Hi people,

I am in the country and on a well.

I have a Kenmore water softener that was installed in 2002 by the
previous owner and he left no manuals.

The display screen shows the Hardness at 40.

What does "40" mean? What should I set it to? I am getting some Lime-
looking deposits around tap bases etc.

It uses salt, so I am guessing it is doing some softening, but not
enough, it seems.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

"Dave, I can't do that" wrote:

I have a Kenmore water softener that was installed in 2002 by the
previous owner and he left no manuals.

If you get the model number off the softener, you should be able to download the
manual from the Sears website.

The display screen shows the Hardness at 40.

What does "40" mean? What should I set it to? I am getting some Lime-
looking deposits around tap bases etc.

It almost certainly means that the previous owner thought the untreated well
water has 40 grains of hardness. That's really hard water BTW.

It uses salt, so I am guessing it is doing some softening, but not
enough, it seems.

What you need to do is either buy a water hardness testing kit from any home
center or bring a sample of untreated water (not from the hot water tank or
anyplace after the softener unless the bypass is thrown and you are sure all the
treated water is flushed) into Sears or one of the local water treatment dealers
for testing. They will tell you what the actual hardness is and what your
softener shoulld be set to.

Dave,

Your hardness is set at 40 grains per gallon (that's pretty hard water).
Bypass the softener, run the cold water for several minutes so you get a
good sample of unsoftened water, collect the water in a clean container and
head down to Sears. They'll test your water for hardness and either give or
sell you a new manual.
Lime looking deposits suggest that your water softener isn't always
working, too much time between regenerations probably. But this should be
obvious by taste. Once you get the manual read up on cleaning the screen and
other maintenance things. And set the hardness to reflect the new test
result if it exceeds 40

Dave M.

Thanks guys. I will do that today.

Your hardness is set at 40 grains per gallon (that's pretty hard water).
Bypass the softener, run the cold water for several minutes so you get a