Water Water Everywhere

Last summer when planning for this trip I had read a number of blogs about the quality of water in most places throughout the US as being very hard.  This is primarily due to the fact most places obtain their water from ground water in deep wells or aquifers.  For the last forty years we have lived in North Bay, Ontario which has probably the absolute softest water in the province, with regular readings in the range of 20 parts per million of dissolved solids.  It gets its water from a deep freshwater lake so is naturally softer.  I felt I didnt need a softener for when we are in North Bay, and decided to wait until we were on the road in the US before deciding how to proceed.

Without knowing what level of hardness we would experience as we travel along, I started looking at the various products that soften the water.  With our experience on the boat we wanted to select a product that would soften the water before it gets into the coach, and subsequently the faucets and water lines.  When we had the boat we used a heavy duty marine watermaker to make our own water from seawater.  I tested the results after every session and the hardness of the fresh water that was produced was in the range of 200 parts per million.  To put that in perspective, seawater is about 35,000 parts per million, so you can see how effective the watermaker is at removing salts.

At 200 parts per million there are enough solids still in the water you should carry out a regular maintenance procedure to remove the hardness and scale from faucet heads and screens in the washrooms and galley.  To do that, once a month I removed all of them to soak in CLR for a few hours, then rinse them.  At the end of the season when we put the boat on the hard for the summer I completely drained the water tanks, lifted the inspection lids and washed the walls down with a mild bleach solution.  Even though I did that to the tanks I was never able to remove any of the scaling that might build up in the water lines.

There are various water softening products out there and I figured as we are using the coach as much as we are I would need to find a unit that had the ability to mount and provide a good level of reduction on the hardness scale.  I selected the On-The-Go portable unit and have it hooked up outside and providing softened water to the coach.  In the meantime I have started to design a method of installing it in the coach.

The unit comes with test strips and prior to the water entering the system I tested the hardness.  Here the water tests at the maximum end of the scale which is about 1,000 parts per million.  I am not sure what the authorities that manage the water here report for their hardness but the little strip test shows end of scale.

After it has gone through the softener it comes out somewhere between 40 and 80 parts per million.

Once the hardness starts to increase again we will notice water spots on utensils and sinks and such so will have to regenerate the system again.  That is done by adding dissolved salt to the tank that has the softening agent inside.

In the meantime, I have been scouting out areas to mount the unit and have made a decision on where to put it.  The unit is about two feet high and quite heavy so I have found an area in one of the bays in the basement where it can be safely secured.  To get to it, I need to run water lines between it and the filters, so I have designed a scale template and laid out what I think will be an effective way to do that.  Until that is done I will have to add the salt to regenerate the system outside the coach and will document what that process is like when it happens.

Open the left hand flu flu valve, next to the doohickey and water goes round and round

More to come at some point in the future on this project.  I am not sure if you are like me in this regard but half the problem is coming up with a solution that works and is efficient in doing whatever it is you want to accomplish.  For that I have found laying these things out works best.  Once laid out I take a picture and paste it into an app that allows you to draw various scenarios.  

The other half of the problem is actually making the decision to start the project.  This is one of those projects that, once I make that first cut into an existing line to put this in, I am committed.  So, I will ponder this for some time I am sure before I make that cut.