Soft Water for my T@B

Pop-T@B

For those of you that have soft water at home and would like to also have it in their T@B as I do, there is a small solution. Most of the RV water softeners I have seen in the market place were too big to store easily in the T@B, you would either need to store them inside the camper or in the tow vehicle.  Then set it up outside to hook it up. After I found a place to store my sewer hose and sewer items (see my other post on “sewer hose storage solution”) it opened up some space inside the front storage box.  I work in Water Conditioning so I made a short custom water softener. With the factory sewer hose storage pipe removed I was able to fit a 6”x13” mineral tank with an 1190FP Clack in and out head on it. The unit should soften about 100 gallons of water before it needs to be regenerated with 2# of salt. If you are interested you should be able to get one made by your local water conditioning company, if they need details on how I made it, I will be happy you share the info. I can also store 4 wheel chocks and a 25 RV water hose in the box with it.

Thanks, Shawn

JandJ92010

I think that it is so fascinating  to see what we all come up with to improve the enjoyment of our beloved T@Bs, we all are such a clever bunch aren't we.

larrygon

How do you regenerate the resin tank?

Pop-T@B

for a campsite regen you would shut off the water supply, unhook the hose feeding the RV and run it over to a proper drain, unscrew the cap and slowly pour #2lbs of table salt that has been dissolved in water into the top of the unit, reinstall the cap, let set for about 10-15minutes then slowly turn on the feed water to rinse out the salt thru the drain hose, run water until you can no longer taste salt in the drain water, reinstall hose to RV inlet and you are ready to go. Total time to regen is about 20-25 minutes, best time to do this is during your morning cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. 

Sharon_is_SAM

Just happened to run across this thread as I was sorting my bookmarks, Poptab, is this something that someone out in Arizona could use?  I think someone said they had a lot of minerals in their water.

ChanW

I missed this one. 
Amazing...

Pop-T@B

Sam,  yes this could be used anywhere on hard water. The only thing is, just like the rest of the water lines and tanks in the T@B you cannot let it freeze. You will need to bring it inside when the temps drop below 32

Sharon_is_SAM

Good to know.

jimcenname

@Pop-T@B, do you think soft water is important for the maintenance of a clean plumbing system? I recall all of the scale in the traditional water heater of my last RV. Since the Alde heats water differently I wander if scale is an issue when using hard water.

dragonsdofly

@jimcenname, @Pop-T@B has sold his t@b trailer and has not been on the forum for the last 1 1/2 years. This is an interesting question that I had not considered and I'm sure someone with more technical knowledge and experience  in this area can give us some insight. Calling all resident experts.....

Sharon_is_SAM

I Googled “Effect of hard water on pex tubing”

“When hard water is heated, a certain amount of water evaporates, causing the minerals suspended in it to precipitate. ... While copper, PVC and PEX pipes are more resistant to hard water buildup and corrosion, they can still get clogged or completely blocked by scale deposits.”

I will email Spencer regarding the Alde.

Sharon_is_SAM

Just found this in the Alde 3020 manual:

“Hard water is water that has a high dissolved-mineral content, particularly calcium. If the furnace is used in a hard

water area for prolonged periods, install a water filter. Hard water can lead to a build-up of lime scale that can reduce the functionality of the system.”

  

jimcenname

@Sharon_is_SAM I saw that information in the Alde manual too. What's odd about the statement is that a water "filter" will not remove "dissolved" material like calcium. Water "softeners" will remove the minerals using a chemical process involving salt. Water filters remove only stuff that is suspended. I'm surprised that a company that makes water heaters wouldn't know that. Unless it was lost in translation.

Sharon_is_SAM

You may want to contact Alde to discuss your plans for a water softener, although it looks like PopTaB did it.

I found this in the Alde 3020 manual, but no discussion of a water softener.

• Sterilisation fluids for water can cause harmful corrosion to the stainless structure of the furnace. Always read the data label regarding additives that are used and make sure that the system is flushed of all additives before using

the hydronic heating system.

• Hard water is water that has a high dissolved-mineral content, particularly calcium. If the furnace is used in a hard

water area for prolonged periods, install a water filter. Hard water can lead to a build-up of lime scale that can reduce the functionality of the system.

ScottG

I have hard water in my house and considered installing a softener early on but ultimately decided it was just swapping one set of issues for another. Twenty-two years later I've seem no obvious ill effects from hard water, other than occasionally having to clean deposits off of aerators and other fixtures. At this point, my heating equipment is going to die from something else rather than calcium.

For what relatively little use the T@B gets, I have no interest in futzing with a water softener while camping. YMMV!