I went to find out how much it was to install my rainsoft water softner. The price coming back was $500 plus dollars.

I am trying to find a set of install dwgs for the Rainsoft gold system. I see the obvious of in out on the controller, line feeding in from salt container, etc. I am trying to see where the drain tube is located at.

Thanks in advance,

Gus

You need to install a three valved bypass above the softner. Looks like the letter H with a valve in the cross member and one in each lower leg. Unless you feel skilled in sweating pipe or other plumbing projects this may be beyond you, only you know that answer. If you want to try come back and many of us can help. http://www.roultratec.com/technicalsupport/excalibur_fleck_5600.pdf

Thanks for the email. Onething I wanted to make sure was on the Brine tank. I see in the picture there is another outlet available in the white plastic tube. It holds the white tube to the side of the brine container.

Do I not need to worry about this? Everything else seems somewhat easy.

Gus, the tube in the brink tank should be fine but read the manufacturers instructions. One bigger obstacle to over come and address is how you will retro fit a softener to your home without sending soft water to your drinking.cooking faucets or outside spigots. Soft Water - It's Not For Drinking (http://www.triangularwave.com/f7.htm) You need to inspect your plumbing and determine where to connect the softener which must be prior to the water heater. See if you can supply soft water to the heater and only soft cold to your baths. If you can't find a way then you should consider only softening the hot water. Bathing and clothes washing will still be adequately soft since a majority of the water used is hot.

Better talk to your wife about only softening the hot water. Most washers give the option of using warm or cold water for many cycles and the rinses. Perhaps part of the reason we use less hot water than tankless hype says people di is because my wife uses a lot of warm or cold water cycles. Using the cold saves 100% on heating the water. All washers come with hot and cold inlets. Making liberal use of the cold cuts your utility bill.

As for showers, depending how hot the hot, you use more or less cold. If your water is very hard, your showers still won't be very nice. And the toilet will continue to lime up.

I have the softened water piped to everything except the outside faucets. If you are really concerned about drinking soft water, you could run a line to a special faucet or even to just the kitchen faucet. You could also put in a reverse osmosis unit for drinking water. Other filters won't take out the sodium.

If you don't want to get into any more soldering than you have to, you can always use a Shark Bite coupling to go from copper to CPVC or PEX. I find CPVC very DIY friendly.

Most systems come with a bypass valve. This allows the flow of untreated water to your house if the water softener needs repairing or you move house and want to take the softener with you. Some also include a drinking water pipe, which delivers untreated water to your taps and ensures that your drinking water is sodium-free. Your water softener comes with two copper caps to attach the bypass valve to your normal water pipe. Solder 3/4in risers onto the pipes. These act as a casing to prevent warping. Connect one piece of 1/2in plastic tubing to the overflow tank and a similar piece to the drain fitting of the water softener. Feed both to a nearby drain. Next, connect the bypass valve to the inlet and outlet fittings of the softener and secure in place. Place a rubber o-ring over the end of each pipe and feed the pipes into the bypass fittings. Once these are in place, tighten the nuts to hold the pipes in place.