I think you’re amazing. You taught this 59 yr old how to do a lot on my own,tired of getting burned by contractors because I’m a female. I did a drywall patch the other day and it looked like a pro thank to you 🎉🎉🎉❤
YESSSS!!!! Thank you for all your videos. My house is a duplex. I live in one half and rent out the other half, so I have 2 of everything. I have had to replace everything water-mechanical more than twice because of our city water contamination.
After you’re done soldering it’s a good idea to allow the copper to cool by air and not immediately submerge the soldered fitting into cool water as this causes rapid expansion of the joints and on occasion can create cracks in the solder joint. Love the video
Actually it causes rapid contraction, not expansion. Quenching very hot copper in water can also make it very soft, something you don't want in threaded fittings.
Good video, however you should allow the fittings to cool naturally, submerging them in water could cause micro cracks in the solder, also once you clean the copper you want to avoid touching it with your hands, the oils in our skin can affect the solder as well and cause the capillary action to not seal in that area.
Just a suggestion, if you use a ball valve just before going into the cartridge filter it makes it super easy to shut off the water to change the filter down the road.
Standards for water quality can be found very easily. Understanding the science might be a bit more difficult but it’s doable. Shame on you for letting people believe they can’t find that stuff.
I just redid my bathroom and I used the plastic fitting technique of going backwards until the click and it made fitting pipes so easy. I thought of this channel every time I did it!
Jeff... Dude.... As much as it seems like you might feel like you're giving out too much information, literally everything mentioned regarding reasons shark bite fittings are a must are need to know information. Thank you sir. That little extra info can go along way.
Filling the tank via garden hose is the perfect way to introduce harmful bacteria into a system! I wouldn’t buy anything from a manufacturer that is stating in their instructions to do that unless it states “new hose”. Love the videos btw.
You want to make sure whatever lube you're using for you're water supply it's food grade. Silicone labeled H1 is food grade and is allows for incidental contact with food. Petroleum based lubes like Vaseline may cause rubber to degrade faster.
We have a salt free water softer, and we’re on a well. Our water is super hard. We had a salt-using softener that we replaced with our salt-free softener. With both softeners we had efficient water filters, so the water was clean when it went into both softeners. As far as the water is concerned I can’t tell the difference between the salt-using and a salt free water softener. Our water is still super hard, with lime buildup a nuisance. BUT last year I did some plumbing, adding a shower in a half-bath, and found the interiors of my 45 year-old galvanized pipes were in pristine condition. THAT’S a definite plus.
I was going to add something I thought was helpful, then I read some of the comments. Sorry Sir, you seem like a go getter. There will always be better way to do things. Thanks for sharing what you got. Keep it up.
Haha I know this is a year old, but I loved this video. Hilarious about the lubrication. Excellent advice and thanks for walking us through the install and tips.
Wow somebody actually knows the proper way to wrap Teflon tape. Most peope try to roll it off the top of the roll and they get farther and farther from the fitting and loose their tension. Good job. For the siliconed pipe problem, just grab your piece of sand paper you used to clean the copper and use it to grip the Pex.
Plumbing supplier here. In my experience, Vaseline swells the rubber gasket / o-ring so next time you remove a filter sump or union nut the rubber no longer fits where it's supposed to, necessitating replacement.
Also, when you need to replace media, just disconnect the by-pass valve where it connects to the head of the unit - you don't have to touch the plumbing at all, and you can do it without even turning the water off if the red levers are in the bypass position. having running water to rinse out the media tank is kinda nice!
My husband used to struggle with loosening the tank with the plastic wrench every single time. I suggest tightening it to a lesser degree then check for leaking for a few days. Then tighten a little if needed. Will save on swearing every time.
My wrench broke, so I bought a small wrench strap and that makes short work of a stubborn filter cover. I hand tighten my cover - never use my wrench, but as another poster stated, it is hard to remove a few months down the line for some strange reason.
For drinking and cooking I buy distilled water. For other purpose I have some filtering (to remove odor) and water softener system (with salt). If I decided to drink water from well - I would better go for reverse osmosis system.
I bought a house with a salt based softener. Previous owner installed it somewhat recently, because the older bathrooms fixtures are almost completely jammed with calcium. There's two people in my house with hypertension, so that means we still have to supplement with bottled water AND the softened water goes out to the spicket where the sprinkler system draws water and sprays salty water all over the lawn. I was going to get a reverse ossmosis but I think I might look into this instead.
Has anyone ever told you that you sound very similar to Red Green? You should drop an occasional “ remember we’re all in this together,we’re pullin for ya”!
Love the video but I would recommend you don’t dunk the fitting in water as soon as you finish the solder because the rapid cooldown could cause a crack in the solder which will cause a leak
I've installed several. In the process of another now: 50 yr old country 5 bedroom, 4 bath house on a well, surrounded by corn and beans, iron. Just pulled and replaced 50 yr old copper with 3/4 pex, new fixtures, new whole house R/O. I will be replacing the functioning salt based softener with...? Clean hands, material on clean poly, don't put your hands where you don't have too etc when installing friend.
