You can't correctly size a softener for a range of hardness. You size a softener for the maximum hardness, water use, specific water conditions (guesses and ranges are not acceptable), and SFR of the plumbing.

The question you need to answer is... will two people be the occupancy the majority of the time and four people the occasional exception or the other way around?

The difference in cost between 8% and 10% resin will pay off over time with longer resin service life on chlorinated city water and eliminate a service call to that dealer to rebed your softener sooner. Your softener dealer is not really impressive.

Clack WS1 valves come with a matching Noryl bypass so don't let anyone charge you for it or make you think they're doing you a favor by including it.

Clack WS1 valves don't have YOKES. Fleck valves have yokes. Clack WS1 valves use various adapters off the bypass for the required plumbing connection. Nice to also have a three valve bypass so that's good... unless the valves are gate valves. 1/4 turn ball vales are far more reliable.

You want a Fleck 2310 safety float brine pickup for the brine tank.

My apologies for ignorance or poorly written post.

I had a lab test the water but I didn't remember the exact results. The lab said my hardness is 22 but the county I live in can get all the way to 27 so that's why the range. I figured I'd need to size for 27.
I know there's no iron or manganese based on lab results. I had 3 dealers test my water and all of them had different results for tds so hence the range. I measured the sfr at the tub to the 7gpm I mentioned above.

We're a younger couple so we plan to have kids in the next couple years. So hopefully that answers your question.

I'll insist on the 10â°. Thank you for the insight, I was asking based on what I'd seen in other posts so I didn't know much better. I'm planning to replace the gate valves with ball valves.

You are correct to size for the 27 gpg hardness that you will see.

Go ahead and go with the 2.5 cubic ft softener. At a regen salt dose of 6 lb/cu ft you will eventually regen every 7 days. With only two people, you will regen every 14 days, which will be fine, provided your water does not have particulates. A 2.0 cu ft softener, while it may be closer now with only two people in the home, will regen too often once you have four people, which will result in shorter resin life, particularly on city water.

Definitely insist on the 10% resin - it will add twice the life to your resin on city water.

Aliceinwonderland,

Thanks so much for your reply. There is/are no coloring or particulates coming from my water tap, only the build up from hard water over time. So I hope regen every 14 days isn't too big of an issue for a few years.

The lab results for iron was Are there any other things I should be wary of or need to do once I receive/install the softener?

Thanks again!

This post was edited by Wolf31 on Thu, Oct 30, 14 at 19:50

Once you actually have your softener on hand, post the following and I can give you setup instructions:

• Valve brand/model

• Resin brand/name

• Cubic feet of resin installed

• BLFC size (there will be a sticker with this info near the BLFC, typically below the valve)

If it's a Clack WS1 you don't need to know the BLFC size. The BLFC size is set by the assembler and the (total) salt dose is set in POUNDS in the programming.

Just one of the reasons the Clack is more user and DIYer friendly than the flack valves... common sense programming.

Hi there,

So I just received my softener and will be installing it soon. I have the WS1.1380MP. The resin is Dow HCR-S and there will be 2.5cuft total resin. What's the programming difference I need to do for 2 people vs 4 people?

Only part I'm still a little lost on is when the softener is installed/programmed, the water is turned back on, let it fill the softener tank, and then I add water/salt to the brine tank. Is there a recommended amount of water/salt to add or too much water/salt to add?

Once that is complete, do I need to run a regen or do I expect it to regen in the ~14 days?

Thank you so much for both your help. It's definitely made me more confident in purchasing a softener.

This post was edited by Wolf31 on Thu, Nov 6, 14 at 20:58