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Not enough Soft Water Flow/Pressure SS/IBA

A

APW

Well-known member
I switched my IBA over to all soft water now my SS pumps cavitate when the IBA pump stand tank is being filled. I have a 2" line coming in to the dual softeners and 2" all the way to my IBA Pump Stand. Right out of the water softener I have a 2" T reduced to 1" to feed the SS manifold. Each SS has a 1/2" line off the manifold. The 2" line also T's into a 1" line for IBA pump stand.

I have thought about adding a second fill valve to the IBA and then fill tank with soft and hard water that way I can throttle back the ball valve on the soft.

Is there a better way or does anyone have any suggestions. Thank You.
 
What does the pressure get down to after the softener? I'm thinking that the softener is restricting more than it should. Maybe it needs rebedded?
 
If I remember right, the pressure is around 45 psi. I put new gravel, resin and new auto heads on both tanks before I opened the site. The tanks are 21x62 part # CH30953.
 
I stopped using soft water for everything years ago with most of my customers. We just plumb it for chemical mixing and the RO water. No one has ever complained or even noticed it, plus you will use literally tons less salt. Unless your water supply is extremely hard there is no noticeable difference.
 
APW said:
If I remember right, the pressure is around 45 psi. I put new gravel, resin and new auto heads on both tanks before I opened the site. The tanks are 21x62 part # CH30953.
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If 45 psi is the pressure after the softener what is it before? We now have pressure gauges before and after the back flow preventer and after the softener because our pressure drops from about 40 psi to about 26 after the softener when the auto kicks on and was trying to figure it all out. There must be enough flow for our pumps because they do not cavitate even when the auto and all three SS pumps are running. Our entire wash is on soft water except the bath sink, toilet and outside hose bib. I think our softener is the next size up from yours but it is probably overkill. Fleck states your softener for 55GPM continuous flow and 77GPM peak flow so it seems like it is should be large enough. How many SS pumps turned on does it take to cavitate? Would just one do it? Could you put a pressure gauge near the feed to the SS pumps?
 
mac said:
I stopped using soft water for everything years ago with most of my customers. We just plumb it for chemical mixing and the RO water. No one has ever complained or even noticed it, plus you will use literally tons less salt. Unless your water supply is extremely hard there is no noticeable difference.
Click to expand...


Mac, what would you consider extremely hard? I checked ours about a year ago and it was 18.
 
My water is 25 grains. The pressure regulators on the SS pumps are set about 25 psi. I notice when the IBA kicks on the pressure drops to about 20 on SS pumps causing the cavitation. It does it even if only one SS pump is running while IBA kicks on.
 
We do not have regulators on the supply to our SS pumps so they get the full (at best) 40 psi. We have Cat 623s which are piston pumps. Maybe the type of regulator you have is restricting the flow some and the softener is restricting some adding up to enough to cause the issue. Try turning up the pressure to 30 and see if it does it.
 
I tried turning the pressure regulator up on the SS while it was happening and the pressure still staid around 20 while the IBA was running.
 
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