The hand lotion Jeff put on the rubber seal is Glysomed. Glycerine and chamomile. Glycerine is actually a rubber preservative. A silicone lube is better since it never dries out
To answer your question, I live in Southern California in an area with a lot of big agriculture. My water is very hard/calciferous. So I am afraid of the scale build up in my water supply lines. I installed a water softener from GE and seems to be working well but it has only been 6 months. My next water project is to install a whole house water filter to get rid of the chlorine or chloroamines and other AG products that might be in my water.
good call. 20 years from n ow we will all probably find out the pesticides were in the water supply and that is what causes most of our illnesses. Cheers!
Love your videos! Might I suggest building a bypass valve system at the water main to your house or well tank. Creating a bypass loops the your tank system back to the main feed to your entire house. That way both cold and hot water are purified and if you need to shut off the system you still have water flowing to do your service. Cheers!
AZ here, just watered down calcium here 👌. Thanks man I'll check them out, just plumbed our remodel, I did put a loop in the garage and I plan on putting a soft water spigot on the softer in there. I left the exterior spigots off the softener line, I assumed I was going to use a salt system, left my fridge off the line too and a stove line for cooking, regretting that now.
I would replace all that copper you used with the correct plastic parts from that company. I have to run a RO/DI system to make pure water for my saltwater reef tank. No way I would use copper after a purification stage. It is a heavy metal that will leach back into the water. Just my two cents. Guess I should clarify a bit more after reading what I wrote. What I really mean to say is if you are concerned about clean drinking water I would invest in a RO system. A quality one. I would recommend Bulk Reef Supply. Hard to beat their quality and price.
Informative with great details, however, it's a little dated now. You can use Pex B crimping these days as SHARKBITE is really expensive. Required: bypass of filter system using lead-free ball values, Tees. Optional: add a spin-down filter for the larger microns. Optional: connect a pressure gauge monitor before filter system and after to see if there's drop. Major Drop over time is an indicator of clogs and time to replace some filters or clean spin-down.
Awesome video as always. Appreciate the “goofs”, as they happen in real life frequently. Next time you silicone/lubricate your hands, wash them with liquid dish soap, not hand soap. Dish soap has heavy duty surfactants to break down thick grease. Hand soaps are made to be gentler and often have moisturizing properties added. We live out in the country, lots of iron and hard scale build up on everything. There was a water softener with the house, but It has been disconnected but the previous owner and replaced with a whole house cartridge softener and filter system.
Great video, I love your DIY videos. I have been looking into filtration systems and I found out this is not a Walter softener, it's a water conditioner, it does not soften the water.
You need to use a shark-bite specific deburring tool before inserting them, if you don't you risk destroying the O-ring with a sharp edge. The tool also allows you to mark the mounting depth, so you know you have the pipe installed correctly. You also shouldn't sand that surface because the O-ring needs a smooth surface to seal against. O-ring seals are not gaskets. They work by the O-ring being driven into the gap by the pressure they are containing. They don't rely on compression from the plastic nuts. Snug as as good as tight. If they aren't sealing then either the seal surface is bad, or the o-ring is bad. Look at where they mount, the O-rings are in a gap that won't be closed completely however tight you make the retaining rings. Thuse rings are just there to stop the connectors from popping out. Many brands of water softener don't even use this type of connection, they have locks that secure the sides instead, and those are incapable of applying any pressure to the O-ring. The one in my basement, which is about to be removed, is 19 years old and hasn't leaked a drop. It's also a salt free system and doesn't work. Those tanks are all supposed to be upright, but I'm sure you fixed that before you were done.
If they do not make your filter any more do have replace the whole filter housing? Love your guys videos have been a huge help with remodeling my first home. Thank you guys for doing this channel.
How is it holding up? I was thinking of purchasing one and installing it. We are on a well. Our water doesn't stink. But stains EVERYTHING! Some are giving bad reviews on salt free water softeners. But I would love your review.
We have the exact same filter system installed by the seller back in 2007 and it didn't work any better than the standard water softener that we already had. Yeh, yeh, except for the salt. I know. I'm talking about the iron staining throughout was the same. However, within a month the filter canisters were so plugged with iron they needed to be replaced at $250. ea and there were 3 of them. The system cost $5200. installed. The water softener cost $1200. and I did the install myself. The math of the Water Softener won. We still have both but the system like the one in this vid is disconnected. I hope you have better luck with iron in the filters and their replacement cost.
@@HomeRenoVisionDIY I've read the claims/literature on the website for your unit and did the comparison with my 12 yr old literature and with a bit of physics and chemistry applied to the builds and claims all I can say is "if you say so" or more accurately "if they say so". Our $5200. system wasn't supposed to need any pre or post filters but our iron content (ppm) is so high they recommended one pre and 2 post filters. Yada yada yada. So I took their advice and if their unit worked as well as they claimed the filters should have been good for a year, the post ones at least. Our water softener has the same "purge" system as this new system you have. That's where and how the salt and minerals are flushed out. I set its cycle for once every 24 hrs. and never have had a problem with the Water Softener. Just the iron. Now my initial comment was only to say that "I didn't find any real difference between the systems."
