Wife wants a Water Softener. Bad idea?

I recently had a water softener (everyone is Wisconsin/Madison, does. It is seemingly a requirement and houses are plumbed for their installation) installed in the home that I purchased. The home is about 14 years old and never had a softener. As a result, the hwh was caked in lime and recently died (only at 25% of capacity). I have read the owner's manual which doesn't tell me: a) how much salt to put in, other than to use their brand of solar salt and b) how often to do regeneration. Regeneration can be set for a specific number of days 0-28 or automatically when it is sensed it is needed. The model is a Hellenbrand H100. Can anyone help? Only the hot water is softened and there are two of us in the household, so we are looking at hot water usage of about 60 gallons per day.

kfreder said:

a) how much salt to put in, other than to use their brand of solar salt

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Normally there is a salt bin, and it uses the brine in the bottom of the bin to backwash the resin beads, so the answer is keep the salt bin full, or re-fill when 3/4 empty.

kfreder said:

b) how often to do regeneration. Regeneration can be set for a specific number of days 0-28 or automatically when it is sensed it is needed.

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If the automatic feature works, use it, you will save salt that way, other wise it's trial and error on determining the number of days.

Rancher

Keeping the brine tank full or mostly full is a good way to forget to check the salt level and run it out of salt. Then you do two regenerations one after the other with as little water use betrween them if any, at the maxium salt dose for the volume (cuft) of resin in the softener. Or it will never work right again. It's also a good way to cause bridging of the salt and then regeneration without salt; which shortens the life of resin.

Programming of the control valve is a bit complicated and you don't want a softener to go more than 7-9 days between regenerations. And you don't want to use the number of days if you can meter the use of water but... it is also very much harder if you aren't softening all the water in the house, which is the best choice. Now with th ecold water going into the water heater being softened, as soon as you mix any cold water into the hot water, you have HARD water. Softening just the cold to the water heater is a bad idea.

The guys that sold you the softener should be telling you how to program the control valve. What control valve is on the softener; a Fleck or a Clack?

Keeping the brine tank full or mostly full is a good way to forget to check the salt level and run it out of salt. Then you do two regenerations one after the other with as little water use betrween them if any, at the maxium salt dose for the volume (cuft) of resin in the softener. Or it will never work right again. It's also a good way to cause bridging of the salt and then regeneration without salt; which shortens the life of resin.

Programming of the control valve is a bit complicated and you don't want a softener to go more than 7-9 days between regenerations. And you don't want to use the number of days if you can meter the use of water but... it is also very much harder if you aren't softening all the water in the house, which is the best choice. Now with the cold water going into the water heater being softened, as soon as you mix any cold water into the hot water, you have HARD water. Softening just the cold to the water heater is a bad idea.

The guys that sold you the softener should be telling you how to program the control valve. What control valve is on the softener; a Fleck or a Clack?

Gary Slusser said:

Keeping the brine tank full or mostly full is a good way to forget to check the salt level and run it out of salt.

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Sorry my cheap Sears Water Softner which has lasted 12 years with only one repair kit, has a light on it to tell you when to replace the salt, it doesn't measure the level of the salt but counts the number of cycles and determines when you might need more salt.

Rancher

We are thinking of getting water softener for our new home (mineral build up on fixtures). When we spoke to our plumber he said that there have been a lot of problems with softeners in our area. Apparently the water turns blue or blue green. What's that all about? How do we address that and still soften the water? Any thoughts?

Jim

That's your copper plumbing corroding. There are many causes of that.

Are you on city water or your own well? If city water look up the water company's web site and their water quality report. If your own well, get a water analysis for hardness, iron and pH at least.

We're on city water and these are all brand new houses. I don't think it's the copper pipe. Any other thoughts?

Yeah I know, you don't want it to be your copper pipes so... what do you think it is?

pssst copper in water turns the water blue/green and it leaves blue/green stains on surfaces where the water is allowed to evaporate (flux corrodes copper tubing, if not blue/green, what color stains does that cause?)

The EPA says it takes up to 5 years for new copper to corrode enough to protect it from the water in it. So they allow the water companies to NOT test the water at those houses under five years old for their Lead and Copper Rules compliance; mandated by the Federal government since 1990-91.

It only happens when the water softener is connected. As soon as it's disconnected, the water is fine. What's that mean?