"Gary Slusser" wrote

The vast majority of plumbers don't normally know softeners or how
to
trouble shoot problems with them. Who set the salt so high? And how
much
resin, capacity etc. does the softener have? Nine may still be too
high
and the only way to know is with a sodium test. The salt may be a
problem with the control valve not providing proper rinses. Or the
drain
line being kinked etc.. You need a water treatment dealer to check
out
your softener for proper setup and operation. Plus the other things
that
may be in your water and causing this white stuff problem.

Gary
Quality Water Associates


thanks for the suggestions Gary.

the plumber and I did a thorough checking of the water loop and the
softener yesterday (checking for solder plugs, directional flow of
water, etc) - everything was fine.

i returned the GE 27,000 grain softener to Lowe's and got a
replacement - BUT - even though the replacement was the same model, it
appeared to have a different interface and additional options...

as for the calculations, a good friend of mine is a NEPA specialist
(environment specialist) in Killeen TX and he helped me originally
arrive at 17 for the GE Softener.

turning the setting randomly up and down was only to prove whether
more salt or less salt ended up in the line.

i had a hard water shower late last night (with no salt!)

i suspect my problems are over, but we shall see...

(another thing - while not trying to make a blanket accusation, i've
noticed some manufacturers will suddenly issue "rebates" on certain
models of equipment that have been known to have sporadic problems -
my "old" GE softener had a $40 rebate that went from July 2003 to
about September 2003, and looked distinctly different from the newer,
but same model, that i picked up last night...)