I am planning to install a new pressure tank and water softener in my 25 year old home with copper pipes. We are on a private septic system and submersible pump well with fairly hard water. I have always been reluctant to install a water softener but removing the rust stains and scale from our plumbing fixtures has been a constant battle.

My first question is whether a water softener alone will solve our problems or should I be thinking about a whole house water filter instead or perhaps in addition to the water softener.

If both filter and softener are recommended, I'd like some advice as to where best to install the filter. (i.e. Before the pressure tank inlet or between the tank and the water softener?)

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

If there is solid junk in your water that a filter will take out, you don't want that junk clogging the resin bed in the softener. Save you softener. Tee off the outside faucets and then pipe to the filter and then the softener. The lime and iron in the water is better for your lawn and garden than the salt the softener replaces it with. It reduces the load on the softener. I think the whole house filter housings are only about $25. Easy to pipe in along with the softener. I use 5 micron charcoal taste and odor cartridges, 2 for $9 at Ace or Lowe's. If it turns out it isn't filtering much out, you haven't wasted much time and money. How much I get varies with the water table.

Yon need valves before and after the filter. Use ball valves. Quick and easy open and close, and no packing nuts to fiddle with when they leak.

Locate both the filter and softener where it is easy to get to them. You will be lugging heavy bags of salt to the softener.

Hey Tom,

In my area pumps and water softeners are a separate trade. But I've been exposed to both. If you have an problem with iron oxide, (rust) I would stop it with a filter before it built up minerals in my pressure tank. If your water's extra hard because of the iron content then I'd consider adding a water softener. But before I went into that expense I'd see what a whole house filter would do for me. Regards, Tom

My thanks to Labman and Speedball for your replies!

Labman, I appreciated your comments on the valves, outside spigots, and general layout of a softener installation. I didn't"t however, understand what it is that "varies with the water table." Can you explain that part.

I am leaning towards following Speedball's suggestion of first trying a whole house filter upstream of my new pressure tank and see how that works on the rust problem before going thru the hassle of installing the softener. My wife, on the other hand, has been after water softener for years and is not so sure about skipping a softener since I'm finally teetering on capitulation at this time. Any additional expense will be minimal as I already purchased a softener some years back but never installed it.

I have seen two different sizes of whole house cartridge filters. Any suggestions or recommendations on how the filter size might affect its effectiveness or time between filter changes?

Another friend has also suggested installing an "Iron Filter" in addition to a "Whole House Filter". Is this a specialty type unit intended only for iron removal or simply a different filter cartridge to slide into a standard whole house filter unit?

I appreciate any additional feedback!

Water table varies? I think I get more of the brown solid stuff in wet weather when the water table is higher.

Size? I am sure the bigger, the longer the filters last. At times I have to change filter every week or 2. Make sure you buy a housing that takes common size filter that will never be a hassle to find.

Iron filter? I have heard of them, but am not sure what they are.

Solids and ions. A lot of sloppy language. A filter removes solid particles, things you can see, such as crystals of iron oxide. With enough iron oxide in it, you can't see through the water. You can't see lime in water. The calcium and carbonate ions are too small to see. An ordinary filter will not remove them. Run them through a ion exchange bed, and the calcium and carbonate ions will stay behind, and be replaced by sodium and chloride ions.

Another alternative is the reverse osmosis system. It uses a porous membrane that water molecules can fit through, but not the larger ions.