We just installed a portable water softener because the place we are staying has very hard water. It's working great, but we are noticing a slight salt taste in our water. We drink lots of water because we use a Soda Stream machine to carbonate our water. I did some research and realize that a small amount of sodium is added by the softener to replace what it is removing from the water. I wonder if anyone else has come up with a solution? Is there a filter I can add outside after the softener that would remove the sale?
A filter to remove sodium from water?
- Thread starter bigpemby
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Ken & Sheila
Site Team
In our homes we always had the Kitchen cold water and the refrigerator ice maker lines bypass the water softener. In a motorhome this is not so easy since you have two sources of water: City water and our on board tank.
I don't know of a filter to remove the salt, but I wonder if your softener is adjusted correctly. We have never had any salt taste from our softener water - (yes even with no taste there is still the health issue of additional salt).
ken
I don't know of a filter to remove the salt, but I wonder if your softener is adjusted correctly. We have never had any salt taste from our softener water - (yes even with no taste there is still the health issue of additional salt).
ken
Clay L
Well-known member
A reverse osmosis machine will reduce salt. It can make drinking water from seawater. It forces water through permeable membranes to filter out the unwanted molecules and ions from the water. They use quite a lot of water though. The amount of bad water (discarded as waste) to good water can be very high.
I think it will also remove the calcium ions and others that make water hard so you end up with soft water and very little salt.
I think it will also remove the calcium ions and others that make water hard so you end up with soft water and very little salt.
John From Detroit
Well-known member
I agree with the Reverse Osmosis (R/O) systems however some notes:
Minieral free water (Which is what you get) may not be the best for drinking.
And they waste a lot of water.
HOWEVER.. If you use them JUST for your drinking water, and return the waste water back to the fresh tank (As many do) it's not so bad . True the mineral content in the fresh tank will slowly increase.. But you sue that water for other (non-drinking) things too so you re-fresh it from the hose and that takes the mineral content back down.
You might also check out one of the filters like a Britta or PUR, I do not know how well they will improve your sodium issue, but that's what I use.
Minieral free water (Which is what you get) may not be the best for drinking.
And they waste a lot of water.
HOWEVER.. If you use them JUST for your drinking water, and return the waste water back to the fresh tank (As many do) it's not so bad . True the mineral content in the fresh tank will slowly increase.. But you sue that water for other (non-drinking) things too so you re-fresh it from the hose and that takes the mineral content back down.
You might also check out one of the filters like a Britta or PUR, I do not know how well they will improve your sodium issue, but that's what I use.
Lady Fitzgerald
Well-known member
Look into using potassium chloride for regenerating the water softener. Most water softeners have a type of resin that allow that. It's often done in cases where the even the small amount of sodium added to the water would be too much for people on really low sodium diets (most people aren't affected by the amount of sodium water softeners add to the water, including many on low sodium diets).
You should never taste salt in the water after a softener, if that's the case your softener is not rinsing properly during the regeneration. sodium content is very low on soft water and easy to know exactly how much is there. simply multiply the hardness by 7.866 the number is milligrams per liter of sodium.
example 10 grains hard 10x7.866=78mg per liter. potassium salt requires 20% more salt per recharge and puts potassium in the water important if your diabetic.R.O. is about the only way to remove sodium (besides a distiller) with ro for every 1 gallon of drinking water it will send around the same amount to the drain so 2 gallons of water needed for 1 gallon of drinking water. It is important to note that ro water is very aggressive and if you ran it everywhere it would actually eat away at metal.
example 10 grains hard 10x7.866=78mg per liter. potassium salt requires 20% more salt per recharge and puts potassium in the water important if your diabetic.R.O. is about the only way to remove sodium (besides a distiller) with ro for every 1 gallon of drinking water it will send around the same amount to the drain so 2 gallons of water needed for 1 gallon of drinking water. It is important to note that ro water is very aggressive and if you ran it everywhere it would actually eat away at metal.
