CR Spotless - Water Hardness Determines Resin Life?

[Route246]

Does feeding a CR Spotless system with pre-softened (from home salt-based resin water softener) water enhance the life of the CR Spotless resin, assuming my unsoftened water is very hard? Our unsoftened water at the supply almost blows calcium chunks out, while our softened water is very nice and renders very little spotting. I'm assuming that if we feed the softened sodium-laden water into the CR Spotless resin tanks that it will be gentler and cause the resin to last longer.

[Salmonbum]

No. Softened water pre CR will not lengthen life of resin. It still has to pull out the mineral.

[Route246]

No. Softened water pre CR will not lengthen life of resin. It still has to pull out the mineral.

Is there and acid and alkaline potions you could rinse the resin to dissolve the minerals?


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[WRAPT C5Z06]

The lower PPM of your water, the longer the resin will last.


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[Salmonbum]

Is there and acid and alkaline potions you could rinse the resin to dissolve the minerals?


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Not really sure. Too me its not a big deal as I replace the resin every 18-20 months, and I know I an doing it early (when I see TDS of 1, its done). Besides, a resin refill is only $70.

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Not really sure. Too me its not a big deal as I replace the resin every 18-20 months, and I know I an doing it early (when I see TDS of 1, its done). Besides, a resin refill is only $70.
When the TDS reads .20, it's time to replace. TDS of 1 isn't too far off and you only see that every 18-20 months??? Not sure how often you use it, but that's great!!

[Salmonbum]

When the TDS reads .20, it's time to replace. TDS of 1 isn't too far off and you only see that every 18-20 months??? Not sure how often you use it, but that's great!!

I should rephrase..... as soon as I see anything other than 000, I replace resin. My water isn't too hard, and I know iron is very low. I think Iron is the real killer of the resin.

Here in Michigan I don't use the CR from Dec to April, as a all but 2 of my rides go into storage.

[Bruno Soares]

The older units had a meter that showed the decimals so they said over .20 you had to replace. The new ones show whole numbers so they say up to 19 you're good, 20 or more you have to replace. He's doing it at 1 so that's early. But once it moves from 000 it will go up fast to the mark that needs new resin so I agree, any time it's over 1 go ahead and order the resin.

[Route246]

Not really sure. Too me its not a big deal as I replace the resin every 18-20 months, and I know I an doing it early (when I see TDS of 1, its done). Besides, a resin refill is only $70.

There is a YouTube video out there where a guy recharges his resin with muriatic acid and lye in two stages as I had suspected. It looks easy for someone who likes detailing. Looks like you can recharge for less than $10 worth of chemicals.

I'm hacker/tinkerer do it looks like an interesting project. Probably pickup a DI system soon. Need to wash windows around the house now, too, and rinsing with DI water it will make things very easy with nothing to wipe or clean for spot-free window panes, especially the high ones and the skylights on the roof.


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[Ernie Mccracken]

Saltwater aquarium hobbyists make a lot of 0 TDS water and they almost all use reverse osmosis to clean the water before it goes through the DI resin (the most expensive part). The RO can actually bring the TDS down to 10-15ppm, which is pretty much bottled water at that point. The order of operation is usually something like-

carbon block prefilter (coarse) --> carbon block prefilter (fine) --> RO membrane --> DI 1st stage --> DI 2nd stage

The downside of RO is that it adds complexity, produces waste water (you can use it on your lawn or whatever, though), and also needs to be run at semi-regular intervals to keep from drying out. But if you want hundreds of gallons of 0 tds water per month, that's the way to go. A DI only system makes most sense for the weekend warrior washing a couple of cars per week.

[Route246]

There is a YouTube video out there where a guy recharges his resin with muriatic acid and lye in two stages as I had suspected. It looks easy for someone who likes detailing. Looks like you can recharge for less than $10 worth of chemicals.

I'm hacker/tinkerer do it looks like an interesting project. Probably pickup a DI system soon. Need to wash windows around the house now, too, and rinsing with DI water it will make things very easy with nothing to wipe or clean for spot-free window panes, especially the high ones and the skylights on the roof.


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https://youtu.be/eqz44sNprkE

Hopefully this YouTube link works.


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[2black1s]

Saltwater aquarium hobbyists make a lot of 0 TDS water and they almost all use reverse osmosis to clean the water before it goes through the DI resin (the most expensive part). The RO can actually bring the TDS down to 10-15ppm, which is pretty much bottled water at that point. The order of operation is usually something like-

carbon block prefilter (coarse) --> carbon block prefilter (fine) --> RO membrane --> DI 1st stage --> DI 2nd stage

The downside of RO is that it adds complexity, produces waste water (you can use it on your lawn or whatever, though), and also needs to be run at semi-regular intervals to keep from drying out. But if you want hundreds of gallons of 0 tds water per month, that's the way to go. A DI only system makes most sense for the weekend warrior washing a couple of cars per week.

My homemade system is the configuration you've described... RO first, then DI.

[Route246]

Article of how-to recharge resin: How to Recharge DI Resin by David Sanders - Reefkeeping.com (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-09/nftt/index.php)

[Route246]

Another article: How to Recharge DI Resin » Reef'd Up Aquatics (http://www.reefdup.com/2012/09/12/how-to-recharge-di-resin/)

[Route246]

My homemade system is the configuration you've described... RO first, then DI.

That is pretty awesome. How much does a decent RO system cost to front-end this rig? I want that, I want that, I want that...