I would like to see a hardness test before the system and after. According to just about every piece of scientific writing out there you cannot reduce hardness without Ion exchange, which bring you back to a salt or potassium system.
I appreciate the video...but I understand water softeners...and that 'saltless unit ' is not a softener . Softeners are based on non sacrificial media. A carbon tank is sacrificial. Also carbon is a porous encapsulation media. It can be backwashed to a point, but the entire media bed will need replaced. Cation resin in a softener work on ionic level and doesn't need replaced for the life of the unit. This is true on a well. On city water 8/12 years in the chlorine can ruin the cation mineral.
Hi. Big fan of your videos. I'm in southern Indiana and our town regularly has brown water and extremely hard water with very high levels of manganese. I'd be interested in a video about options for in-city or suburban water filtering options.
I like how plug and play this is. Not a fan of shark bite fittings because I can't bring myself to trust a slip on fitting from potentially leaking versus a sweated fitting. Looks good. Does this keep scale out of the lines too?
I may have missed it but a great disclaimer would be to NEVER solder pipe connected to a plastic fitting like the tank. Also, why no valves anywhere? Might have been nice to see a 3-valve bypass system. Just a thought.
We live in the San Joaquin Valley in California and thanks to the Agricultural Multi National Companies our ground water is well polluted. It would not surprise me that this lead to my beautiful wife's cancer that led to her death 5 months ago. We have a water filter on our drinking water but our water often tastes like chlorine.
Jeff, you should have mentioned that this system comes from the USA not Canada. You have to consider the exchange rate and shipping. I talked to the company and this product does not apply to NAFTA, therefore duties will be applied.
Good morning and first off thank you so much for all of the videos you upload. It's saved me a lot of money and it's very enjoyable to watch! In the installation video provided by the company on these tanks they suggest using a 1-in metal flex line which would avoid all of the copper work that you were doing. Is there a benefit to doing it the way you were doing it here versus using those 1 inch metal flex lines?
What would you do when installing a filtration system that requires a backwash for iron filtering in a basement? We are also on septic and have been recommended against routing the brackish backwash into the septic tank (killing off the good bacteria). We are looking at multiple component systems like the one installed here. Should a pipe be drilled to the outside? Can it be routed into a hose bib and sent away from the house?
Great video on this product, now I know what I will get for my future house next year. At least right off the bat, I know what clean water is going to cost, and I will try using sharkbite for that setup. A lot of people get frustrated easily, but you demonstrated to your viewers what my Father imparted on me, "improvise, adapt and overcome" again, keep up the good work, I have learned a lot and your ideas, instruction, and methods have made some maintenance and projects easier to accomplish.
I live in Los Angeles. We have extremely hard water; so hard that over 10 years it has destroyed our kitchen faucet, seizing up the pivoting neck and also making it leak. It’s done a similar thing with our bathroom faucet, except it actually ate away at the aerator, meaning we had to replace that. Faucets aren’t that expensive to replace in the grand scheme of things, but for a family on a tight budget, we have to deal with it. We still have great water pressure even after the 25-30 years since the house was repiped, but I fear that sometime in the future the scale may build up to the point where there is major pressure loss or an appliance failure.
I live in a country area where we are on public water. I moved here from a newer area of development outside of a city. When I moved out to the country I noticed a smell coming from the water, best way to describe it is camp water, the same smell you tend to smell at the showers at Americas National Parks. My main concern is what that smell is coming from, my second concern is my fish. I have several fresh water fish tanks in my home and I worry about the quality of water I am introducing into the closed ecosystem that is a fish tank. I would love to see a video about the installation of a reverse osmosis unit for ultimate water quality and lowest possible dissolved solids. Thanks for taking the time to read this
Strange that you are getting that kind of smell and not chlorine since you are on city water. Is the smell with cold /hot or both? The cold side would be a city issue, and maybe you could buy a water sample test, and show the results to the city water department as a health hazard (some test kits check for bacteria). If it is hot water only, then it could be the anode rod, or bacteria creating hydrogen sulfide gases. Magnesium rods are considered "healthy" as we need that in our diet instead of an aluminum one, as you consume trace amounts of aluminum - we get enough poisoning from deodorants etc.
How to make plumbing a water filtration system “more” fun.....lubricate* everything up like a “greased pig”; & than try to connect all the pipes/fittings together. You’ll have a good ole “fun” time🤣🤣. *was thinking to myself when using the “lubricant” as lotion....you’re gonna have fun time putting things together😉
Our house was built in 59 and we have a well. We have very orange sulfur smelling water. We have a salt softener, it works kind of. The water still stains the toilet bowls and I wouldn't drink it.
The good thing about this system is that it aerates the water and allows the iron to oxidize and get carried away in the back flush. I bought a similar system that I will install shortly. I picked this up from amazon: B078C82XF8 Durawater Air Injection Iron Eater Filter. Removes Iron, Manganese, H2S. Black Series. I called their phone number (see videos from Aplus water) and spoke with Tony and he helped me map out my system and requirements.
There are 2 or 3 companies making really nice plastic fittings similar to Sharkbite (John Guest is one that comes to mind). I used quite a few in my install.
