I dunno Eileen, I tried it initially and I burned through resin like nobody's business, SF water is only 150-250 TDS but still that's quite a bit. Not to mention I went with a separate beds of cation and anion resins so I could recharge them, problem is I couldn't find the friggin stuff people were talking about it, Muratic acid no problem, red devil lye, they don't make it anymore, or at least don't sell it locally (easily), lots of other drain cleaners but I'm no chemist so unsure what would be a suitable substitute.