I've found that the water softeners sold at Home Depot or Sears work just fine for our very hard water. You can buy a much more expensive unit, but the ones at these stores are simple to program, easy to install, reliable and don't require maintenance. No need to get fancy with a softener when simple works.
Renais

All due respect to your experience, Renais1, but the OP's conditions would make a HD/Sears softener severely undersized - just flat wouldn't work. There is nothing "fancy" about a properly sized softener.

My recommendation, sized for the higher-hardness ground water and your family/house size, is a 3.0 cuft softener. Regenerating with 8 lb salt/cu ft of resin will give you 7-8 days between regens. You could get away with a 2.5 cu ft softener if you would like, but it will regen more often.

Start by calling local water treatment pros to see what they can do for you. If they are knowledgeable and have a good reputation for customer service you'll be in good hands. Purchasing online and installing yourself is also an option, but realize it leaves you as the solely responsible party.

The following requirements are for an industry standard softener. If you are looking for a non-electronic softener, Kinetico offers the more reliable options at a premium price (and you would need to deal with a local Kinetico rep). If space savings is a major consideration for you, Kinetico will be your best option.

Any decent softener vendor should be able to provide the following:

• High quality American or German made resin. This will provide a tight size distribution for optimal flow within the resin, longer resin life, and more reliable, predicable water softening.

• Since you have CITY WATER: 10% crosslinked resin. The oxidizers that city water treatment plants use, such as chlorine or chloramine, are harmful to softener resins. Higher crosslinking will resist chemical attack longer.

• Top basket. This serves two purposes. It sets up a proper water distribution during normal operation and prevents resin loss during backwash.

• Gravel underbed. The gravel underbed is there to set up proper flow patterns, improve backwash, keep the bottom basket in place, prevent basket failure, and prevent channeling. Many softener sales companies like to leave this out or sell softeners with a vortex system instead. Vortex systems weigh less than gravel so they cost less to ship. In addition, they are a more expensive item that adds profit for the softener salesperson, but provides no additional benefit to the homeowner . It simply adds another piece of equipment that can break.

• Fleck or Clack valves. These set the industry standard. Be aware that you will not be able to purchase Clack valves online. This is not a problem if you purchase locally.

• The valve should regen based on water usage, not time.

• Noryl bypass. Most softeners are available with either Noryl or stainless bypass valves. Both are good valves, but the noryl tends to be more reliable when not used for long periods of time.

• Brine tank: Although either round or square will work, round brine tanks are more structurally sound and will not deform like a square tank will. Additionally, if you need a softener 1.5 cuft or larger, a square tank will most likely be...

I'm sorry for my delay in responding, I had set up the thread for notifications but never received an email indicating there were responses.

Thank you so much for the responses and in particular, to Aliceinwonderland. I've read a lot of your past responses and *greatly* appreciate you providing your expertise here. I'm still getting up to speed on softeners, the nomenclature and what's available but will read up on it more tonight and start my shopping. Thank you again very much!

I ordered a softener system from www.uswatersystems.com and then hooked it up using PEX. If you are interested in details I can provide. My water was around 25 grains of hardness. It looks like yours is around 24 grains. I got the whole house carbon filter and software system.

Here is a link that might be useful: OkDirtWorks Website

Wow, OkDirtWorks. I've seen some sleazy-looking websites that attempt to steal free advertising from this site before, but yours is particularly bad. I'm curious about why you think a backhoe operator would be helpful here? Perhaps they could dig a deep enough hole to bury your rotten website?

My hope is to help the people here in the forum, while also helping any who might need services rendered regarding septic systems, backhoe work, or storm shelters.

The company I am sponsoring, free of cost, is a great company. I know it can be hard to find companies that you can trust to do a good job, and take care of you like this company has done for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: OkDirtWorks Website

OKDirtWorks,

Since you can type I assume you can read... check the TOS.

Keyboarding for dollars is prohibited on this forum.

Wanna pay to advertise then go right ahead.

I am not keyboarding for dollars. Please read my previous post. Lets try to stay on topic and see if we can help someone. After all, that is what this forum is all about.

This post was edited by OkDirtWorks on Sun, Dec 21, 14 at 19:50

Apparently reading comprehension is not your strong suit.

OP here. After reading extensively to understand AliceinWonderland's recommendations and know what I'm buying, I settled on the following:

Fleck 7000SXT 2.5 cu ft (the 3.0 was a bit too big for my available space)
10% crosslinked USA resin
Gravel underbed
Noryl bypass
Fleck top basket
Fleck 40924 bottom basket
18x40 round brine tank
Clack safety float (I requested Fleck 2310 but apparently manufacturing has moved to Mexico, so seller is instead providing me USA-made Clack safety float)

I spent a significant amount of time reading many, many past posts by AliceinWonderland and JustALurker. I can't thank both of you enough for all of the expertise you contribute freely to GW. It's extremely informative and helpful and I noted that often posters didn't come back to thank you for your contributions and assistance, so I wanted to be sure to let you know how much your contributions are appreciated. Happy new year!

Once your unit is on site, post your specific resin and BLFC (brine line flow control) size and I'll help you with programming.

Will do, thanks.

nancyjla- did you install yet?

Yes, I ended up purchasing from a local company and had them complete the install and configure it. I need to check the settings though because it's a little too soft for my liking. Alice, is it possible to "harden" the water a bit by tweaking settings?

Unless you have a "mixing" valve, you either have soft water or hard water. It will take some time to get use to the soft water. Cut way back on your soap usage.

^^Did you go with a 3cuft resin bed?

What biermech said is only partially true. In residential settings hardness is typically measured in gpg (grains per gallon). One grain = 17.1 ppm (parts per million). While it is true that a softener in good working order will register 0 gpg, it is also true that there is no such thing as absolute zero hardness from a softener.

All softeners bleed hardness between 0.5 and 8 ppm, depending upon how the softener is programmed. If a softener is regenerated with obscene amounts of salt, it will bleed very low hardness and the water will feel quite slippery. If a softener is regenerated with a low salt dosage, it will bleed a few ppm more hardness. Many people will notice the difference in feel between a softener regenerated with a 6 lb salt/cubic ft of resin dose and 8 lb salt/CF.

When salt dosage is decreased, softener capacity also decreases. This, in turn, reduces the time between regenerations which increase wear and tear on the valve. If your softener is large enough, you can reduce the salt dosage a bit and see if you prefer the feel of the water.

In order for me to determine if it is practical to reduce salt dosage, please provide the following information:

1. Cubic ft of resin in your softener

2. Specific resin installed

3. Softener controller - you indicated that you wanted a Fleck 7000sxt. Please confirm.

4. BLFC size if you have a Fleck. This will be on a small sticker, approximately 1"x1", on the exterior where the drain line attaches and should be in the range of 0.125 - 0.5 gpm.

5. Current settings for:

• Hardness

• Backwash

• Brine draw

• Rapid rinsh

• Brine fill

• Day override

This post was edited by aliceinwonderland_id on Thu, Jan 29, 15 at 10:29