Two things I've been jonesing to install in my home, tankless water heater and saltless water softener but I've gotten a wild hair to remodel the house so they got put off for another year. Man I was thrilled to see you made this video! Now seeing how easy it is to install I am definitely going to put this system in my home. We have a hard water issue in my town. Thanks so much for this video and everything you do for us Jeff! Lovin the channel! P.S. I'm such a great fan of shark bite as well!
Can you recommend a Canadian supplier of salt free water softeners? I have new well with hardness and iron issues. Located in Southwest Ontario. Thanks! Big fan.
Filter wrenches: Get a second one just for loosening the canister. Torquing the filter on its bracket, or in your case those straps, can get wonky and nerve racking. You may never get it off with those wobbly straps.
Great video. We have a well too...What do you think of the UV add on? Why didn't you consider it for your home? Did your water test not show signs of bacteria that UV kills: E Coli, Cryptospordium, and Giardia Lambia, etc?
I would suggest reaming your copper pipe. I personally have installed quite a few of these systems and done them all in copper with valves and bypass. Copper is King
Nice vid Jeff/Matt. Curious if you tested the water before and after installation? That would be the best test...any feedback now that you've used it for a while?
I'm looking for Salt-Free Water Softeners with an pre-aerator for the chlorine. Seems like people are only using carbon, but I come from aquarium backgrounds and aeration is the best way. The only aeration Im finding is for like house worried about problematic well water gasses, nothing small for city water.
So how does their technology soften the water without salt? Since this video is over a year old, how is the system performing and how is the water as far are being soft? I'm asking as I have a Culligan system installed in 2013 and it sucks. Having issues with it leaving hard water on dishes, faucets, bathroom fixtures... looks like it isn't working. Was ok first few years but has gone downhill in the last 3 to 4 years. Just saw a vid today talking about using Super Iron Out to help clean the resin? Do you have any experience trying to repair or upkeep a sortener system? What does the SpringWell system require for maintenance beyond the yearly change out of the Pentair sedimentation filter you talked about?
A carbon filter can be a useful and good thing, but it's no panacea, and certainly won't remove metals and such. If you have iron, manganese, etc., you're gonna need more advanced technology. We've got fairly high levels of those two, fairly low pH (
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I think you’re amazing. You taught this 59 yr old how to do a lot on my own,tired of getting burned by contractors because I’m a female. I did a drywall patch the other day and it looked like a pro thank to you 🎉🎉🎉❤
When you rubbed the silicone on your hands was the best part of the video! 5 star's!
YESSSS!!!! Thank you for all your videos. My house is a duplex. I live in one half and rent out the other half, so I have 2 of everything. I have had to replace everything water-mechanical more than twice because of our city water contamination.
After you’re done soldering it’s a good idea to allow the copper to cool by air and not immediately submerge the soldered fitting into cool water as this causes rapid expansion of the joints and on occasion can create cracks in the solder joint. Love the video
Actually it causes rapid contraction, not expansion. Quenching very hot copper in water can also make it very soft, something you don't want in threaded fittings.
@@RSole9999 I cringed pretty hard when he quenched that joint.
Good video, however you should allow the fittings to cool naturally, submerging them in water could cause micro cracks in the solder, also once you clean the copper you want to avoid touching it with your hands, the oils in our skin can affect the solder as well and cause the capillary action to not seal in that area.
Also, using the wire brush on the inside of the copper is not a substitute for deburing the copper.
Just a suggestion, if you use a ball valve just before going into the cartridge filter it makes it super easy to shut off the water to change the filter down the road.
AND after the filter, so the house's water doesn't come pouring back out!
cheers, will do both!
Spent weeks researching a whole house system, I bought it before J watchwd this video!! Once i saw you installing this, im good lol
Standards for water quality can be found very easily. Understanding the science might be a bit more difficult but it’s doable. Shame on you for letting people believe they can’t find that stuff.
I just redid my bathroom and I used the plastic fitting technique of going backwards until the click and it made fitting pipes so easy. I thought of this channel every time I did it!
Jeff... Dude.... As much as it seems like you might feel like you're giving out too much information, literally everything mentioned regarding reasons shark bite fittings are a must are need to know information. Thank you sir. That little extra info can go along way.
I’m only 8 minutes in but I see no reason for shark bites yet, I’d use copper unions
Shark bites fail me all of the time, but the info. given in this video about shark bites is need to know information
I grew up in a part of Louisiana that the city water is a artesian spring. Man naturally soft and so dam good.
Jealous!!!!
I use your "go backwards" technique every morning when tightening the lid on my travel coffee mug. 😜
lol, right on. no more spills!
This has to be in your top 10 videos- love you guys!!!
Filling the tank via garden hose is the perfect way to introduce harmful bacteria into a system! I wouldn’t buy anything from a manufacturer that is stating in their instructions to do that unless it states “new hose”.
Love the videos btw.
The pipes that deliver the water to your taps are even worse. The purpose of the filter is to remove contaminants
You want to make sure whatever lube you're using for you're water supply it's food grade.
Silicone labeled H1 is food grade and is allows for incidental contact with food.
