Pelican NaturSoft Salt Free Water Softeners

The pictures show the heat exchanger with the insulation removed and the core / heating coil freshly pulled. As one can plainly see, there are absolutely no scale deposits on the element or the heat exchanger pipe. On the bottom of the pipe's interior, there is a small amount of a silt-like deposit of the calcium carbonate crystals produced by the NaturSoft media. The stainless steel surfaces of the heating coil have a slightly dull look which is due to a few micro micron thick haze of 'soft scale' during the process. This deposit is easily wiped off with a cloth or flushed away with a pressure washer . without the need for chemicals of any kind. It is the only evidence of hardness minerals that could be found after one full year of operation.

Hot water pipe (left)/ heat exchanger core and stainless steel guide to control internal flow (right)
Heat exchanger and core (left) / Heat exchange core (right)
Heat exchange core (left) / inside of the heat exchanger housing (right)

Pelican Water Systems proudly introduces NaturSoft media the next generation in hardness control. Years in development and tested in the U.S. under harsh real life conditions the NaturSoft media exceeded all expectations and delivered amazing results. NaturSoft media is produced exclusively in the United States by Pelican Water Systems.

The new era of technology has made many advances in water treatment possible in residential as well as commercial applications. NaturSoft has proven to be very effective in both applications even at high temperatures and hardness levels. The NaturSoft System represents the superior alternative with respect to dealing with the symptoms of water hardness without resorting to ion exchange (salt or potassium) based systems. The commercial grade media is now available for residential consumers. What you will read in this story is an example of commercial water treatment using NaturSoft media. This represents an extreme case far beyond any residential demand or application. The boiler/heat exchanger is just a larger version of a residential hot water heater.

This stainless steel heat exchanger is part of a boiler system in an industrial application. The energy source for the heat exchanger is a steam generator whose steam heats the interior of the stainless steel tubing of the heat exchanger to 338 Fahrenheit resulting in an exterior surface temperature of 266 degrees Fahrenheit. The source water has a temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit. It travels through the heat exchanger pipe and is heated to 185 degrees Fahrenheit in seconds. The heated water then is supplied to a 13,000 gallon hot water storage tank that in turn supplies all the hot water requirements for the entire factory.

The boiler system was newly installed in August of 2002 with raw water treatment consisting of traditional water softeners (Duplex Fleck 2900 24.X72.). The system was operated in this configuration for the first 18 months.

Numerous Softener failures / service problems combined with the substantial operating cost (salt usage approaching $45,000 worth per annum) and industrial discharge issues caused the owner to look for alternatives.

The first attempt was to try and get by without pre-treating the raw water at all; this proved to be disastrous. After only two and a half months the heat exchanger had scaled up to the point where the hot water supply to the plant had been reduced to a trickle. Pulling the heat exchanger for inspection and cleaning proved to be no easy task. The unit had scaled up so completely that it required the use of chains attached to hydraulic presses to force the coil out of its housing. The scale so completely surrounded the core that it visibly consisted of a big lump of limestone in the cylindrical shape of the heat exchanger housing rather than looking at the stainless steel core. It took two days of careful cleaning with phosphoric acid to restore the heat exchanger to a normal operating condition.

Finally in the spring of 2004, a system using the NaturSoft media was installed (Single tank, in/out in up flow operation. Ever since then, this boiler system has been in continuous service protected by no other water treatment but NaturSoft. Hot water usage in the plant averages 80,000 gallons per day, 6 days a week, and 50 weeks per year. The water treated has a calcium hardness of 446 ppm (26 grains per gallon) and small traces amounts of iron. For the entire service life to date, there have been no variations or drop in the performance / efficiency of the boiler system.

At the time of these photographs, the boiler had already heated in excess of 80 million gallons of water in its service life. More importantly, the photographs show the heat exchanger after one year of uninterrupted service having heated in excess of 24 million gallons of water since the last annual inspection! This spring (2007) the annual inspections of the boiler were suspended indefinitely. Since the previous two inspections had not yielded any need for cleaning and the system was operating within specifications the owner chose not to bother going forward.

No service problem or failure resulting in down time for the plant, no capacity constraints and zero operating costs.