On Sat, 02 Sep 2006 14:39:53 GMT, "David Martel"
wrote:

Ed,

How do you adjust the softener? My softener removes hardness by releasing
sodium and sequestering calcium. There's no control over this, it removes
calcium as long ass it has sodium, I think. Do you rig a bypass so some hard
water is mixed with the output of the softener?

Dave M.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I believe setting the softener
to regenerate less frequently would make the water less soft. I
recently moved into a house that has a MacClean softener with a
maximum capacty of 30k grains. The family that lived in the house
previously had the softener regenerating every 4 days which is
probably overkill since I'm the only person living in the house. How
would I go about testing the water to determine the hardness and iron
content in order to determine the proper setting? There is a bypass
valve on the softener. To get an accurate result do I need to bypass
the softener and let the water run for a few minutes before I take a
sample? Or should I just drain some water from the holding tank. The
house uses a well pump/pressure tank setup.