Re-charging your CRSpotless *Resin*

eyezack87 said:
Essentially flux, you're suggesting Supe and everyone to use it like a tea bag, which is also a great idea assuming the bags don't corrode during the additional baths :)



My canister is the older model so I can't dip it. The bottom doesn't want to stay on so I might JB Weld it on there now...
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Yes more or less. And yes I thought about how the bags would hold up.



How is the older model different and how old are we talking?
 
Mindflux said:
Yes more or less. And yes I thought about how the bags would hold up.



How is the older model different and how old are we talking?
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Mine has no resemblence to the cartridges you can guy off DI or anyone sells currently. The top looks almost like the bottom. I was contemplating to buy a replacement cartridge but I'm not sure if anyone sells just the cartridge by itself :sadpace:
 
eyezack87 said:
Mine has no resemblence to the cartridges you can guy off DI or anyone sells currently. The top looks almost like the bottom. I was contemplating to buy a replacement cartridge but I'm not sure if anyone sells just the cartridge by itself :sadpace:
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See, I thought I had pulled mine apart one time (to check it out) and I don't remember there being cartridges to just toss out. I just remember the resin sitting in the blue tubes. But I just glanced at it, so I don't know for certain. I need to unbox this thing and actually USE it.
 
Mindflux said:
See, I thought I had pulled mine apart one time (to check it out) and I don't remember there being cartridges to just toss out. I just remember the resin sitting in the blue tubes. But I just glanced at it, so I don't know for certain. I need to unbox this thing and actually USE it.
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Oh, you don't toss them out. You just pour out the resin and replace it haha



I keep forgetting to replace the resin lately haha...
 
eyezack87 said:
Oh, you don't toss them out. You just pour out the resin and replace it haha



I keep forgetting to replace the resin lately haha...
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I know you don't toss the blue tubes out, but I don't recall there being white 'cartridges' with the resin in them in my CRSpotless.



I need to crack it open.
 
Mindflux said:
I know you don't toss the blue tubes out, but I don't recall there being white 'cartridges' with the resin in them in my CRSpotless.



I need to crack it open.
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....the translucent, white cartridges inside have screw tops and the resin is contained within those. When it comes time to replace the resin, you remove the catridges from the blue housings (there will be centering rings ont top of each and a washer below), unscrew the white tops, dump the old resin (or keep it for recharging), rinse the empty catridges/ tops, refill with new/recharged resin, assemble and then your're done. Everything was intended to be reuseable except for the resin. The blue tubes are simply outer housings.
 
Fluxy, the tea bag thing would probably work, if you can get a material for the tea bag that's fine enough to keep the resin beads in the bag, and also able to withstand an acid bath. The acid bath is gonna be the hard part. Most cloth fibers don't do well with acids. I believe a fiber glass cloth would work, though.



Just found out there's a much easier way to separate the resin types. This is much easier than separating them in the lye solution.



Remove your cartridges from the blue holders. Unscrew the top off each cartridge and remove a couple inches of resin. Put the tops back on the cartridges, and remount them to your CRSpotless. Now just use your CRSpoteless as you normally would. After a bit of use, your resins will now self-separate in the cartridge. The dark resin is the cation/acid and the light colored is the anion/base.



Now when the resin is ready to be recharged, simply remove each resin type from the cartridges, keeping them separate. Once you have them emptied, repack them, but only fill one cartridge with the cation, the other with the anion. Leave them in the cartridges, and do the recharging.
 
SuperBee364 said:
Remove your cartridges from the blue holders. Unscrew the top off each cartridge and remove a couple inches of resin. Put the tops back on the cartridges, and remount them to your CRSpotless. Now just use your CRSpoteless as you normally would. After a bit of use, your resins will now self-separate in the cartridge. The dark resin is the cation/acid and the light colored is the anion/base.
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What's causing it to self separate? I'm assuming the cation all ends up at the bottom after use (as it would with a lye bath?)
 
Mindflux said:
What's causing it to self separate? I'm assuming the cation all ends up at the bottom after use (as it would with a lye bath?)
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Yup, the one resin type is heavier than the other, and the cation ends up in the bottom of the cartridge, just like the lye bath.



Taking out enough resin to allow the resin to move around a bit when water is running through it allows the heavier resin to settle to the bottom.
 
SuperBee364 said:
Yup, the one resin type is heavier than the other, and the cation ends up in the bottom of the cartridge, just like the lye bath.



Taking out enough resin to allow the resin to move around a bit when water is running through it allows the heavier resin to settle to the bottom.
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Interesting.



When are you starting supesresinrechargeservice.com ?



:beware :clap:
 
SuperBee364 said:
Registering the domain now..... ;)
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:funnypost



I need to actually unbox my crspotless, I feel like a boob for not using it.



