r/WaterSofteners

I've searched and can't find the answer to my specific question. We recently moved into a new place with a water softener. We have never had one before and our landlord did not give us any directions of how to use it so we just pretended it didn't exist.

Lately my hair has had insane building up and is really struggling. I looked at the water softener and saw it was blinking saying it needed a refill. I looked in it but have no idea what I'm supposed to see or not see in there. It made me realize that the water lately does not seem as soft as when we moved in. Regular hard water has not done this to my hair in the past.

My partner and I aren't huge fans of soft water but if not putting salt in it can cause damage to the machine or my hair, I want to know. Google says that not putting salt in doesn't cause any long term damage and in the next sentence says that it does. So idk what to believe.

Basically I have two questions

1 am I damaging the water softener by not putting salt in it?

2 is the well water that is not being softened hurting my hair?

I recently rebuilt my Fleck 9000 and my resin seems to be fouled. A gallon of Rescare hasn't helped and since it is original (from '08), I assume it is time for replacement. I'm on a well, with a dual tank 32k grain system. Planning on 2 cu. ft., either Aldex or Resintech. Should I spend a little extra and go for 10%? I've read it may last longer, even though I'm not on city water? I'm also planning on replacing the distributor baskets and riser while I'm in there. I guess there's also an upper basket as well I may want to replace? Anything else I should replace while I'm at it for a mostly original well system from '08? I can also provide a water analysis from when it was installed if that's useful.

I want to know if adding liquid water softener in the water works?

If yes please suggest some liquid water softener.

P.s

I cannot use any kind of attachments in the tap or shower head.

Looking for some great Water Softener and Water Purifier (RO) suggestions in Liberty Hill area. We consulted Culligan, and felt expensive. So looking out for some alternatives, which are less expensive and equally great.

People: 3
We have 3 Bath in our House

Hi - I'm new here. I've got a Clack WS1 valve sitting on a tank that's about 9" diameter and 52" tall. It is unbranded and was installed by a local installer that has since gone out of business. Ever since it was installed about 4.5 years ago I've had intermittent issue with salty taste in the water after regeneration. I'd like to leave it to a professional, but I live in the middle of nowhere and no one wants to come here.

I've done lots of reading and watched lots of videos and ruled out all the obvious issues like kinked/blocked lines and valves and think I may have a programming issue. My unit does not have a flow meter and is just running on a 7 day cycle. It's currently programmed for:

• Backwash 8:00
• Brine down 60:00
• Backwash 8:00
• Rinse 6:00
• Fill 9:12

In my reading I have not seen anyone using a "Backwash" after the "Brine down" and I have found more than one site suggesting:

• Backwash 10:00
• Brine down 60:00
• Rinse 10:00
• Fill 10:00

and I'm thinking of changing mine to that.

Based on other suggestions I'm seeing I think my current 6 minute rinse may be my issue, but I'm curious if anyone understands what the backwash after the brine may be for?

I have a Culligan water softener that is telling me CHEKC SALT with three beeps every 10 minutes. Long story short, I've checked and cleaned everything I can and it is still not softening much even after many forced regens.

Long story, 10 days ago it started beeping and saying check salt, and today there is no difference. Here is what I've done. There has been at least a day between each action here.

1. Salt was low, I added a couple bags and had it regen that night. No change.
2. I emptied the brine tank, cleaned it, checked and cleaned the float assembly, and forced regen, after the water was about 6 inches above the float and has remained at that level. No change.
3. I pulled the little filter and orifice below the plate with three screws on top, cleaned it all up, forced regen. No change.
4. I unplugged it, waited 10 min. Used compressed air to check the line and valve into the brine tank. Force regen. No change.
5. I removed the head assembly, completely disassembled it, cleaned, and reassembled. Forced regen and checked both valves for proper movement, it all looks good. Forced regen again, still no change, and it is back to beeping and saying check salt, which hasn't been back since I unplugged it.

At this point all I have left to try is to empty and clean the brine tank again in case anything got pushed in and is messing with it after I cleaned everything else, since that was the first thing I did. I did a simple water test last night after it finished the regen. Looked to me like it is removing iron, and partially softening the water. Showed about 425 hardness coming from the well and between 120-250 hardness after the softener. Definitely not as soft as normal.

What else can I check?

I have an EcoWater ERR3700R20. I started to get low water pressure in high output faucets like bathtub and shower. The pressure issue stops when I put my softener in bypass mode, so I it’s definitely isolated.

I have tried all the tricks I’ve seen on the internet. Extended backwash, cleaning with iron out, etc. I even took apart the top section and check the connections for clogs. Unless I’m wrong, I’m pretty sure I’ve isolated the issue to the resin tank, or in this softener’s case, since it’s a “water refiner,” the stratified media bed.

Does anyone have experience with this unit or this issue? It sounds like it’s gonna be easier to just get a new softener that doesn’t have this issue.