Brad,
When going to storage, I pour a little water out of the top of the softener, but don't drain it. Mind you on the West Coast, except for the past month, we generally don't get much winter. When moving sites, I disconnect it and put it straight into the basement.
Affirmative, you could fill the FW tank with water from the softener outlet.
In addition to having test strips, we can usually tell when it requires a regeneration with salt. Time between regens varies with the hardness of the water. We have gone up to 2 months, but have also required one after about 3 weeks.
Brad
The maker of our Flo Pur 10000 recommends backflushing about twice a year and a disinfect after a long period of storage
Thanks Andy and Jim. I was thinking of semi permanent mounting inside a cabinet. I'm ok with removing and draining for winterizing, but didn't want to everytime we came home from a trip. Sounds like it may work. The forward flush I would do with a custom hose attachment and just flush to the outside.
Thanks Andy and Jim. I was thinking of semi permanent mounting inside a cabinet. I'm ok with removing and draining for winterizing, but didn't want to everytime we came home from a trip. Sounds like it may work. The forward flush I would do with a custom hose attachment and just flush to the outside.
When I regenerate our softener I discharge the fast flow water (30 minutes) into the black tank water flusher to clean the black tank, at least the water is doing some good before it goes down the drain, I make sure that the drain valve is open when I do it.
Thanks Andy and Jim. I was thinking of semi permanent mounting inside a cabinet. I'm ok with removing and draining for winterizing, but didn't want to everytime we came home from a trip. Sounds like it may work. The forward flush I would do with a custom hose attachment and just flush to the outside.
When I regenerate our softener I discharge the fast flow water (30 minutes) into the black tank water flusher to clean the black tank, at least the water is doing some good before it goes down the drain, I make sure that the drain valve is open when I do it.
I understand what you are thinking, and probably a good way to get rid of it at a site without flooding the site. I would worry if anything went wrong - like a forgotten drain valve or plugged drain with paper, contamination might migrate into my potable system, especially if I'm not paying attention. That flush is equipped with a vacuum break (anti-syphon), but not a backflow preventer assembly or even a check valve. If pressure hits static for any reason, cooties are welcome to migrate back and nothing will stop them.
The other concern I might have is those vacuum breaks fail all the time (no so much Redwoods but the clear plastic ones do) and that would dump brine into your cabinet or wall cavity or where ever that vacuum break is. I'm assuming that is brine, but maybe its just water by the time its flushing for a few minutes.
I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with ensuring that the proper "blocks" are in-place and that you pay attention to make sure that that you don't back feed the water into the fresh water circuit.
