Discussion in 'Professional Discussions' started by Srlance31, Aug 11, 2018.
Have bunch of properties with hard water (20-30 grains of hardness). The stuff will clog up a copper water pipe if not soften. Anyways, with valves and the tiny holes in the diaphragms and ports and filter screens, is there any that work better than others? Is this not really an issue with irrigation? In the northern states here, Indiana and Michigan; run the irrigation May-September. Looking for 1 1/2" valves that's not going to set me back $100 per.
Just be glad you don't have brass valves. As it happens, hard water that crudded up good brass valves did nothing whatsoever to plastic valves.
Have bunch of properties with hard water (20-30 grains of hardness). The stuff will clog up a copper water pipe if not soften. Looking for 1 1/2" valves that's not going to set me back $100 per.
Greencuts518 and hort101 like this.
Thanks for the input mike. Most valves at site are weathermatic Black bullets 1 1/2”. Some need a new diaphragm but most are good if just slow opening. Pretty sure I’m going to move to the Rainbird pga if they need to replace valves though. I’ve been having good success and reviews from them so far. As you said scrubbers can’t help too much. Calcium is a pain to remove.
Water softeners sometimes add salt to the water. Using it for irrigation over the long term can cause plant issues with the higher salt content in the soil. I would double check that before choosing a softener.
Thank you for your interest in Rain Bird products.
Mike Leary and benhargreaves like this.
True, one would have to be on the mark to not add too much salt! Rain-Bird made a combo valve/filter that could be set to flush to daylight or a sump. I would use the very hip test kit made by Hach to get the level correct. I did, for the motor coach. When you 'regenerate' the softener, it must be flushed to remove the heavy salts and re-tested. Works slick, though!
Works but expensive. One site I’m at today is about 70 acres or 251 zones, 26 grain hardness. We use the hach kits as our standard for testing hardness. Works awesome. But can’t soften water at this level and be cost effective.
mitchgo and Mike Leary like this.
And for the low low price !!