I just gotta remember to turn my water softener to bypass mode, if I remember right it's not good to throw softened water through the resin.
 
Mindflux said:
I just gotta remember to turn my water softener to bypass mode, if I remember right it's not good to throw softened water through the resin.
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Eh, I run conditioned/softened water through mine, no way I'm gonna go through bypassing the softener (which is located a ways from the shop) and/or do without warm water (the waterheater will be full of softened water).
 
You'll get hooked if you do, Fluxy. It's sooooo nice to be able to just walk away from a completely soaked car, knowing that's it's gonna dry with no spots. Very cool.



Yeah, you'll want to bypass the water softener, for sure. You CRSpotless will still *work* if you throw softened water through it, but you'll wear out one of the resin types (I believe it's the anion resin that would be worn out, but I'd have to go back and do some reading to be 100% positive) while your other resin just kinda did nothing.



I've been meaning to go back and look into this further.. I think that for those guys that have softened water to their garden hose spigot, you could get by with using only one type of DI resin to finish the job. That job being to get rid of the remaining minerals the water softener didn't. I'm just not completely sure which resin it is. I'm *fairly* sure that it's the anion resin that's needed. Although the water wouldn't really be "balanced" if you did it this way.... Guess I better attempt to explain "balanced"....



Let's assume one filter full of cation resin, and one filled with anion....



When water goes through the cation filter (the first filter to receive water), certain mineral ions are replaced by hydrogen. So the water comes out with extra hydrogen in it (it's slightly acidic). Then the water hits the anion resin next. The anion exchanges certain minerals for oxygen. The free hydrogen from the cation resin and the free oxygen from the anion resin party it up to become water.



The cation (acid) resin can be made to exchange *either* (but not both) sodium or hydrogen. In a water softener, it exchanges sodium into the water. So now if you run water that has sodium in it through the anion, it's not gonna have the hydrogen in it (it has sodium instead) to pair up with the oxygen it releases. This will leave your water "unbalanced"; it'll be slightly basic, and loaded with sodium.



If your water is really hard, it'll be loaded with sodium to the point that you'll get white sodium spots on your car when it dries (been there, done that).
 
I actually use potassium in my softener not sodium. Not sure how it changes the setup. It's real easy to put the whole softener into bypass mode though. Turn a dial on the valve and call it done. Just remember to turn it back when finished.
 
Mindflux said:
I actually use potassium in my softener not sodium. Not sure how it changes the setup. It's real easy to put the whole softener into bypass mode though. Turn a dial on the valve and call it done. Just remember to turn it back when finished.
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I run potassium chloride in the garage's softener too (it supplies our RO unit for drinking water).



Heh heh, lucky you to have your softener's bypass close at hand; I'd have to leave the shop, go to/through the house, down to the basement to the "water treatment area", turn the bypass, then go back out to the shop (and remember to turn it back once I've finished rinsing with the CRS). No thanks! I only use the CRS on the dog-haulers, and by the time I'm ready to rinse and start drying those I'm not inclined to make my job any harder ;)



IIRC, this has come up before and we decided that softened water wouldn't be any harder on the resin than hard water, maybe even easier on it, but I can't remember the specifics.
 
Accumulator said:
IIRC, this has come up before and we decided that softened water wouldn't be any harder on the resin than hard water, maybe even easier on it, but I can't remember the specifics.
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I did some more reading on this while I was typing up my last post, and it *is* the anion resin that would be needed to follow up after a water softener.





Running softened water through a CRSpotless will leave your water a bit on the basic side, with residual potassium or sodium in it. The anion resin will be worked, while the cation just sits there with nothing to do.



Single bed anion resin is cheap. You guys with softened water going to your CRSpotless could totally do with just filling your CRSpotless with anion resin and calling it good. The only caveat being that it will come out with potassium or sodium in it, and be a bit on the basic side of the pH scale.



Edit: OK, now just to muddy the waters a bit more....



Whether or not your water will come out with sodium or potassium in it depends on the affinity your cation resin has for those two substances. Depending on the cation resin you're using, there is a chance that the cation resin will grab the sodium/potassium, and exchange them for hydrogen. This is only if your resin has a higher affinity for sodium/potassium than it does for hydrogen.
 
I've got a call out to CRSpotless to see what they say. As I said I can bypass my softener really easy, the softener is in the garage, and on the other side of the same wall where the softener is (on the outside) is my hose bib. So it's not a big deal like Accumulators setup ;)
 
Accumulator said:
SuperBee364- OK, roger that info, but I don't think I'm gonna just run the Anion or anything like that..
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Well "they" wouldn't call you Accumulator if you didn't have a little bit of everything.



:wavey
 
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