Today I am sharing my thoughts on the Camco Taste Pure Water Softener. This will be a two-part review, with the second part coming out in about six months after I have used the softener for some time. I recently purchased this water softener from Amazon for about $180. You might be like me and have never given your RV water much thought except for filtering it with blue or green inline filters. You may also wonder why bother trying to make the water softer or even what that means.

After purchasing a home base in Arizona, I can tell you that water softening is definitely on my mind. We have a home water softener that went on the fritz, and boy, could you tell something was up with our water. It became challenging to shower because the soap and water did not want to glide over our skin. You can describe the water as becoming rough. But, I could quickly fix our home water softener and get our water back to normal again.

Using a water softener is more than just a feeling you have. Some of the other benefits of using a water softener are:

Prevents build-up of minerals (scale) on the inside of pipes, fixtures, and water heaters,
Lengthens the life of some appliances,
Reduces or prevents mineral spots on glassware,
Prevents or reduces soap films and detergent curds in sinks, bathtubs, and washing machines.

Those first two benefits are why I wanted an RV water softener. But, unfortunately, the water here in Arizona is so full of minerals that I fear I am shortening the life of our water heater and possibly gumming up our plumbing over time.

So, let’s talk about the Camco RV water softener. Most importantly, it is portable and has a built-in handle. It weighs 25 lbs and can be stored lying down or upright. In addition, it is 22 inches tall with a circular base measuring 9 inches across, so it is relatively small and easy to pack away.

It is also reasonably straightforward to use right out of the box. There is nothing to do except run water through it for about seven minutes for the first time using it, then you connect it to your RV and start using it. It comes with a four-foot hose that you can use to connect the camp fixture to it. I will run a filter at that point between the spigot and the softener, as the softener is not a replacement for your water filters.

Does it work? Have we noticed any difference with our water since using the water softener? The answer to both of these questions is yes, and we know that it came with test strips to ensure that everything is working correctly. We tested the water coming out of the spigot before the softener. The test strip turned brown or rust color, meaning that it was high in minerals, we then connected the softener and used another test strip, and this time the test strip turned green, indicating the softener had stopped all those harsh minerals from being passed through.

You can see the results from our test strips here in this photo.

The other way of knowing it was working was when Sabrina, my wife, came out of the shower and said she just had the best shower ever in our RV, and I didn’t want to get out. That is enough of a selling point for me alone.

So why break this into two parts? It sounds like a winner, right? Well, at some point, we will need to recharge the water softener. Our home water softener does this automatically. We add salt to it occasionally, but the Camco portable softener is not automatic. So first, you have to do what is called back flushing, and then you can add two pounds of table salt back into the tank, which looks easy to access through a cap at the top of the canister. According to the instructions, all of this seems pretty simple and should only be done once every six months. So after this recharge, I will come back in six months and let you guys know how it went and if it was effortless. It comes with everything needed to perform this recharge, a fancy term for backwashing the system. We are adding an adapter to the outlet side to allow us to run water through the out and flush the system for seven minutes. Then, we will remove that adapter, fill our canister with two pounds of table salt, close the lid, and return to business.

I’m curious to see how all this works out and share my experience with you in the next six months.

Take care and safe travels!

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