Portable water softeners?

[kssportsman]

After spending 6 months in one campsite last year, I noticed a large build up of scale in the connections at the water pedestal. Does anyone use a portable water softener and which ones are recommended?

[tkmi]

I have good water at home and want it in my 5er. I got mine on sale at camping world. It is great. Less scale in the hot water tank. My setup is --portable filter on hose, then to softner, then goes through all unit main filter. This gives me really good water.

[Platokidd]

kssportsman, glad you made this post as Ive been looking for a water softener.
There are several different types to choose from. Thought I read somewhere that some softener units are made cheap and have parts that break easy?!

Dont wanna break the bank here, something user friendly and on the quality side.

[kssportsman]

Just ordered a portable softener from Camping World. Doesn't require electricity some will have to manually regenerate it. $269 with free shipping. Looked a small home system for $500, required electricity and plumbing. Decided to try the cheaper way first.

[Allzright]

We purchased ours at an RV show a couple years ago. I think about $200 for 8,000 gallon. Uses cheap table salt to regenerate - just be sure to do the regeneration where there is no vegetation (unless you want it dead). One requirement we had was for brass fittings where hoses connect. A lot of the ones we had looked at had plastic which would break very easily.

We are full timers right now which is why we wanted the larger unit

[Platokidd]

Originally Posted by Allzright

We purchased ours at an RV show a couple years ago. I think about $200 for 8,000 gallon. Uses cheap table salt to regenerate - just be sure to do the regeneration where there is no vegetation (unless you want it dead). One requirement we had was for brass fittings where hoses connect. A lot of the ones we had looked at had plastic which would break very easily.

We are full timers right now which is why we wanted the larger unit

What model / brand did you go with?

[kssportsman]

On the go double, 16000 grains. Supposed to go 30 to 40 days between regens

[JohnF]

Originally Posted by kssportsman

On the go double, 16000 grains. Supposed to go 30 to 40 days between regens

Depends on the water hardness. City water is usually around 7 to 10 grains while well water is all over the place but typically 30 in my area. Divide the hardness (grains) into the capacity to get the gallons of water you can expect to treat (soften). So if you have a 16,000 grain unit and 10 grains of hardness you can expect 1,600 gallons of soft water between regenerations. Units will become less efficient with use and any iron in the water will reduce the expected gallons as well.

John

[Maverick50]

The "On-The-Go" Portable Water Softener system
On The Go® | Portable Water Softeners
We've had ours for 4 years now and it works perfectly. Easily recharged with 1lb of table salt. Really makes a difference in washing dishes, showers...

[AquaMan]

I'm intrigued with this thread and have been thinking about a softener for a while, more so now since I have an on board w/d but mostly because of the females with long hair.


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[PlainsTraveler]

Last year we purchased the Mark 8000 from FlowPur. https://www.flowpur.com/html/mark_8000.html. Having lived with water softeners for most of my life this is a fairly simple to use well made system. The connectors are nylon and are fairly rugged. We used it for two weeks last year while in Texas where the water is fairly hard. You use a box of table salt when it is time to regenerate. It made a big difference in the quality of the water. Check them out.

[TwiceTheIce]

The Mark 8000 you speak of and the FlowPur unit are offered each year at the August Frog Rally at the Forest River Electronics booth. They have always been below $200. Remember, if you get the 16000 grain unit, it will be about 70#. (Once the resin is wet, it holds water and is very heavy.)