Petroleum based lubes like Vaseline may cause rubber to degrade faster.
We have a salt free water softer, and we’re on a well. Our water is super hard. We had a salt-using softener that we replaced with our salt-free softener. With both softeners we had efficient water filters, so the water was clean when it went into both softeners.
As far as the water is concerned I can’t tell the difference between the salt-using and a salt free water softener.
Our water is still super hard, with lime buildup a nuisance. BUT last year I did some plumbing, adding a shower in a half-bath, and found the interiors of my 45 year-old galvanized pipes were in pristine condition. THAT’S a definite plus.
you're very lucky. 9 times out of 10 salt free conditioners get rendered inert due to the iron an manganese which is very typical in well water.
I was going to add something I thought was helpful, then I read some of the comments. Sorry Sir, you seem like a go getter. There will always be better way to do things. Thanks for sharing what you got. Keep it up.
Haha I know this is a year old, but I loved this video. Hilarious about the lubrication. Excellent advice and thanks for walking us through the install and tips.
Wow somebody actually knows the proper way to wrap Teflon tape. Most peope try to roll it off the top of the roll and they get farther and farther from the fitting and loose their tension. Good job. For the siliconed pipe problem, just grab your piece of sand paper you used to clean the copper and use it to grip the Pex.
Plumbing supplier here. In my experience, Vaseline swells the rubber gasket / o-ring so next time you remove a filter sump or union nut the rubber no longer fits where it's supposed to, necessitating replacement.
Totally agree grease does the same
Always appreciate seeing content from this channel. Thank you!
Also, when you need to replace media, just disconnect the by-pass valve where it connects to the head of the unit - you don't have to touch the plumbing at all, and you can do it without even turning the water off if the red levers are in the bypass position. having running water to rinse out the media tank is kinda nice!
Enjoy clear and simple instructions. Very impressive
Yup! Jeff is definitely Canadian.
Can't find mounting bracket- assumes he lost it.
American? Damn company left a part out of my kit.
I will never order anything from Canada now 😑
So true! Lol!
My husband used to struggle with loosening the tank with the plastic wrench every single time. I suggest tightening it to a lesser degree then check for leaking for a few days. Then tighten a little if needed. Will save on swearing every time.
My wrench broke, so I bought a small wrench strap and that makes short work of a stubborn filter cover. I hand tighten my cover - never use my wrench, but as another poster stated, it is hard to remove a few months down the line for some strange reason.
Hi Jeff. Wondering how this system has held up after a couple years of use?
For drinking and cooking I buy distilled water. For other purpose I have some filtering (to remove odor) and water softener system (with salt). If I decided to drink water from well - I would better go for reverse osmosis system.
I bought a house with a salt based softener. Previous owner installed it somewhat recently, because the older bathrooms fixtures are almost completely jammed with calcium. There's two people in my house with hypertension, so that means we still have to supplement with bottled water AND the softened water goes out to the spicket where the sprinkler system draws water and sprays salty water all over the lawn.
I was going to get a reverse ossmosis but I think I might look into this instead.
You could always use potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride, it costs a lot more but you don't use much anyway.
Has anyone ever told you that you sound very similar to Red Green? You should drop an occasional “ remember we’re all in this together,we’re pullin for ya”!
I’ve had my Pelican Water Conditioner system for two years and very happy
It’s rough watchin you struggle with plumbing Jeff 😂
Love the video but I would recommend you don’t dunk the fitting in water as soon as you finish the solder because the rapid cooldown could cause a crack in the solder which will cause a leak
I've installed several. In the process of another now: 50 yr old country 5 bedroom, 4 bath house on a well, surrounded by corn and beans, iron. Just pulled and replaced 50 yr old copper with 3/4 pex, new fixtures, new whole house R/O. I will be replacing the functioning salt based softener with...? Clean hands, material on clean poly, don't put your hands where you don't have too etc when installing friend.
The hand lotion Jeff put on the rubber seal is Glysomed. Glycerine and chamomile. Glycerine is actually a rubber preservative. A silicone lube is better since it never dries out
To answer your question, I live in Southern California in an area with a lot of big agriculture. My water is very hard/calciferous. So I am afraid of the scale build up in my water supply lines. I installed a water softener from GE and seems to be working well but it has only been 6 months. My next water project is to install a whole house water filter to get rid of the chlorine or chloroamines and other AG products that might be in my water.
good call. 20 years from n ow we will all probably find out the pesticides were in the water supply and that is what causes most of our illnesses. Cheers!
Stay with your softener. This system being displayed is a water "conditioner" not a "softener". Get the charcoal filter to take care of the chlorine.
just got my system and am installing all new PEx lines to go with this. I have a well and ordered the slat based system
Never over tighten those big blue pre-filters. They don't unscrew easily. Make sure you use the metal mounting bracket
Honestly whenever you have multiples and you can do it all at once. It will just save you so much time 😀
I finished changing out all the water lines in the house the next day as well. Cheers!
@@HomeRenoVisionDIY cheers love your channel 😀
Love your videos! Might I suggest building a bypass valve system at the water main to your house or well tank. Creating a bypass loops the your tank system back to the main feed to your entire house. That way both cold and hot water are purified and if you need to shut off the system you still have water flowing to do your service. Cheers!
