home well water treatment and filtration systems

Kinetico is a way overpriced twin tank type softener and the vast majority of households do not need a twin tank. If you want one look at the Fleck 9100/9000 and Twin Flow 100E twins.

Avantpure is an Autotrol 269 valve wit a 463i timer with proportional brining and upflow regenerated IIRC. I used to sell them back in the '90s and finally quit due to problems with the timers. I also sold the Technetic 1000, the predecessor of the Avantapure. They were a totally different control valve but had the same features. There are very few distributors and dealers selling them and you may have problems getting parts and service.

You don't say how hard or include what else if anything is in your water.

I suggest you learn about correctly sizing a softener and then decide if you want to be a DIY and buy online or be dependent on a local dealer.

Before you go out and buy a system you will want to find out what your
H2O problems are and what options are available to solve these problems.
Pay particular attention to Ph, total iron and total hardness.

Before investing in a system, make sure you deal with a local dealer that
sell, installs and services what they sell. It's no fun being left out in the
cold after having equipment drop shipped to your door.

Re: home well water treatment and filtration systems


Can you be more specific about your water conditions. Most well water has iron and hardness but determining the levels (and types of iron) is essential to selecting the right equipment. As H2Oman said, get more details on your water.

When you say you "have looked at" those brands, what do you mean? Have representatives come to explain their products or are you 'looking' at brochures and web pages? Are there Kinetico and Ecowater dealers in your area?

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

water treatments
Thanks to all of you that replied to my question about water treatment equipment. I apologize for not including more information. I have a well that is producing red stained water. From the well there are two bladder tanks and a sediment filter before going into my 1,500 gal. water storage tank. The wife has complained for years about taste and water spotting, etc. She makes me buy her bottled water to drink. It finally got so bad I decided to do something. I have been reading web site and brochures (and expert forums like this one). I have talked to kinetico and ecowater guys and the aforementioned avantapure by a local independent guy that has been selling and installing them for 10 years. he came out and tested my water and found extreme hardness (four times average) and iron water but I don't recall the number right now. the ph is 6.9 and said that was close enough. There is also sand and some dirt in the water. he is recommending 2 pre-filters for the sediment and a single tank avantapure softener installed for $4,500. What do you guys think?

A Ph of 6.9 ain't close enough - you should have an acid neutralizer.
You can't successfully treat problem water (Iron) without first elevating the Ph.

heres a calculator for Ryznar/Langelier Indeces which measure saturation at specific ph's. You can have water of high pH still being corrosive based upon its RTW indices. This site is the AMerican WAter Works site . These guys are miunicipal water engineers and are the last word on quality maintenance and use of water treatment. SInce they represent users they are like you, a cutomer of water treatment , not purveyors. H2O man is the correct answer--find out whats the makeup of your water before you start throwing specific treatment at it.
Since your problem is obviously being masked by dissolved Oxidized iron, we dont know whethre youve got a MANGAnese problem, which has a health index based upon dose equivalents for kids. ALso the concern for whether your well pH is 6.7 BEFORE it buffers out all the iron. Remember an acid water will buffer itself on whatevers available and iron or Calcium are specific cations that are great buffers.

Is your well in sand formations or hard rock? If hard igneous or metamorphic rock (or sandstones) chances are the pH is closer to 5.8 to 6.5 and your actually getting dissolved iron from the formation at the well bore , or in many cases, the well casing itself. Open your well and look at the casing, is it all corroded or does it look smooth ? If you can see a change in pitting right at the water level , then your water system has an aggressive and corrosive indexCORROSIVITY INDEX CALCULATOR , by AWWA

Re: water treatments

The $4500 is a ridiculous price. You need to give us the actual figures he gave you.

The EPA acceptable range for pH is 6.5 to 8.5. If the guy knows what he is doing, he used a buffer for iron in the sample he did the pH test on and you do not need an acid neutralizing filter.

without a competent water test that lets you in on your corrosivity, you will just be throwing money at this and not helping much. THERE ARE GOOD drinking water labs out there. They are licensed and specific analysts are certified and they take continuing education Units (CEU's) that keep them up to date.

Plese seek out one of these, then you can talk with a system purveyor. Most treatment guys will try to match the system with the water and not try to sell you something that you dont need. I said "Most treatment guys". There are some, "One size fits all" folks out there.
When you have your analyses, post them and we can help.

Re: water treatments


That's for drinking water.

He needs an Acid Neutralizer.

It sounds as if his iron is red water ferric iron coming from the welll into the cistern tank.

The cistern is atmospheric storage and ferrous iron will be oxidizing in that tank. You have no ferrous iron test result. You don't know that the dealer didn't use the iron buffer for his pH test and you are told that his pH is 6.9, which does not require treatment.

So you have no basis to suggest that an acid neutralizer filter must be used.

Any H2O that shows a Ph of less than 7.0 needs an Acid Neutralizer.

If you don't know this, you have no basis to suggest to anyone that you are here to help.

I'll let the people reading my posts decide if I'm helpful or not.

Yes, let them help themselves.

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