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TheBlueprintof Water

Boiler Softener Sizing Calculator

Size the makeup softener for a steam plant: arrangement, vessel, capacity, and regeneration. Three flows, each used exactly once. The vessel is sized to the flow the system delivers; the tool never recommends restricting the line.

Blueprint Pro · saves as a System
Pro · Spec 1B
four arrangements

Measure the flow if you can. A softener sees the instantaneous flow that passes when the feedwater tank or deaerator calls for water, set by supply pressure and pipe path, not by average demand. Trigger the DA fill valve and clock the softened-water makeup meter. If you cannot measure, estimate it with the True Pipe Flow Calculator →

Requirements envelope · duplex alternating · each vessel full size

Vessel 27.1 to 38.3 in · resin 10.0 to 20 ft³ · capacity ≥ 238 kgr/run · backwash ≤ 40 gpm

peak-month day = 18,000 gal (2.5× the 7,200 gal annual-average day) · effective hardness 226 mg/L · target 1-day run at peak

Standard-vessel verdicts · each vessel passes the full 40 gpm

Click a row to select it. Duplex vessels are each full size, not half size. In alternating service only one is flowing and it must pass the whole flow. Two half-size tanks is the single most common duplex sizing error.

Flux check8.1 gpm/ft² · green
Regen frequency1.70 days at peak · green
Regeneration race40.9 hr/run vs 6.0 hr · green

Three independent checks, never one status light. They measure different things and can legitimately disagree.

Annual salt · independent of arrangement and vessel
$2,891/yr · 19,272 lb · 482 bags

“Does the second tank cost me more salt?” No. Salt per kilograin delivered is 0.556 lb/kgr, set by dose and reserve, identical for all four arrangements. Same water, same hardness, same salt. What arrangement buys is continuity and flux control.

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Sites, systems, and saved comparisons arrive with accounts. The result stays on screen either way.

How this works · three flows, each used exactly onceOpen +

Instantaneous flow sizes the vessel diameter against the flux windows (5 to 10 gpm/ft² green; below 4 is channeling, hardness leakage on a bed with capacity to spare). Peak-month average-day makeup sizes capacity and regeneration frequency, never the annual average; a heating plant’s January runs about 3× the mean. Annual-average makeup prices salt and regeneration water only, and never touches sizing.

Sources & assumptions: capacity curve, typical 8% DVB SAC data (verify vs. Purolite/DuPont sheet and cite); flux windows per standard ion-exchange practice; standard FRP tank dimensions with typical resin fills (confirm with supplier); backwash 5.0 gpm/ft² at 55 °F, temperature-corrected; regen duration default 1.5 hr (sanity-check vs. typical cycles); seasonal multipliers are starting estimates, compute peak month ÷ 12-month average from real data when you have it. The calculator estimates; the field measures.