kinetico Woes

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Gary Slusser

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Hopefully this thread helps other homeowners who lack this knowledge like me.

I don’t have the paperwork of what was put into it in front of me but there was something on it about tannin resin and new (different) float for the brine tank.

In the past with full chlorine and a second manual refresh of the water softener I would have for about 2 days the same quality of water I have now with a HIGH dosage of salt. What I would notice in the past was that the more I used the water for laundry and dishes the harder the water would get until the timer reset.

This is the 3rd day since Kinetico installed the rebuilt softener and I have to say ( though I wouldn’t drink it ) the water is as clean as I have seen it with a lot less salt in it. Although I have not put it through its paces with heavy (for me anyway) water usage I am impressed as I actually have water flow and pressure in my shower.

At this point I simply have a sediment filter, carbon filter and the softener between the Pressure tank and my shower head.

When I get a chance I will post what the info from the actual work order.

I digress ….
Reading the prior post I have to wonder how much difference it actually makes if there is .2 cu/ft less softening resin in the tanks when they (dual) refresh on demand not when a timer says they should. AS YOU KNOW I am not knowledgeable in this area but, it would seem that it may need to refresh 20% more often. Since it is a demand 2 tank softener system that refreshes with clean water, wouldn’t it use the same amount of salt?

Since I wouldn’t notice the refresh do I care?

For the added expense of getting larger tanks and a larger system what would I actually get out of it? Would my water be better because the tanks were bigger?
Let's recap. You had a softener and added a pellet chlorinator in front of it without any retention or a carbon filter to remove chlorine.

That softener was probably undersized for your needs.

The chlorine ruined the resin and probably clumped it up which reduced your water flow through it.

Next to no one sells day clock timer type control valves anymore, they are all demand initiated regenerated (DIR) metered type control valves.

You then became the proud owner of a used Kinetico water softener (Rolls Royce you say) and installed it backwards and the water quality wasn't acceptable and you called Kinetico out and they said the chlorine supposedly ruined the Kinetico control valve.

The chlorine also ruined your resin.

So in attempting to get it serviced they told you it was ruined and they would provide, read sell you, another softener, a refurbished softener containing .2cuft of anion tannin resin in addition to the cation softener resin, which now you have it installed and you have used it less than a week and are totally satisfied saying it is the best your water has ever been.

And you are totally convinced it is because the softener is a Kinetico.

I disagree because all that Kinetico makes is the control valve. They don't make the resin or the tanks. A control valve only regenerates the resin, which is where all the water quality improvement is done; in the resin bed.

Is it true that this refurbished softener has bigger, taller wider, tanks and/or more tanks, a filter tank on top of a resin tank, than the first used one you inherited and installed backwards had?

I think so but if they aren't, then to add .2cuft of tannin resin they either removed .2cuft of softening resin or decreased the freeboard space. There is no other way to do it. Removing .2 cuft would reduce the capacity potential by like 10+ K.

I say the new tanks are larger and possibly sized to provide space to add a top dressing, if not they removed .2 cuft of softening resin or decreased the freeboard space. Freeboard space is the water filled space above the top of the resin bed.

Anyway, any refurbished and correctly installed softener would give you improved water quality. It does not matter what brand of control valve, brand of resin or type of softener (cation) resin as long as some tannin resin was added to new softener resin.

It also does not matter that the softener is a twin tank or regular two tank or cabinet model. Or what salt efficiency you get, which all softeners have an adjustable K of capacity and salt dose so they can be programmed to use the same number of lbs of salt per cuft of the same type of resin as any other brand of softener; like Kinetico.

IMO they are treating you like a mushroom (feeding ya BS and keeping you in the dark) while making you think they are great and their softener is the best when they only make the control valve! And I agree with you that they could have fixed (they call it refurbishing) your old one. AND, I'll bet they took the old for you, am I right?

So... how many lbs of salt does this softener use per regeneration?

How many regenerations per day or how many days between regenerations?

Andy can answer both those questions, see if he will tell you.

To learn about all this sizing stuff Click Here.
 

Gary Slusser

That's all folks!
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6,921
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22
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Location
Wherever I park the motorhome.
Website
www.qualitywaterassociates.com
We all tend to get familiar and comfortable with what we sell and what is in the area. Kinetico is pretty rare around here. I have only had to work on one and that was just an electrical problem.
Did you assemble your own softeners or buy them assembled?

An electrical problem on a water powered nonelectric Kinetico... If you actually did, it wasn't a Kinetico.
 
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