Solutions for hard water

[thomasortega]

Guys, a friend of mine just opened a small hotel in Bonito - MS (Brazil) and he's having terrible problems with hard water.
He called me complaining and asking me for suggestions to solve issues like shower heads getting clogged and white stains on sinks, immediatelly i realized these are typical hard water symptoms.
I asked him about the water and he said it's from a well.  And the region is known for the calcarium and manganese.

When I said "hard water", like many brazilians, he didn't even know what's that. Water all over Brazil is extremely soft so we also don't have any kind of water softening systems on the market.

Well, i recommended him to import a water softener from europe or the U.S. but, then I started searching for models and I just realized I don'tknow anything about this topic.

What should I recommend him to buy? I saw some models that look like a water filter and some models that are filled with salt.

His hotel is actually a Bed and Breakfast hostel with accomodations for up to 60 guests. and the idea is treating all the water.

The concept around his place, to match the city environment and it's touristic attractions is getting as green as possible. He already uses a solar water heating system and the water softening system must also be as green as possible. 

By the way, here in Brazil we don't have any company or professional that works with or understand about water softening systems.

 

[thomasortega]

Somebody, please?

 

[washer111]

Salt-Based Systems

For the size he is considering, importing such a system will be cost prohibitive, both in the installation AS WELL AS the operation. The resins alone for the system (ion-exchange plastic beads) cost us about $300 for a 24,000 grain (i.e. the total capacity of the system is this x 0.75 {realistic operational capacity for economy} / Grains-per-gallon hardness}.

A typical residential unit will use about 9lbs of salt per regeneration, and about 52US gallons of water. Personally, I think the salt figure is ridiculous, since I can get more than 5 regenerations out of a 50lb bag of salt with that setting.

 

But a system that huge would use huge amounts of water and salt - causing salinity problems in the vicinity if not used properly, but possibly exhausting the well as well.

 

If he wanted to be more environmentally friendly, it is possible to use Potassium salt instead (this is better for guests that could be on salt-restricted diets), but this costs more to begin with, and you have to use about 50% more for the same effect...

 

While I personally think those Magnetic Water Treatment devices are just BS products (From the same folk that brought us "Ozone Laundry" and "Laundry Balls"), they might work well enough to slow down the prevention of scale, and only one small system should be necessary - so even if it is a scam, its not a huge loss.

 

The only other solution I would consider is carbon filtration - but if the water is hard enough to block showers that quickly, they would be exhausted too quickly, and the amount of turnover would be "environmentally unsound."

 

Other solutions, such as reverse osmosis are also expensive, impracticable solutions to this problem.

 

HOWEVER - you said you live in Brazil? What is the yearly rainful?

Perhaps he can install large rainwater tanks to use this, then have a setup to treat wastewater and use it for flushing toilets etc?

 

[thomasortega]

Thanks for the advices.

There it rains a lot and he also has a rain water system.

But local codes don't allow any kind of rainwater piping entering the building (ridiculous code) so, the rain water is used only for washing the sidewalks around the house.

 

I already told him to get one of those magnets. They are unexpensive (i think he paid less than $10). Even if it doesn't help, it won't be bad as well.

About the filter... well, even having to replace filter cartriges (if the cost of the part isn't too high), it will be cheaper than replacing faucets and shower heads all the time. when they fix a faucet, other starts to fail.

Other expenses like more detergent used in the laundry also make us think seriously about a way to treat the water.