Portable Water Softner

[Montana Rog]

Anybody use a water softner? Texas water out of the tap is not the best. I am interested in a small one that uses table salt. Any opinions on those or the next bigger size? I would connect it to the hose outside. We drink tap water because of the cost of store bought water.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

This is what we have

http://www.portablewatersoftener.com/

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!

Really works too, when in Mission, before softener, I could barely get a brush through my hair after shower after it dried. After softener NO PROBLEMO!!! Ditto for the yorks coats, the breakage of hair was unbelieveable with no softener. After the softener, again NO PROBLEMO!!

The one we have is sufficient in size and is not so huge for transport and storage. We like buying a small container of table salt at the local grocery and not having to tote larger amounts of rock type salts.

This is what works for us.

We still buy drinking water for both the yorks and for our consumption, again, this is what works for us and our health.

And, yes, we do have external water filters hooked up as well.

[dilligas]

Mrs. Country Guy.

That is the same one we have and it is great. Also using table salt makes it so easy.

[bigmurf]

We have a On The Go softener system also. Works GREAT.

[VanMan]

Carol (and others), do you just hook it up outside to the water supply? or is it installed inline inside somewhere? Does it save your water heater's anode rod ??

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Had to ask Al,

Water filters first (they protect the softener from gunky stuff)

Water softerner

Then into Tana.

All on outside, no permanent mount in cubbies of Tana.

As far as anode rod, not sure, forgot to ask him that!

[skypilot]

It will delay the erosion on the anode rod but you still need to do the seasonal service on the water heater regardless.

My question is -- what do you do with the water softner when you move: empty it out, leave it full but make sure it doesn't tip over; and in winter???

[VanMan]

If I had one, I'd sure want to get my estimated 300 gallons of softened water, so after short stays and/or for transit I'd probably hook the "female" inlet hose to the "male" exit threads of itself so nothing leaks out or gets contaminated and then prop it upright.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Truth is, Al and I are not gonna set that water softener up for a weekend stay. Long term use only.

In campgrounds we use here in Michigan (all state parks), we load up water at the dump station and use the pump, etc. We do NOT use the water softener under those conditions.

We store ours up right in the front compartment, over near the battery ,etc. Al put some straps in there to keep it upright etc.

Since we use ours for long term, he drains off excess water before stowing. For winter storage, Al recharged the unit, then drained the excess water off. The water left in the unit was salty, we actually called the manufacturer and asked, if the water is salty, it won't freeze, right? (Those of you that live in the northern climes might recognize where we are going with this, they use salt to thaw out the roads, eh??) Well, whomever answered the phone, said something like, "Hmmm, we never thought of that."

SOO, he recharged, drained off excess, stored in non-heated attached garage with all the other camping stuff till we left for Texas. We watch the temps real close in that garage, so gear/stuff does not freeze. So far, we have not had any trouble, BUT, if the forecast is for real cold temps, like down around 0 or below, we are prepared to grab up all the gear and haul it into the house, and the water softener would be one of the things we grab.

When we get to Texas, he does another recharge of the system and a bit of bleach to sanitize.

With table salt costing only penneys, and recharging only taking about 20 minutes, this has worked fine for us.