Blake1
New Member
Hi all! I am been scratching my head trying to figure out if my water softener is producing soft water.
I purchase a GE GXSH40V from Home Depot back in 2015, and recently the A/C adapter went out on it. I picked up a replacement genuine adapter, everything seems to be in order. The bad news is I forgot my softening level setting as it reset. I picked a number that I could remember (20), but after some weeks, the water didn't seem softer. So I picked up some free test strips for hard water, they all showed that my water was still hard. So then I ordered a Hach 145300 Total Hardness Test Kit, and it also shows the water is still hard (15 drops needed, so 15GPG). Of course I set the level on the softener at that (15), waited a number of weeks, still no change in the test result.
I also tested the non-softener water (outside hoses) vs. softened water (inside sink), same results.
I took apart the softener and cleaned the little tiny screen, as well as emptied the brine tank completely and cleaned it all thoroughly. Suggestions from the GE manual and GE customer support.
The softener SEEMS to be working fine, and IS using salt, but the water test says different. The softener is of course out of warranty, so my question is, should I just buy another ($500) unit from HD, or go with a monthly service system? I really hate subscriptions and would rather pay upfront, but this is proving to show that the latter has it's advantage (as nobody including HD and GE seem to want to work on this disposable? unit).
Thanks in advance for everybody's help. I'm no expert when it comes to plumbing, and since we just had our first baby, I want to make sure the water quality is good.
BTW, I reached out to Home Depot to do a water test, but instead of sending a test sample in, they send somebody to your house to sell you a water treatment system for $8,000 now.
I purchase a GE GXSH40V from Home Depot back in 2015, and recently the A/C adapter went out on it. I picked up a replacement genuine adapter, everything seems to be in order. The bad news is I forgot my softening level setting as it reset. I picked a number that I could remember (20), but after some weeks, the water didn't seem softer. So I picked up some free test strips for hard water, they all showed that my water was still hard. So then I ordered a Hach 145300 Total Hardness Test Kit, and it also shows the water is still hard (15 drops needed, so 15GPG). Of course I set the level on the softener at that (15), waited a number of weeks, still no change in the test result.
I also tested the non-softener water (outside hoses) vs. softened water (inside sink), same results.
I took apart the softener and cleaned the little tiny screen, as well as emptied the brine tank completely and cleaned it all thoroughly. Suggestions from the GE manual and GE customer support.
The softener SEEMS to be working fine, and IS using salt, but the water test says different. The softener is of course out of warranty, so my question is, should I just buy another ($500) unit from HD, or go with a monthly service system? I really hate subscriptions and would rather pay upfront, but this is proving to show that the latter has it's advantage (as nobody including HD and GE seem to want to work on this disposable? unit).
Thanks in advance for everybody's help. I'm no expert when it comes to plumbing, and since we just had our first baby, I want to make sure the water quality is good.
BTW, I reached out to Home Depot to do a water test, but instead of sending a test sample in, they send somebody to your house to sell you a water treatment system for $8,000 now.