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Old 05-21-2016, 01:50 PM   #1
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Water: Hard or Soft Water in your Airstream?

I hate Soft Water.

It may be great for the interior of the water lines at home, scale on the shower walls, sinks and stool and keeps the over priced plumbing fixtures... sparkling.

We spent extra for purifying the local Lake Mead local water for our morning's coffee. We use the processed city water for... other things.

But if you use soap... you remain slippery and cannot seem to get, rinsed. I know... bases are slippery, acids are not.

I love Hard Water.

When I fill our fresh water tank at home, I use water right out of our 484 foot deep Rocky Mountain well. Great for drinking and even better for skimping on water use to keep clean and not slippery.

Anyone who uses Soft Water while camping... no wonder you run out of water and fill your Grey Water tank! You think the slippery feeling is soap and keep running the shower. Somewhere in that process you are rinsed, but where and when... the Fresh Water tank is empty... you are, done.

There is Hard water and there is Real Hard Water, like that in the Lake of the Ozarks or a fishing pond in Erie, New York. You come out dirtier after washing up. Why else do people SHOWER after swimming in these places?

Swimming pools are full of chlorine. Is it safe to drink? Why drink your own city's water full of chlorine, iron and some resistant bacteria for protein?

There are some wells in the Denver, Colorado area that are naturally SOFT. I am sure someone can tell us how that happens. Everything depends on the kind of stratigraphy and natural filtering that goes on with underground water.s Our well water has a slight acidity to it at 6.5pH. You would think there would be no calcite dissolved in it, but there is plenty. Baking Soda will fizz... unless you treat the water before it is into your home's system. These water specialists obviously are making a killing for the money it takes to neutralized and then add salt to Soften what was hard clean water...

Do you use or prefer HARD or SOFT water to be hauled from home?

Do you take a chance and use the LOCAL water when you get closer to your destination?

Do you not know the difference and ignore anyone's advice when your teeth has green algae growing on them?

Is Chlorinated water your choice? Do you add... Clorox to your water?

I do not recall anyone mixing it up with Hard or Soft water, but look what using Hard Water has done to me... Well. Ignore that fact of years of playing it on the edge of civilized behavior, but some of you might have good reasons and never thought about this since your last 15 minute shower at home... or on the road in your Airstream.
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Old 05-21-2016, 01:59 PM   #2
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I always start out with a full tank of water from home, then fill from whatever is avaialble and don't worry about it.

I sanitize when I dewinterize, and not again til the following year.

I also don't add Clorox to my fresh water tank but for that first time each year.

Never been sick, never had a problem.


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Old 05-21-2016, 04:27 PM   #3
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I love soft water. With 3 women on board fulltime the soft water is a luxury. I don't agree with using more water. We make a 52 gallon tank last 5 days.... We all shower every day, cook, clean and flush normally. Not a drop comes in unless it passes through my little water plant.
I also add a tiny bit of bleach with every fill.Click image for larger version

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Old 05-21-2016, 05:13 PM   #4
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I'm a soft water guy. Hard water just leaves too many stains. I'm always connected to city water which I soften, so I don't worry about running out.
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Old 05-21-2016, 05:16 PM   #5
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Soft
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Old 05-22-2016, 10:33 AM   #6
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well H2O

We have very soft well water on our property in Durango. We fill our tank with it and use just for showering and cleaning. We have a RO system that we fill a 5 gal jug (2 for long trips) for coffee, cooking and drinking.
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Old 05-22-2016, 11:17 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Eklund View Post
Swimming pools are full of chlorine. Is it safe to drink? Why drink your own city's water full of chlorine, iron and some resistant bacteria for protein?
It's a matter of degree. According to the EPA and the World Health Organization, chlorine at 4 parts per million or less in water is drinkable with no long-term ill effects. That's not to say it tastes good, though— potable is not the same as palatable. A swimming pool should contain between 1.5ppm and 3.0ppm, which gives a pH of about 7.4, the same pH as human tears. In theory pool water is drinkable, provided no kids have peed in it. And as long as the chlorine level is 1ppm or more, there will be no live microorganisms in the water.
Quote:
Is Chlorinated water your choice? Do you add... Clorox to your water?
When I was working for a living, during hurricane season, when I had a full fresh tank for six months straight in case of having to bug out for an impending storm on short notice and possibly having to return to work at the Corps of Engineers before city services were restored, I kept a chlorine residual of about 1ppm 24/7 in my fresh tank, and routinely tested the water to make sure. Now that I'm retired and an approaching hurricane is just an excuse to leave on my next camping trip well ahead of the stampeding herd of evacuees, I don't bother keeping a full fresh tank for months on end, and chlorine residual is a non-issue.

Having designed well water treatment systems for the Corps of Engineers, I've done my research, and I have a pretty fair idea how often and for what contaminants a given water source has to be tested. A water well on the grounds of a campground and providing water only to the campground is the least-trusted water source there is. I'll chlorine-treat their water after filtering it through a carbon filter.

Water sources are classified as transient or non-transient, depending on whether the same people drink the water for less than six months or more than six months, and as community or non-community depending on how many people drink from the same source.

Transient sources are tested to a lower standard than non-transient sources because no one will be drinking the water long enough for long-term health hazards to become an issue.

Non-community sources are tested to a lower standard than community sources because fewer people will get sick at one time if a short-term health hazard is present. And within the category of community sources, the larger the community, the more often testing is required, up to several times a day for major metropolitan areas.

So I generally trust non-transient community sources that are tested several times a week for a large list of contaminants a lot more than I trust transient non-community sources that might only be tested once a month for a small list of contaminants.

And I pay attention to what's happening in the campground. If there is a break in a campground water line for any reason while I'm there, I quit using the water, because not all campgrounds test the water at the most distant spigot on each branch like they're supposed to to detect contaminants introduced in between the well and the spigot. Many test only at the well itself, and get away with it because testing labs only analyze the samples sent to them; they don't come out to take their own samples.
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Old 05-22-2016, 11:25 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by AtomicNo13 View Post
I love soft water. With 3 women on board fulltime the soft water is a luxury. I don't agree with using more water. We make a 52 gallon tank last 5 days.... We all shower every day, cook, clean and flush normally. Not a drop comes in unless it passes through my little water plant.
I also add a tiny bit of bleach with every fill.Attachment 262926
What is that setup you there? Mind sharing the make and models of your setup? I prefer soft water as hard water makes my wife skin dry and flaky.
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Old 05-22-2016, 12:14 PM   #9
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Its a hardware store filter housing with a .5 micron microbial filter coupled with an On The Go brand 8000 grain softener.
I get 1000 gallons before Ineed to regenerate the softened with 16 ounces of salt. That's 2 months for $.80!
It removes all bad tastes and a lot of bad things that might livein water.
Total cost was less than $250 for both.filter and softener.
I have quick release fittings on all my hoses and water appliances. The softened is frequently on sale at West Marine for less than $200
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Old 05-29-2016, 02:25 PM   #10
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Just to mix it up a bit, there is a difference between Softened Water from a water softener and soft water such as rain water or a rocky mountain stream that doesn't pass over limestone.
Water from a water softener has Sodium Carbonate which is the same as washing soda. And yes the sodium is the slippery part. Myself I already know the water is slippery and rinsing is not an issue. If I want to lose the slippery feeling on my hands after cleaning something with detergent, I usually rinse in our cold water tap that is not on the water softener...slippery goes away immediately. Lake Superior water at Thunder Bay is quite soft. A shower doesn't feel right now that I'm used to softened water in the house in Southern Ontario where our very hard city water comes from wells.
I guess it's what you know or get used to!
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