All water softeners that I am familiar with require a chemical for regeneration, usually salt or potassium. I would guess that the salt on your system is actually being used to regenerate the resin beads in the water softener. I honestly haven't a clue what the "bromide injector" is. I did an English google search and came up with nothing. Should I be searching in Chinese language using Baidu to look for manufacturers in Kunming? Anyway, one day when you're back at home and refilling the salt tank on your system, perhaps if happen to glance a manufacturer logo on the tank you could give AC a shout. Thanks.

I dug up my test results. I don't know how accurate they are. It was a drinking water test from "Ecopure/Whirlpool".

Total Dissolved Solids 120ppm
0PPPM Residual Chlorine
80mg/L Alkalinity
PH 7.5
50mg/L Hardness (3 grains) SOFT
0PPM Nitrate
0PPM Nitrite
1PPM IRON + Iron Bacteria
0.7PPM COPPER

From what I gather from the test results my water is not being treated with chlorine. I think in your situation you were right not to do chlorine injection as your city water already has it. However, my understanding is that because I have iron bacteria I have to use some kind of chemical injection, or else the expensive resin beads will be damaged. You said that your system uses bromide injection, which I find odd, as that is usually used in swimming pools rather than drinking water.

In any case, I am very curious about your system. Could you refer me to the manufacturer so that I can get some product details?

The water hardness test showed that the water wasn't hard. If I remember correctly (don't have exact number of grains per L at the moment) it was slightly soft. I think PH was about 7.5 (normal). The test kit that I used was something I bought at Lowes in the US. There are thousands of things that could be wrong with the water, but if I could at least remove all the iron that would really make a difference.

My understanding is that to deal with iron one needs chlorine injection followed by a retention tank, followed by a large backwashing carbon filter.

Bucko, would you care to share some of the details about your system? Did you import it from the USA, and did you install it yourself? When you say "20,000", do you mean dollars or RMB?

I have lived in many places in mainland China, and I have yet to find a place (except Hong Kong) that has good quality water flowing from the taps. This is what I have come to expect:

-leaves iron stains on my laundry, and makes it hard and dingy
-leaves spots on my dishes
-stains the toilet, bath tub and washroom tiles (effectively ruining them)

-gums up the washing machine, water heater and shower head
-irritates the hell out of my skin (chronic skin condition:eczema)

At my current place in Dali, our community is apparently on a private well water system. As far as I can tell it's untreated. I tried doing the simple chlorine and water hardness tests and both came up negative. I tried carbon filter and water softners (both were fouled). Preferably it would be best to have the water tested by a professional to tell me exactly what's in it, but I had no luck finding such a person. Even if I could get some test results, are there any places in yunnan that sell well water treatment systems?

I am used to living in modern cities with good quality soft water, and I am really not well prepared to deal with this problem.

Have you tried Taobao?