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[Mr. Maple]

  Hi,I have several options available,not sure what is best route,have heard a few pros and cons to simplest route, which is backfill through the waterline from my house, but it is softened water from the water softener or else I put it on bypass.My water is about 27 grains of hardness though.Fill it from a nearby creek which I have a pipe into for watering cattle,however there are so many minerals in the creek that one year I filled my pool with it and it turned the water a reddish brown.Last option is my Father's cistern water, would just have to figure out how to get the water from there to the furnace,or I could hire one of those water haulage units to get water from a lake.
Thanks in advance for the help

[AirForcePOL]

Is there anywhere that you could haul city water from?  Around here you can buy 100 gallons of water for around $1.

[Vincent Paul]

We are planning to haul water from our local town who has a water supply depot.  400 gallons for $1.50.  I wouldn't want to over work my pump and well.

[jamesbodeis]

I filled mine from the house so that the water was filtered and softened. City water around here is just as bad or worse than well water.

[mlappin]

Dealer in town said to never use water from a softener as it will have trace amounts of salt, or is he full of beans? I do know you can buy softeners that don't use salt for those that are on a highly restricted sodium intake.

Of course I'm also outside a small town so the water isn't softened at all, just tastes like pool water instead.

[tawilson1152]

You can manually run your softener through an extra or a longer backwash cycle. I just waited a couple days after a regen to fill mine.

[AirForcePOL]

I have also heard that about softeners. My hardy manual said to not use it.

[RSI]

This is out of a Nature's Comfort manual.

Water:
Since water quality characteristics greatly vary across the USA, some customers get much
longer life out of a pump than others. Filling a boiler with softened water, adding and maintaining
treatment so there’s 1,0001,500ppm of nitrites isthe best thing you can do for pump and boiler life.
While there is a one year warranty on our pumps (from customer’s date of purchase), they must first
be inspected and an attempt made to clean and put back in service before a pump or cartridge is
determined to be “failed”. Proper treatment and records must also be present for the warranty to be
honored. If a customer had a water test pass but adds water frequently due to boiling or overfilling
from improper operation this will bring down treatment levels quickly, possibly below the minimum
level of 1,000ppm and void the boiler warranty.

[Jwood]

Water ran through a softener has got to be better than the iron rich hard water I have before the softener, my dealer told me absolutely fill it with softened water.

[mlappin]

I suppose it does highly depend on just how "hard" your water may be that would make soft water a better alternative.

In theory one recharging of my softener should provide 1000 gallons of soft water.

My water hardness is 35 grains.

I have a 35,000 grain softener ergo a 1000 gallons of water between cycles more or less.

Fourteen years ago I filled the my homemade unit straight from the well, but for all those years a flat plate exchanger wasn't in the equation either.

Not sure just how "rusty" our water might be compared to others though.

From the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/sodium/faq-20058469

Several other sources also confirm that soft water does have added sodium, however it is an extremely low level as defined by the FDA.

Whether this "extremely low level" is high enough to be more detrimental to a OWB system compared to "hard" water is something that could be debated for weeks I suppose.

I did see in the NC brochure that they recommend soft water while I've seen at least one other manufacturer strongly advise against soft water. However none of them define at what grain level is considered "hard". Like I've pointed out, our water is 35 grains of hardness while I've heard of other parts of the country being several times higher than that, the higher the grain level, the more salt will be found in soft water as salt ions replace the calcium and magnesium ions which makes the water hard.

I'm seriously considering trying a few of those "softener" cartridges from Central Boiler, they are more of a chemical filter that doesn't contain salt I think.

[BenGrove]

I recently bought a Heatmaster and my dealer said he doesn't recommend buying one if you're going to use hard water (here in the ozarks, limestone is abundant).  He said it will clog in a season with hard water.

[MiHawkeye]

when I filled mine, I used distilled water.  Absolutely no minerals, just pure H20.  It was a little more than what I was hoping to pay for water, at about $2 for each 5gal jug of it, and I got a few funny looks buying so much at the store, but I know that I am not going to cause any mineral build up due to my water.  I do have extremely hard water, last check was at 220.  It tastes great, but the maintenance on all our faucets is tough! 

[Uponthehill]

I just installed my Logstor yesterday for my 2840. I'm probably two weeks away for filling mine. My well water has a lot of iron and I also have a softener. We don't even drink the water due to the iron taste and if the softener malfunctions, the calcium buildup doesn't take long. Due to the small traces of sodium, I am going to use soft water to fill and plumb for makeup water. Does anyone use antifreeze ?  If so, how much. I think my owner manual says 30% but that seems like a lot.

[mlappin]

when I filled mine, I used distilled water.  Absolutely no minerals, just pure H20.  It was a little more than what I was hoping to pay for water, at about $2 for each 5gal jug of it, and I got a few funny looks buying so much at the store, but I know that I am not going to cause any mineral build up due to my water.  I do have extremely hard water, last check was at 220.  It tastes great, but the maintenance on all our faucets is tough!

LOl I know the feeling about the looks. We use Delo extended life antifreeze in all our diesels on the farm, already have the additives in it to prevent pitting of the sleeves, etc. When ever we buy a new 55 gallon drum we run to Dollar General in town and buy 55 gallons of distilled water.

I can definitely see why soft water would be preferred in your case over well water, you're 220 grains is considerably harder than my 35. Without a softener you'd have to either remove the aerators on your faucets or clean them at least once a month with CLR.

Only way I can tell if our old softener was acting up is the wives hair would tangle up after a shower and I'd have to brush it out. She has some really thick luxuriant hair that came from some Cherokee in her Dads side but gets some of the color from her English/Irish mother and her red headed grandma.

[LittleJohn]

I run antifreeze in system, but on closed loop side, opposite boiler.  I can afford the 5-15 gallons of antifreeze for garage; can not afford the 200 gallons required to fill my boiler to a 50-50 mix.

Also note, that if you do use an antifreeze mixture pumps will work harder and thermal efficiency will go down, because of the viscocity of anit-freeze mixtures and its inability to absorb as much heat as water