We recently moved into a new home (our first) and are experiencing living with a well and softener for the first time, so sorry if I don't know the terminology correctly yet.
When we moved in, the toilets were stained yellow/brown, the dishwasher had a white powdery coating all over the inside, the shower stall has gradually turned brown/orangish and worst of all my wifes blonde hair is starting to turn orange (not a happy camper!) I scrubbed out the dishwasher with CLR and same with the toilets. Dishwasher seems to be holding up fine, but toilets start to get a stain after a week or 2
We had a plumber come out on 1/6 to diagnose, but it is now the 24th and hasnt returned any of my phone calls, so I'm looking to see if this is something I can do on my own or gather enough imformation to have someone else fix this.
From the septic report: Well drilled 2002 is 185 feet deep, more than 38 feet of protective clay above the aquifer. The well is 5 inches in diameter with plastic casing and a submersible pump, property screened vented and 12" above grade. They did not run a hardness/iron test
The previous owners had the following test:
November 2005 Routine Test
Sampling Point: Kitchen Tap
Hardness result: 52, detec limit: 30, unit: mg/L
Iron result: 0.1, detec limit: 0.1, unit mg/L
And when the plumber we hired to take a look came out:
January 2009 local plumber notes:
untreated (before softener) 1-ppm Iron, 18-gr hard
treated (after softener) 0.8-ppm Iron, 18-gr hard
He said the head is operating properly, hardness set to 30 and regens daily, salt is being used to no effect (no clumping found, he said not to fill it up so high though in the future), and found media in the water heater
The water pressure was set to 40/75, he said normal is 40/60 and the high pressure might have 'blown out' the media in the softener.
On the back of the head of the softener it says "Pressure 20-125" so I'm not sure that 75 psi could really blow out the media as he said or not.
At the time of service, he could not get the head off of the unit to look inside the softener tank (the one that you dont put salt pellets into)
I couldnt find what the model number is, but the manual says "WaterLover's Series 1" Metered Control" and here are some pictures with any numbers I could find on it
System
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3514/img2783largehj0.jpg
Brine tank
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2070/img2779largeek4.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8228/img2780largezh7.jpg
Softener Head
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/8140/img2790mediumdj8.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/1294/img2789largesf5.jpg
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/351/img2788largerx4.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7159/img2787largesl6.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4377/img2786largend2.jpg
If there is any other information I can provide or try to search for, let me know
Thanks for any guidance/help
-Rick
When we moved in, the toilets were stained yellow/brown, the dishwasher had a white powdery coating all over the inside, the shower stall has gradually turned brown/orangish and worst of all my wifes blonde hair is starting to turn orange (not a happy camper!) I scrubbed out the dishwasher with CLR and same with the toilets. Dishwasher seems to be holding up fine, but toilets start to get a stain after a week or 2
We had a plumber come out on 1/6 to diagnose, but it is now the 24th and hasnt returned any of my phone calls, so I'm looking to see if this is something I can do on my own or gather enough imformation to have someone else fix this.
From the septic report: Well drilled 2002 is 185 feet deep, more than 38 feet of protective clay above the aquifer. The well is 5 inches in diameter with plastic casing and a submersible pump, property screened vented and 12" above grade. They did not run a hardness/iron test
The previous owners had the following test:
November 2005 Routine Test
Sampling Point: Kitchen Tap
Hardness result: 52, detec limit: 30, unit: mg/L
Iron result: 0.1, detec limit: 0.1, unit mg/L
And when the plumber we hired to take a look came out:
January 2009 local plumber notes:
untreated (before softener) 1-ppm Iron, 18-gr hard
treated (after softener) 0.8-ppm Iron, 18-gr hard
He said the head is operating properly, hardness set to 30 and regens daily, salt is being used to no effect (no clumping found, he said not to fill it up so high though in the future), and found media in the water heater
The water pressure was set to 40/75, he said normal is 40/60 and the high pressure might have 'blown out' the media in the softener.
On the back of the head of the softener it says "Pressure 20-125" so I'm not sure that 75 psi could really blow out the media as he said or not.
At the time of service, he could not get the head off of the unit to look inside the softener tank (the one that you dont put salt pellets into)
I couldnt find what the model number is, but the manual says "WaterLover's Series 1" Metered Control" and here are some pictures with any numbers I could find on it
System
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3514/img2783largehj0.jpg
Brine tank
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2070/img2779largeek4.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8228/img2780largezh7.jpg
Softener Head
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/8140/img2790mediumdj8.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/1294/img2789largesf5.jpg
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/351/img2788largerx4.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7159/img2787largesl6.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4377/img2786largend2.jpg
If there is any other information I can provide or try to search for, let me know
Thanks for any guidance/help
-Rick