YUP, Jeff, I figure that I will be learning things about stuff until I draw my last beath.
AZ here, just watered down calcium here 👌. Thanks man I'll check them out, just plumbed our remodel, I did put a loop in the garage and I plan on putting a soft water spigot on the softer in there. I left the exterior spigots off the softener line, I assumed I was going to use a salt system, left my fridge off the line too and a stove line for cooking, regretting that now.
I would replace all that copper you used with the correct plastic parts from that company. I have to run a RO/DI system to make pure water for my saltwater reef tank. No way I would use copper after a purification stage. It is a heavy metal that will leach back into the water. Just my two cents.
Guess I should clarify a bit more after reading what I wrote. What I really mean to say is if you are concerned about clean drinking water I would invest in a RO system. A quality one. I would recommend Bulk Reef Supply. Hard to beat their quality and price.
I like to have a golf pencil with a quartet roll of teflon wrapped around the end of it for when I'm wrapping in tight places.
Informative with great details, however, it's a little dated now. You can use Pex B crimping these days as SHARKBITE is really expensive.
Required: bypass of filter system using lead-free ball values, Tees.
Optional: add a spin-down filter for the larger microns.
Optional: connect a pressure gauge monitor before filter system and after to see if there's drop. Major Drop over time is an indicator of clogs and time to replace some filters or clean spin-down.
Awesome video as always. Appreciate the “goofs”, as they happen in real life frequently. Next time you silicone/lubricate your hands, wash them with liquid dish soap, not hand soap. Dish soap has heavy duty surfactants to break down thick grease. Hand soaps are made to be gentler and often have moisturizing properties added.
We live out in the country, lots of iron and hard scale build up on everything. There was a water softener with the house, but It has been disconnected but the previous owner and replaced with a whole house cartridge softener and filter system.
Thanks for the advice. Cheers Anne!
Great video, I love your DIY videos. I have been looking into filtration systems and I found out this is not a Walter softener, it's a water conditioner, it does not soften the water.
Put! They advertise it softens water?
@@evanhull3444 🤷♂️🤷♂️ that's what I don't understand?
From my understanding: Conditioners do soften water, just not to the extent of a softener.
You need to use a shark-bite specific deburring tool before inserting them, if you don't you risk destroying the O-ring with a sharp edge. The tool also allows you to mark the mounting depth, so you know you have the pipe installed correctly. You also shouldn't sand that surface because the O-ring needs a smooth surface to seal against. O-ring seals are not gaskets. They work by the O-ring being driven into the gap by the pressure they are containing. They don't rely on compression from the plastic nuts. Snug as as good as tight. If they aren't sealing then either the seal surface is bad, or the o-ring is bad. Look at where they mount, the O-rings are in a gap that won't be closed completely however tight you make the retaining rings. Thuse rings are just there to stop the connectors from popping out. Many brands of water softener don't even use this type of connection, they have locks that secure the sides instead, and those are incapable of applying any pressure to the O-ring. The one in my basement, which is about to be removed, is 19 years old and hasn't leaked a drop. It's also a salt free system and doesn't work. Those tanks are all supposed to be upright, but I'm sure you fixed that before you were done.
If they do not make your filter any more do have replace the whole filter housing? Love your guys videos have been a huge help with remodeling my first home. Thank you guys for doing this channel.
You should test the water before and after.
How is it holding up? I was thinking of purchasing one and installing it. We are on a well. Our water doesn't stink. But stains EVERYTHING! Some are giving bad reviews on salt free water softeners. But I would love your review.
We have the exact same filter system installed by the seller back in 2007 and it didn't work any better than the standard water softener that we already had. Yeh, yeh, except for the salt. I know. I'm talking about the iron staining throughout was the same. However, within a month the filter canisters were so plugged with iron they needed to be replaced at $250. ea and there were 3 of them. The system cost $5200. installed. The water softener cost $1200. and I did the install myself. The math of the Water Softener won. We still have both but the system like the one in this vid is disconnected. I hope you have better luck with iron in the filters and their replacement cost.
Hi Sheila, that would be impossible since this product was not on the market until recently. Cheers!
@@HomeRenoVisionDIY I've read the claims/literature on the website for your unit and did the comparison with my 12 yr old literature and with a bit of physics and chemistry applied to the builds and claims all I can say is "if you say so" or more accurately "if they say so". Our $5200. system wasn't supposed to need any pre or post filters but our iron content (ppm) is so high they recommended one pre and 2 post filters. Yada yada yada. So I took their advice and if their unit worked as well as they claimed the filters should have been good for a year, the post ones at least.
Our water softener has the same "purge" system as this new system you have. That's where and how the salt and minerals are flushed out. I set its cycle for once every 24 hrs. and never have had a problem with the Water Softener. Just the iron.
Now my initial comment was only to say that "I didn't find any real difference between the systems."
Jeff would you still recommend this system for hard water well water?
I would like to see a hardness test before the system and after. According to just about every piece of scientific writing out there you cannot reduce hardness without Ion exchange, which bring you back to a salt or potassium system.
