Posted Wed Mar 13, 2013, 6:19am Subject: Re: Type of salt to use w/ Canister 8L Water Softener
emradguy Said:
Another thing that might be worth considering is using potassium chloride (KCl), instead of sodium chloride (NaCl). It's probably more expensive, but if you have hypertension, it may be worth leaving K+ in the system instead of Na+. Randy has a couple of pages on plumbing-in and addresses this somewhat quantitatively on his site (www.espressomyespresso.com)
Talking to a water guru in my area and techs at ccs where I bought my system told me that potassium chloride dosent work as well as sodium chloride . and the water guru had indacated that the ion exchange happens slower with the potassium?
stefano65 Senior Member Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 1,340 Location: Eugene OR Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Vibiemme,Elektra, Grinder: Vario,Macap, Vac Pot: not Drip: not Roaster: not
Posted Wed Mar 13, 2013, 7:19am Subject: Re: Type of salt to use w/ Canister 8L Water Softener
2lb for 8lt softener after 20-30 minutes or so, taste the discharging water still salty? let it run more not salty? give a nice shake then wait couple of minutes and taste again no salty done only then turn the lower valve back to the left to the espresso machine water line
DaninMaryland Senior Member Joined: 3 Jan 2013 Posts: 79 Location: US Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: V2 Silvia Grinder: Vario-W
Posted Wed Mar 13, 2013, 8:37am Subject: Re: Type of salt to use w/ Canister 8L Water Softener
qualin Said:
OK, so another stupid question then..
It's kind of obvious that using coarse salt will dissolve much faster in the water softener canister than the big white chunky stuff.
The manual recommends that I should leave it regenerating for 40 minutes to flush out all of the salty water. I'm assuming that is with coarse salt.
Should I leave it regenerating for longer with the chunky white stuff? Part of me is a little worried what salty water could do to my espresso machine, short of just generating really crappy tasting coffee.
I mean, would it hurt anything if I left it regenerating for 60 minutes instead? What are the methods you use to determine when you should stop regeneration? (ie. Using the hot water tap on the espresso machine to flush the boiler and tasting for saltiness?)
to echo other responses, dont run the water thru your espresso machine.
as far as salt goes, the way a typical water softener tank works is the salt is left in the water continusouly at a certain height. water will only dissolve a set amount of salt per gallon, once its saturated, the salt does not continue to go into solution. what i would do is get a seperate container and put the amount of water that the softener needs to recharge (or even double), and just throw in the large salt pellets a few days ahead on when you plan to recharge. let it dissolve to its saturation point and just pour in the salt water to your filter. let it sit for a while, and agitate. then just flush with fresh water until it no longer tastes salty and you are done. you dont need to over do it either. for example, on a whole house water softener system the backflush with salt water maybe lasts 3-5 minutes. thats all it takes to recharge. if you are talking about running water thru the filter until all the salt is dissolved you are doing too much, and making this much harder than it needs to be.
add salt water to regenerate resin, flush till it doesnt taste salty, done!
just make sure you arent running this thru your espresso machine! right into the sink.
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