Water purifier, softner for homes

[aries31]

Hi maheshv,

Scalewatcher uses magnetic method & complex FM waves. It seems magnets have no effect on Mg, Ca ions and this "technology" is fake. Please check wikipedia page. I also had the benefit of communicating same topic with an expert in the field - Mr Stephen Lower http://www.chem1.com/CQ/hardwater.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_water_treatment

[jayadas]

which company makes Big Blue Filter.. What is the need for this filter..

I have almost finalized in on Zero B Softner for 31K. Someone told me Big Blue is good pre-filter to Softner. Which company make Big Blue. What kind of filter it is.. Can i get some details??

Jay

[Karthicv]

Thanks Aries31 for the links, will try it for sometime, have a 10 year replacement warranty at the worst will return it back. But the Salt water softening is an option that I have ruled out. Any other alternatives that you have a got for softening hard water..

[aries31]

Karthicv,

My understanding so far is that, to soften hardwater, only chemical means work (replacing Ca, Mg with Na, for example). There are no other workable solution including mechanical (filtration) , RF /EM waves , magnetic fields etc. Electrical current could attract hardness causing ions and may work but the cost of 'sacrificial' anodes will be too much (plus electricity is not cheap either). So, kent, zeroB, 3M and such other products etc are the only possible solution.

I have also seen a video on youtube where it was suggested that a black stone box with a transparent glass top can be used with solar energy to boil off H2O and cool it and capture the pure water droplets. However, I suspect this will work for getting 5-10ml water only! (I am planning to experiment this .... sometime when I have free time)

[maheshv]

@jayadas,

Yes, Big blue is a prefilter which can be used with softener and it helps increase resin life.
What I am looking for is, whether I use softener or not, I need a filter to remove dirt, small sand partials, sediment coming into and blocking facets. This same prefilter does that job for me.
I found one dealer in ebay and have ordered the same.
http://www.ebay.in/itm/Whole-House-Wate ... 27d4e8e005

I am also looking for softener.
Can you please share details on why you have zeroed on Zero B?

[jayadas]

There is no reason for Zero B. Just that thats a known name. There are some local manufacturers which sells Softner. From my basic reserch, this is what I found out. There are few things you need to check
(i) Quantity of the resin --> If you are selecting 3000LPH softner, 100 Litre resin would be required. More the resin you have, less often you need to regenerate
(ii) Type of Resin --> Most of the softners use 220NA Resin. There is 225NAF resin which is probably little better. For most of the softner companies, ION EXCHANAGE(name of the company) provides the required resin. There are not many resin manufacturers in the country and I think ION EXCHANGE is the most popular one.
(iii) Manual or Automatic regeneration -> Automatic, you can configure to regenerate at certain frequency. But many people claim, manual regeneration is more effective than Automatic. May be Automatic is meant for people like me(lazy)
(iv) Manual is cheper by atleast 15K to 20K compared to Automatic.
I had couple of options
(i) ION WORLD --> 28.5K after discount. 1 Year free regeneration. Their company person will come once in 20 days and do regeneration. After 1 year, they charge Rs:6000 per year for regeneration. They are providing 220NA ION EXHANGE resin, but ready to upgrade for a cost if requested. The tank was looking like a gas cylinder.
(i) MOSF softner --> Same price as above. They have their own resin.
(iii) Zero B --> 31K after discount. Comes with 225NAF resin. Nothing great apart from that. No free regeneration period. First two times, they will show you how to do the regeneration. After that you can do it yourself. Or Pay Rs:9000 per year for their person to do the regeneration.

From the above, Zero B doesnt look that great. But still i have decided to go with Zero B, just because its a known name (compared to rest of the players).

Jay

[harishnb]

Hi,

I was looking for water softener for my house and came across this link.
As the thread is almost 1 year old, it be helpful if you share your experience and suggest which one would you recommend Zero B, MOSF, Ion or aquionics.in? based on service, cost and quality of water.

[kphkulkarni]

Hi,

I have enquired for softner in July this year for for my borewell water having hardness of 612 ppm. My house still under construction and planning to order softner in Jan 2015.

Offers received from Morf and Ion exhange attached for reference.

Regards,
KPK

[aries31]

I have purchased Ion Exchange/ZeroB softener. The service is very good (Mysore). 1yr+ no problems with hardware so far

They also give you a kit with which you can test the hardness yourself.

[rjblr]

any recommendation on a prefilter? I found one from Kent, which seems to be expensive for a prefilter.
https://www.kent.co.in/water-softeners/kent-sand-filter
This is priced at Rs. 16,000

Here is one from 3M. They got one with capacity of 170 ltr/min costing around 26k and another with capacity of 75 ltr/min, which is priced at around 15k.
https://www.3mindia.in/3M/en_IN/purification-in/products/whole-house-water-filtration-system/

And one more from IonExchange/ZeroB-
https://www.zerobonline.com/product/autosand-filter/

There are many prefilters named as Big Blue filter after the name of original filter by Pentair, an american company.

Looking for suggestion from a decently priced prefilter. Or do you think Kent sand filter/3M prefilters are worth the price?