That device is amazing!!!
Cheers!
I appreciate the video...but I understand water softeners...and that 'saltless unit ' is not a softener .
Softeners are based on non sacrificial media. A carbon tank is sacrificial. Also carbon is a porous encapsulation media. It can be backwashed to a point, but the entire media bed will need replaced. Cation resin in a softener work on ionic level and doesn't need replaced for the life of the unit. This is true on a well. On city water 8/12 years in the chlorine can ruin the cation mineral.
Hi. Big fan of your videos. I'm in southern Indiana and our town regularly has brown water and extremely hard water with very high levels of manganese. I'd be interested in a video about options for in-city or suburban water filtering options.
I like how plug and play this is. Not a fan of shark bite fittings because I can't bring myself to trust a slip on fitting from potentially leaking versus a sweated fitting. Looks good. Does this keep scale out of the lines too?
I may have missed it but a great disclaimer would be to NEVER solder pipe connected to a plastic fitting like the tank. Also, why no valves anywhere? Might have been nice to see a 3-valve bypass system. Just a thought.
Excellent video. So many water filter system out in the market and it can be confusing. Please do a video on copper welding and soldering.
Personally I would have went with unions instead of shark bites but, otherwise good install. Thanks for the other tips and insight.
We live in the San Joaquin Valley in California and thanks to the Agricultural Multi National Companies our ground water is well polluted. It would not surprise me that this lead to my beautiful wife's cancer that led to her death 5 months ago. We have a water filter on our drinking water but our water often tastes like chlorine.
Love me some Sunday morning DIY from Jeff, works every time!
Cheers Axell
Great timing on this, was just looking for a water softener
Michael Kamphuis which water softener would you recommend?
Quick question can i run this system on a 2 house well .i always watch your videos and your the number 1 person i trust .thanks
Really enjoyed the show very educational have a blessed day
Jeff, you should have mentioned that this system comes from the USA not Canada. You have to consider the exchange rate and shipping. I talked to the company and this product does not apply to NAFTA, therefore duties will be applied.
Good morning and first off thank you so much for all of the videos you upload. It's saved me a lot of money and it's very enjoyable to watch! In the installation video provided by the company on these tanks they suggest using a 1-in metal flex line which would avoid all of the copper work that you were doing. Is there a benefit to doing it the way you were doing it here versus using those 1 inch metal flex lines?
Are you ready for your prostate exam? 20:31
What would you do when installing a filtration system that requires a backwash for iron filtering in a basement? We are also on septic and have been recommended against routing the brackish backwash into the septic tank (killing off the good bacteria). We are looking at multiple component systems like the one installed here. Should a pipe be drilled to the outside? Can it be routed into a hose bib and sent away from the house?
Great video on this product, now I know what I will get for my future house next year. At least right off the bat, I know what clean water is going to cost, and I will try using sharkbite for that setup. A lot of people get frustrated easily, but you demonstrated to your viewers what my Father imparted on me, "improvise, adapt and overcome" again, keep up the good work, I have learned a lot and your ideas, instruction, and methods have made some maintenance and projects easier to accomplish.
Happy to help Stephen. Cheers!
The best part of this video was after you used the O'Keeffe's hand lotion. I was dying laughing.
Glysomed hand cream, not O'Keeffe's. Two "F"s in O'Keeffe's.
@@RSole9999 do you want a prize for being a total snob? Cause if there’s a prize for that you have won. I bet you’re fun at parties
I live in Los Angeles. We have extremely hard water; so hard that over 10 years it has destroyed our kitchen faucet, seizing up the pivoting neck and also making it leak. It’s done a similar thing with our bathroom faucet, except it actually ate away at the aerator, meaning we had to replace that. Faucets aren’t that expensive to replace in the grand scheme of things, but for a family on a tight budget, we have to deal with it. We still have great water pressure even after the 25-30 years since the house was repiped, but I fear that sometime in the future the scale may build up to the point where there is major pressure loss or an appliance failure.
there is descaling technology pout there. may be worth looking into it. Cheers!
It's plumbing for ya. 🤣 Definitely good you used the shark bites on this one. 👌
Good job Jeff nice 🎼🎶🎺🌅
Cheers Ramon, Thanks!
I live in a country area where we are on public water. I moved here from a newer area of development outside of a city. When I moved out to the country I noticed a smell coming from the water, best way to describe it is camp water, the same smell you tend to smell at the showers at Americas National Parks.
My main concern is what that smell is coming from, my second concern is my fish. I have several fresh water fish tanks in my home and I worry about the quality of water I am introducing into the closed ecosystem that is a fish tank.
I would love to see a video about the installation of a reverse osmosis unit for ultimate water quality and lowest possible dissolved solids. Thanks for taking the time to read this
Strange that you are getting that kind of smell and not chlorine since you are on city water. Is the smell with cold /hot or both? The cold side would be a city issue, and maybe you could buy a water sample test, and show the results to the city water department as a health hazard (some test kits check for bacteria).
