💧 Finally… Real Soft Water (Without the Chaos)

Living on the road has a lot of perks — new places, great views, always being home. But there’s been one very consistent downside: hard water. Not the end of the world, but over time it builds up. Literally. In your faucets, your dishes, your hair. We’ve tried to fight it.

We’ve now gone through two portable water softeners. And while they technically worked, they worked… until they didn’t. Then it was time to “recharge” them — and that process was basically a punishment for wanting clean water.

Let me walk you through it:

1. Disconnect the unit from the hose. Get sprayed.

2. Dump out  just enough water.

3. Pour in two containers of iodized salt (try not to spill it everywhere).

4. Thread the top back on. But don’t cross-thread it or you’ll get to do this again… in wet shoes.

5. Shake the unit like a snow globe and hope the salt actually does something.

6. Wait. Not sure how long. Google? Gut feeling? Just wait.

7. Hook it back up in reverse, backflush for 2 minutes.

8. Flip the water back the right way. Turn it on but not all the way on. Just… kind of on.  (It’s a vibe, not a setting.)

9. Run water for 15 minutes.

10. Taste the water. Is it salty? Yes? Repeat steps 6–9 until it’s not. Or it’s later and you want to give up.

11. Go inside and hope the water isn’t still salty. Or you might have to take a shower and try and use up the salty water and come out feeling like a saltine cracker.

So We Upgraded

Enough was enough. We finally ditched the over-complicated canister and got a real solution: a small but mighty residential-style water softener from Chandler Systems.

This little unit has an actual brine tank, regenerates itself, and just… works. No shaking. No guessing. No saltwater showers.

The Install

Of course, nothing in an RV is ever truly plug-and-play.

We’d seen a few other Newmar SuperStar folks install theirs in the front compartment on the passenger side. We liked that plan. So the project began.

We spliced into the cold water line coming off the hose reel. Then ran 20 feet of PEX across the rig to the softener. Then 20 feet back to rejoin the system. Oh — and another 20-foot discharge line routed back the same way and out the water bay. That’s 60 feet of water line if you’re counting.

We gave it 12V power, buttoned things up, and just like that — we were done.

What’s It Like Now?

Amazing. It has a phone app that lets us set the water hardness and see how much life is left before the next regen cycle. And once it’s time? It regenerates. On its own. Like it should.

No canister flipping. No backflushing. No guessing.

Over the last month and a half, the water has been soft, clean, and just… better. Dishes sparkle. Clothes feel softer. Showers don’t leave you with that weird squeaky feeling.

What’s Next?

We’re planning to hook it into Home Assistant so we can monitor everything from one screen. Because of course we are.

Stay tuned.