My water softener is almost as big as my water heater. I think it is
something like 36k. I can pour in 80-90 pounds of salt. (more then 2-40#
bags) Unfortunately the hardness is soo high, that I have it set to 90%
capacity. Is there any way to make it more efficient? I already have the
salt efficiency mode on.


"Gary Slusser" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Feb 16, 12:41 am, "Nathan" wrote:
dang, every month or two. I have to use a 40# bag every other week. I
called my city water dept. a while ago and they said some low number, but
not what unit of measurement and hung up..

You can go to their web site and look up their water quality report.
You want their highest hardness figure because using what is in the
water at your house today, if you tested it yourself, and then they
send you harder water for two months later, it messes up the softener.
They usually use mg/l but some use ppm. They are the same measurement.
You convert them to gpg by dividing the mg/l or ppm by 17.1.

I find that most people have smaller softeners than they should and
that causes them to use more salt than a larger softener would. I.E. a
1 cuft (commonly referred to as a 32k) softener and you need say 24k
of capacity for a regeneration every 3-4 days with a 1 day of reserve
capacity so you'd have to set the salt dose at 9 lbs.. Now if you had
bought a 1.5 cuft, 9 lbs gets you 30k of capacity (with a max up to
45k with 23 lbs of salt) and would give you a regeneration every 5-6
days (with a day''s reserve) OR... had you gone to a 2 cuft you could
get a regeneration every 8 days and use only 7 lbs of salt and the
control valve has variable reserve based on each day's use of over the
last 21 days, Those are examples but actual figures. I sell many
softeners and all of them except those on high iron water regenerate
every 8 days and only use from 3 to 8 lbs per regeneration.

For more on salt efficiency, see the sizing page at;
www.qualitywaterassociates.com

Gary
Quality Water Associates