What is this?

[dusty]

It will not be long now. We made an offer on what we hope to be our new home (here in Tucson) and it was accepted last night. It is just a matter of time now.

However, I need help. I took a single picture of this tank and did not do diligence at the time. I know nothing about it that can't be derived from this picture. Is this a water softener? I thought water softeners had two tanks. If you recognize it to be a water softener, do you have any idea what brand it is?

Whatever it is, it will be residing elsewhere - not in my shop.

That corner of the garage has already been spoken for by the dust collector.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Capture Water Tank.JPG (30.9 KiB) Viewed 11086 times

[jsburger]

Water softener. Not all water softeners have two tanks. Maybe an older Whirlpool.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Whirlpool-Pro- ... er/3345284

[wasatch]

Water Softener. The tank you see is the brine (salt) tank, it will have a cylinder inside of the tank you see called the resin tank.

[Hobbyman2]

Those are slowly being replaced with better packages ,, filters and softeners that actually do more for less cost , not adevrtising for these folks but this is a good reference . https://www.pelicanwater.com/water-filt ... combos.php . Years ago we installed a RO sytem for drinking , it works but turns out it doesn't remove chloramine ,

Chlormine is in a lot of city water now ,,it was outlawed by the W H O in several countries . https://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/blog/ ... our-water/
you didnt ask for the additional info just thought I would pass it on.

[dusty]

Thanks to all of you. You have confirmed my guess. Now I am left with a decision. My wife wants it out (because she feels we don't need it) and I don't want it occupying precious space in my now reduced floor plan.

Decision was easy until I saw what these things cost. However, if it is as old as the house (built in 2006) it may be on its last legs anyway.

It appears to be a water in, water out arrangement so bypassing it should be a simple matter. I am assuming the third connection is an AC power connection. If GE makes/made these, it will likely be a GE appliance. Everything else is.

Can't wait to get back into the house for a closer look see.

[jsburger]

Thanks to all of you. You have confirmed my guess. Now I am left with a decision. My wife wants it out (because she feels we don't need it) and I don't want it occupying precious space in my now reduced floor plan.

Decision was easy until I saw what these things cost. However, if it is as old as the house (built in 2006) it may be on its last legs anyway.

It appears to be a water in, water out arrangement so bypassing it should be a simple matter. I am assuming the third connection is an AC power connection. If GE makes/made these, it will likely be a GE appliance. Everything else is.

Can't wait to get back into the house for a closer look see.

I would certainly check with people in your new area to find out if you have hard water or not before removing it. If you do have hard water you might be sorry if you completely remove it.

We have hard water here and when I bought this house 24 years ago I had a Culligan water softener put in. Everything was fine. Then about 3 years ago it started to act up. It had a bypass valve so I put it on bypass, turned it off and pretty much forgot about it. We started to notice the dish washer wasn't cleaning as well as it used to. Glass ware was not coming out sparkling like it used to. After a couple of years the heating element was starting to get a white film on it and the screen on the bottom was doing the same to the point of clogging up a lot of the holes. I never made the connection.

Last summer we did some major updates to the house. New roof, new furnace with central air, sprinkler system and a new water softener. It was put in by the same business that put the first one in 24 years ago. We saw an immediate difference in the glassware back to the way it was before. 9 months later the white film on the heating element is gone and there are only a dozen or so holes still plugged in the screen.

[Ed in Tampa]

Careful on price! You can one piece or two piece units for $600. Think about it one tank is filled with green sand ( not sure of formal name) which is fairly cheap. Other tank is the salt brine tank and costs nearly nothing. There is a timer/control valve that flushes the sand tank, charges the sand with salt ions and refills the brine tank. Valve can be had for $300 bucks or less. So water softeners costing $2000-3000 dollars are severely overpriced.

One piece tanks usually have to reside indoors. The have LCD screens that the sun and weather eat. Two piece tanks usually use a timer motor and gear train and can be kept out side. The timer usually has a slide on cover to protect the plastic and such.

Before you disconnect the water softener talk to neighbors. In many places water softeners are almost essential. That is unless you like dealing with mineral build up problems.

[jsburger]

Careful on price! You can one piece or two piece units for $600. Think about it one tank is filled with green sand ( not sure of formal name) which is fairly cheap. Other tank is the salt brine tank and costs nearly nothing. There is a timer/control valve that flushes the sand tank, charges the sand with salt ions and refills the brine tank. Valve can be had for $300 bucks or less. So water softeners costing $2000-3000 dollars are severely overpriced.

One piece tanks usually have to reside indoors. The have LCD screens that the sun and weather eat. Two piece tanks usually use a timer motor and gear train and can be kept out side. The timer usually has a slide on cover to protect the plastic and such.

Before you disconnect the water softener talk to neighbors. In many places water softeners are almost essential. That is unless you like dealing with mineral build up problems.

Yes that also happened here after I shut off my old one for 2+ years. Shower heads and sink strainers had to be taken off periodically and soaked in CLR to clean them to get a good flow. Not before and not now again.

[ryanbp01]

I agree with Ed. If you have a water softener, there must be a good reason for it. I didn't think we needed a water softener either until we had it tested (municipal water supply). The water was shown to be "hard". We installed a Kinetico which doesn't use electricity. It is an "on-demand" water softener. We also have an RO drinking water system, also a Kinetico which takes everything out of the water that night give it a funny taste.
BPR

[dms8667]

Dusty,

I agree with others’ comments and do think it is a Whirlpool water softener that is sold by Lowe’s. Suggest you ask realtor to check on need for water softener in your locale.

Good luck,

Danny