If it is hot water only, then it could be the anode rod, or bacteria creating hydrogen sulfide gases. Magnesium rods are considered "healthy" as we need that in our diet instead of an aluminum one, as you consume trace amounts of aluminum - we get enough poisoning from deodorants etc.
How to make plumbing a water filtration system “more” fun.....lubricate* everything up like a “greased pig”; & than try to connect all the pipes/fittings together. You’ll have a good ole “fun” time🤣🤣.
*was thinking to myself when using the “lubricant” as lotion....you’re gonna have fun time putting things together😉
glad I had a helper. Cheers!
Our house was built in 59 and we have a well. We have very orange sulfur smelling water. We have a salt softener, it works kind of. The water still stains the toilet bowls and I wouldn't drink it.
In most cases you need the extra filtration that a system like this allows. Cheers!
The good thing about this system is that it aerates the water and allows the iron to oxidize and get carried away in the back flush. I bought a similar system that I will install shortly. I picked this up from amazon: B078C82XF8 Durawater Air Injection Iron Eater Filter. Removes Iron, Manganese, H2S. Black Series. I called their phone number (see videos from Aplus water) and spoke with Tony and he helped me map out my system and requirements.
There are 2 or 3 companies making really nice plastic fittings similar to Sharkbite (John Guest is one that comes to mind). I used quite a few in my install.
Two things I've been jonesing to install in my home, tankless water heater and saltless water softener but I've gotten a wild hair to remodel the house so they got put off for another year. Man I was thrilled to see you made this video! Now seeing how easy it is to install I am definitely going to put this system in my home. We have a hard water issue in my town. Thanks so much for this video and everything you do for us Jeff! Lovin the channel!
P.S. I'm such a great fan of shark bite as well!
Cheers William, happy to help!
Jeff, Would you do this system again? Any Canadian equivalents?
Wow! Thank you for the illustration. Glad you're happy with the system. I'm in research phase.
Can you recommend a Canadian supplier of salt free water softeners?
I have new well with hardness and iron issues.
Located in Southwest Ontario.
Thanks!
Big fan.
What about bypasses for filter changes? I may have missed that, is there a second video?
Filter wrenches: Get a second one just for loosening the canister. Torquing the filter on its bracket, or in your case those straps, can get wonky and nerve racking. You may never get it off with those wobbly straps.
no worries. I will get it off as soon as i get my new bracket delivered I am going to switch out the straps. Cheers!
Great video. We have a well too...What do you think of the UV add on? Why didn't you consider it for your home? Did your water test not show signs of bacteria that UV kills: E Coli, Cryptospordium, and Giardia Lambia, etc?
I would suggest reaming your copper pipe. I personally have installed quite a few of these systems and done them all in copper with valves and bypass. Copper is King
Another great video.
Thanks Larry, Cheers!
Nice vid Jeff/Matt. Curious if you tested the water before and after installation? That would be the best test...any feedback now that you've used it for a while?
still requires another level of filtration at the kitchen sink for perfect drinking but such an improvement on hair and skin. Cheers!
@@HomeRenoVisionDIY what do you do to drink it.
good
Just wondering how this system is holding up and to see if you are still happy with it?
I’d like to know too.
Just a thought, Jeff for a lube I used margarine on my system.
Play Safe From Elliot Lake Ontario Canada.
But all those Trans-fats in the Hydrogenated margarine is not good for "The Pipes"....
Or white bread plug to hold water back to solder, it will disintegrate and not clog, saved me a few times.
I'd worry about pipe atherosclerosis. Silent Killer.
I'm looking for Salt-Free Water Softeners with an pre-aerator for the chlorine. Seems like people are only using carbon, but I come from aquarium backgrounds and aeration is the best way. The only aeration Im finding is for like house worried about problematic well water gasses, nothing small for city water.
They make folding work benches , some scrap wood on top. That way you are not playing on floor, assembling parts on floor. Your back will thank you.
So how does their technology soften the water without salt? Since this video is over a year old, how is the system performing and how is the water as far are being soft? I'm asking as I have a Culligan system installed in 2013 and it sucks. Having issues with it leaving hard water on dishes, faucets, bathroom fixtures... looks like it isn't working. Was ok first few years but has gone downhill in the last 3 to 4 years. Just saw a vid today talking about using Super Iron Out to help clean the resin? Do you have any experience trying to repair or upkeep a sortener system? What does the SpringWell system require for maintenance beyond the yearly change out of the Pentair sedimentation filter you talked about?
Is that a water softener or water conditioner? How can you soften water without the salt? Do you mind explaining the processes?
hard city water, but use a reverse osmosis for drinking
A carbon filter can be a useful and good thing, but it's no panacea, and certainly won't remove metals and such. If you have iron, manganese, etc., you're gonna need more advanced technology. We've got fairly high levels of those two, fairly low pH (
Unions and/or flexible stainless steel tubing made for connection to electric water heaters would work in place of the "shark bite" stuff.
Jeff, what did you lube that oring with? (what am I afraid of? the dark)
Hi It is a good vedio, where can we buy the filters
I noticed you tagged springwell water but the system you installed is a pentair. Do you have any experience with Springwell?
Any update on this system? I’m looking to buy the same one