hard vs softened water- in boiler & unpressurized storage

[pybyr]

As I plan to move forward in the very near future with the install of my Econoburn 150 and 1350 gallons of unpressurized storage, separated by a plate heat exchanger, here's a question that crosses my mind, and on which I'd eagerly welcome input from both the "pros" and the experienced DIY-ers

my domestic water for my 1830+/- house comes from a spring so old that my neighbor whose family's roots go way way back says that the spring is even older than my house.

the spring has never gone dry, even during severe droughts where drilled wells were going dry, and gravity delivers the flow to my holding tank in the cellar, so I am very happy with the arrangement

the spring is at the foot of what is litterally the tallest hill in town, and it must originate fairly deep down in the geologic formations, because unlike most spring water that tends to be derived from shallow groundwater, thus making most sprins rather "soft" on minerals, mine is quite hard-- cooking pots and sinks take on a "chalky" buildup unless scrubbed. It's not obnoxiously hard to the point that I'd seriously contemplate a water softener, but it is definitely harder than what most people would consider average (I figure it's free mineral supplements). Never have had it tested for mineral constituents, but since a lot of the local stone is low grade slate and shale with a lot of calcium, I'm guessing that a lot of the hardness is lime

Do I need to worry about the "hardness" of water I put in either the boiler's pressurized and sealed system or the un-pressurized heat storage?

I DO have access to free softened water from someone nearby with a water softener, so could use that to fill my system instead, even though that'll be a lot of trips (even at 1/2 mile round trip) with a 55 gallon poly drum.... I'm willing to do that if it's in the best long run interest of a reliable system. But then again, I am also remembering that water softeners work by using ion exchange to trade the "hard" minerals (calcium, magnesium, etc) for the "soft" sodium- which is actually more reactive.

looking forward to the usual good ideas that are freely shared around here

thanks

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

Get your water tested, first, then decide

If it hasn't ever been done before, get a full test on the water, and take the sample from the inlet point, not the faucet. That way, you have an accurate reading of what you have coming into the house, and it is not skewed by any deposits in the pipes.

Joe

 

[pybyr]

Get your water tested, first, then decide

If it hasn't ever been done before, get a full test on the water, and take the sample from the inlet point, not the faucet. That way, you have an accurate reading of what you have coming into the house, and it is not skewed by any deposits in the pipes.

Joe

I recall from other things that there's all sorts of chemical tests of water that are available, ranging from crude evaluations of hardness without determining what different minerals are in the mix of the hardness, to things like photospectrometry to see what odd little trace organic contaminants could be in water.

I'm figuring somewhere in the middle is what I need, but what should I ask for when I contact some labs (and what type of labs should I seek) so that I get the appropriate Chevy, not the Cadillac or the Yugo of the test methods

 

[deerefanatic]

I look at it this way... Properly softened water does have some salt in it... But, the salt as long as it is totally disolved (as it is in softened water) won't hurt anything... Unfortunately, "hardness" minerals don't stay dissolved..... They drop out and settle.

Now, in your pressurized side, it's probably not worth it as your talking grains to the gallon here...... If you've got LOTS of pipe you might end up with an ounce or two of hardness......... Distributed fairly evenly throughout that LOTS of pipe.....

It's the open side where the water evaporates and you will be adding more as time passes where it gets important... You add water, it drops the minerals, then leaves packing for the sky while leaving the minerals it brought to your tank........ in your tank..........

I'm going to be softening all my water in my system if that means anything to you.... It's a small price to pay for the money I've sunk into it... Same deal with the rather expensive commercial grade anti-corrosion chemicals...

 

[EForest]

Hi Trevor,
Check your local yellow pages for test labs and give them a call before filling any jars. My local test lab gave me a steril jar with instructions to let the faucet run for ten minutes before filling to allow any residual contaminents to dicipate. BTW hard water is BAD for your entire sytem.