Clueless about water softener

[sansnil]

Hello all, I just moved into a house that has a Falsken water softener installed which I've never used before. I don't think it's working as when I test the treated water with one of those test strip kits the water still registers as very hard. I've tried increasing the 'water hardness' setting a few times but the test strip results don't change. I also noticed that the level of salt hasn't gone down in the last month or so I've been using it. Shouldn't the treated water register as less and less hard after being treated by the softener?

 

[paulk]

Hi Sansnil,

If the softener is running it should be consuming salt, over a month depending on the volume of the tank you should definitely notice the salt level change.

To me it sounds like the system might be bypassing the softener. Or there is a clog at the bottom of the unit. Does your system have a bypass valve either behind or above the softener?

 

[sansnil]

To me it sounds like the system might be bypassing the softener. Or there is a clog at the bottom of the unit. Does your system have a bypass valve either behind or above the softener?

Thank you very much, Paul, you were spot on about the bypass valves. I checked and sure enough they were turned on so it was an easy fix. Now I'm slightly (only slightly) less clueless about water softeners. I really appreciate your taking the time to point me in the right direction.

Thanks again,
S