about water pressure

campingman55 wrote:
i was wondering if i don't use a reg will i get more water pressure and do i have a chance of blowing a water line on the motor home

The answers (yes answers) are: IT depends.
Where I am just now the campground is feeding me about 42-45 pSI, my regulator is set to 50 so it is running wide open, My regulator is a 3/4" Zurin whole house type (Adjustable with bell shaped housing comparable to a Watts of the same size) Removing it from the line (Which I may well do) will have no effect at all.

I also have a couple of the older "Standard RV" type regulators, these are brass cylinders, ONe is a standard unit, the other a high-flow (this one has a bright colored band on the female end) these restrict flow big time so if I were to put them in line I would notice a great difference... Best place for these is on the hook/shelf at the store. DO NOT BUY THEM.

My Sur-Flo (And my Watts) are both old in need of re-building, so they too reduce flow.. that will be fixed when I get rebuild kits.

So the summary is: IF you have a good non-restrictive regulator and the park is providing pressure less than or equal to the regulator setting so it is running wide open, removing it will not improve pressure,, If you have the cheaper cylindrical design jobs, reomoving them WILL improve flow (not pressure, but the difference is more than I care to type).

BUT if, like one park I stay at, pressure can easily exceed 100PSI.. Then removing the regulator can blow valve seals and your fresh hose. (Regulator goes at the park end of the hose by the way)

Moral: always use a good pressure regulator
Watts (1/2 inch or larger) Zurin (1/2 inch or larger) Valterra Adjustable model.. Sur-Flo (I give the Sur-Flo a 9 when new, Mine is down to about a 3 on the old 10 scale, but as I said, needs rebuild)

ok update i put the filter in and it worked great for about 5 days and then the water went hard again but i did not see a drop in the flow so i am going to get a real water softener that will last longer so if any body is going to buy this dont it will work good for about 4 days and then u have to soak it to make it work again

Fill your tank through the water softener but turn on your pump for good pressure. You'll have to switch the valve back to fill up tank when time is convenient.

The water softener cartridge shown on the autogeek website appears to be a Pentek WS-10 cartridge or clone. The WS-10 has a recommended flow rate of 0.5 gpm. According to its pressure drop versus flow rate curve, the pressure drop at that flow is less than 2 psi. The graph shows a maximum flow of 1.5 gpm, where the pressure drop is about 5.5 psi. The recommended flow rate for the cartridge isn't based so much on flow rate but on softening. There is so little resin in the cartridge that higher flows will cause some hardness to pass through.

The real issue will be the capacity, which is rated at 750 grains. Hardness is considered "high" at 10 grains per gallon (gpd). At that level, the cartridge is rated to soften only 75 gallons. At 25 gpg, it will soften only 30 gallons, probably not enough to last a weekend.

As was stated, flow will be almost unusable. Pressure may not be an issue but you might want a 65 psi regulator AFTER the water softener as there will be some pressure drop through the softener itself.

Figure you onboard water pump probably puts out 2 to 2.5 gpm and the flow through the softener will be less the 1/2 what you get from the pump....sort of a trickle. If a spec is .75 to 1.5 plan on the lower to middle.

Don't know about you but I would be terribly unhappy after the first 10 minutes of use.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
You are not going to be happy with the reduced flow.

That filter/softener is designed to be used to treat water for the washing/rinsing of vehicles. Not for RV water inlet treatment. Flow rate is just to low to be useful.

If you want a portable water softener for RV use that has much better flow rates check out the different brands/models from:

WaterStick
On The Go
Flow Pur

Flow Pur water softener user here. I agree with the above. Additionally, after using the Mark8000 (which is a considerably larger unit than what you are describing) water softener in a very hard water environment (Southern California) for several months, my experience was that I had to recharge about once a week. With a smaller unit (assuming it works as well as the Flow-Pur), you'll be recharging more often than that. And... it's a bit of a leap to think a non-gold based water softener will work as well as the Flo-Pur. True, you only stand to risk $27 and your time... but I, and others here on this Forum have already spent the time learning there are no short cuts to water softening. By the way... to be most efficient with your time, use water hardness test strips to track your results. The Flow-Pur comes with a pack of strips but here is a link describing them: Sofchek water hardness test strips

You are not going to be happy with the reduced flow.

That filter/softener is designed to be used to treat water for the washing/rinsing of vehicles. Not for RV water inlet treatment. Flow rate is just to low to be useful.

If you want a portable water softener for RV use that has much better flow rates check out the different brands/models from:

WaterStick
On The Go
Flow Pur

Your going to hate taking showers in your RV with that low of volume and if you use the pump it's going to labor badly.

At .75 to 1.0 gpm I would think you will see reduced flow at all your faucets. I don't think it would matter what the water pressure is if it reduces the flow to .75 gpm. It will be interesting to see your results.

when i get it i will use for a month and post my finding here hope it will work good if not iam out 27.00 and that is shipping included