No softwater

[Wuplur]

As long as I’ve had a water softener I never seem to have consistent softwater. Maybe a day or two then it’ll be gone. I do see the salt decreasing...slow, but it does go down. Seems like the only real setting is the hardness setting. I got my water tested for free via mail by a company called aqua science and my water came back saying 6 grains hardness and no iron. I remember calling a plumbing company and he said for our water in San Diego, I should have it set to like 17. Don’t really know too much on how a softener works. Do I need to drain my water heater then regenerate the softener to make sure the heater is filled with softwater? I recently have been seeing what I think is calcium deposits in my toilet, if that means anything.

 

[newton4mark]

What softener unit are you using ? “Head unit”?
A common head is Fleck 5600

May just need to be programmed correctly
If it’s only been installed for a short time
You should have done a regeneration when you started it up and after a few days the hot water heater should have emptied and filled with fresh soft water
Either way you should be able to tell if the cold water is soft when washing hands (soap will feel slimy as you rinse)
Your system should also be set to regenerate by the gallons used (or at a set number of days) 14 days is typically a good measure depending on the size of the system and number of people in the house, hardness etc
17 grains sounds about right
I live in the desert southwest and we are at 21
If you don’t have the head set properly
You will not have consistent soft water

My unit never runs out of soft water
And regenerates min every 14 day or when I get to 10% of the usage in gallons based on my setting (which ever comes first)

 

[Wuplur]

What softener unit are you using ? “Head unit”?
A common head is Fleck 5600

May just need to be programmed correctly
If it’s only been installed for a short time
You should have done a regeneration when you started it up and after a few days the hot water heater should have emptied and filled with fresh soft water
Either way you should be able to tell if the cold water is soft when washing hands (soap will feel slimy as you rinse)
Your system should also be set to regenerate by the gallons used (or at a set number of days) 14 days is typically a good measure depending on the size of the system and number of people in the house, hardness etc
17 grains sounds about right
I live in the desert southwest and we are at 21
If you don’t have the head set properly
You will not have consistent soft water

My unit never runs out of soft water
And regenerates min every 14 day or when I get to 10% of the usage in gallons based on my setting (which ever comes first)

Thanks for your response! I am using a Kenmore 420, I’m not sure what you mean by “head unit” but I installed this thing like 6 or 7 years ago just to replace the old one that the previous owner had in there and I didn’t really want to pay a plumber just to come out and hit a button. I figured with that free water test I got that it was the only info I needed to set this thing which turns out to be too low. So I turned it back to 17 and I set it for max days between regen for 14 days just to try it out and there was an option to regen once it reaches 97% usage I also set it to recharge tonight with the different numbers in there. I was initially worried about having the hardness set too high because I heard it can damage the water heater so I’ve been kinda paranoid about that. It’s just 2 of us and a baby in the house and we both work full time so I don’t know if that’s too frequent or not enough. I know what softwater feels like cause I get it rarely.

 

[newton4mark]

That may do the trick

Let it run for a couple weeks and see if you get better results

Let us know how it goes

It could also be the resin bed needs to be replaced (which is not terribly difficult to do)

Plenty of YouTube videos that can show you how

Typically you would change resin about 10 years or so (if it’s no longer softening the water) may be time to do it

Or consider replacing the softener tank and head

You can get one pretty cheap and swap it out on amazon

A fleck 5600sxt with 48000 grain capacity is not that much and would be an upgrade

602abc water sells a good one on amazon

 

[Wuplur]

I don’t wanna think about spending money on a new one when I feel like I should have gotten something out of this one since it was probably never set right. The water heater will pretty much catch up on its own and it’s not necessary to drain it then recharge the softener or anything like that? Does one setting make more of a difference than the other as far as when it recharges vs the hardness setting. What if I just crank my hardness level way up to like 30 and have it recharge every 7 days? Is there a such thing as too soft? This way I can see if the thing works at least and then I can dial it back from there. Is this just a waste of water & salt? Because I think I can deal with that for a little while just to get it set right. Or could this damage something like the resin bed you mentioned?