Forum Discussion

carp65's avatar
carp65
Explorer
Apr 12, 2018

Water Softener

Are looking for a portable water softener for our motorhome. We are
full-timers and would like some comments of how large a capacity we
should consider. Are considering an "On the Go" model which comes
in various capacities of treated water, and are recharged with
ordinary salt. Will appreciate any information or comments. We have a
2015 Tiffin Allegro Open Road motorhome.
  • You have to determined where you are going and how hard the water is. There are several maps online to help on that. I live in New Mexico and we have very hard water. States around us also are the same. Ours unit is 48000 unit. It good for 546 gals plus of soft water at 56 grains hardness. If water is higher in grains then less water, if lower then more water. Its all set up in the Head unit on the water softener. Every recharge take right at 10 lbs of salt about two hours to recharge. Last about 10 days at that hardness "Not these small box of table salt units" The salt cleans the resin , if not clean then they can not work. We have live here since the mid 80's so have deal with it many years. Very few places that we have visited have nice water. The key is the more resin that the unit is rated the longer you have good water. The resin last around 10 plus years and then you replace the resin.

    I would say get as high as you can fit and go from there. I install mine in a closet above the wet bay and put the salt container in the wet bay almost under it so just hoses to connect. Has work that way since 2000
  • when you buy one install it so you can get to it to change out the salt. You can get in line ones that don't use salt and they just screw in and are very easy to change out. they also run longer than 536 gallons of water.
  • ThomBoles wrote:
    We recently bought this one directly from the manufacturer.

    RV-Pro 10,000

    It's working well.


    Same unit that I have used for many years. I just recharged it today and I am now good for about 1 month of full time use. 2# of table salt and about 30 minutes to wait out the process and you are ready for another month!
  • JoeH's avatar
    JoeH
    Explorer III
    ThomBoles wrote:
    We recently bought this one directly from the manufacturer.

    RV-Pro 10,000

    It's working well.


    I bought one a few months ago, used it for about a month in the RV on our last trip and so far it works well.
  • carp65 wrote:
    Are looking for a portable water softener for our motorhome. We are
    full-timers and would like some comments of how large a capacity we
    should consider. Are considering an "On the Go" model which comes
    in various capacities of treated water, and are recharged with
    ordinary salt. Will appreciate any information or comments. We have a
    2015 Tiffin Allegro Open Road motorhome.


    I have had a 16,000 grain On The Go for several years. How often it needs recharged varies wildly base in local water quality. I’ve encountered anything from a week to a month. I have a washer so I probably use more water than some others.

    I previously had a Travelsoft. It did the job but used rock salt and was kind of difficult to recharge.
  • ThomBoles wrote:
    We recently bought this one directly from the manufacturer.

    RV-Pro 10,000

    It's working well.


    These are excellent! I've only seen good things about them.
  • Any of the portable units would work just fine. Research their construction and ease of regeneration and see what would work for you. As already mentioned, water hardness determines how much water will be treated before regeneration and larger capacity was a consideration for us. We have been using the ABCwaters 16,000 grain unit and selected it because of the robust construction of the handle and water connections that were all brass instead of plastic like many others. I did an onboard install as I did not want to leave the softener outside and further, I really wanted to retain being able to still use my hose reel to make only one connection to city water without additional hoses. Now, all water from my hose goes directly to the softener and I have a flow meter that I can monitor how much water is being used. I test the city water hardness and then can calculate how much capacity I have left in my softener before regenerating. More involved getting it plumbed initially than simply setting the portable unit outside but, I really like the convenience now that I have everything installed. I have details of my installation on our Blog if you're interested. Just one way to do it and it works for us.
  • ADUS wrote:
    Been using the on the go for years, love it.

    x2 only had mine for a few months though. Very satisfied.