diverter for irrigation) already exist outside the wall, and one diverter and solenoid valve are within the softener. They added one new shutoff above the water heater. Pressure side RO drain is into the utility sink in the laundry room. Softener service drain goes into the washing machine drain. Emergency overflows go into a tube I put thru the wall last night, not in the photos. I will add a drain tap on the monster Big Blue canister, because it is heavy when full.

I had one small seep from the gasket on the Big Blue, and I called the plumber back Friday evening. I told them it was very small and they didn't need to come "until Monday". They were there pronto to reseat the gasket and check everything. The owner came even later to check, and I found out they'd been doing a burned out kitchen near by, so I lucked out twice.


**Rich Bay Area guys with $$$ motorcycle collections. BARF is the web forum, but I don't attend. We all met at MotorcycleUSA.com