Hello. I'm new here and have been reading and trying to sort things out. Unfortunately, I'm not really clear on which water softener I need to replace the old Kenmore. I did have our water tested by Kar Labs. According to the results we have really hard water.
The basics (let me know what other info is needed):
We are a family of 6-7 (one son is in college so is only home Summer months; 2 other sons will probably be
leaving home soon, as they are adults)
We have livestock and use about 100 gallons a day for them (we would like to bypass the softener for them)
Test results:
Hardness 260 mg/L (as CaCO3)
Hardness (gpg) 15.2
Iron <0.01 mg/L
Manganese 0.016 mg/L
There is a bunch of other test results, but I think those are the pertinent ones? We have a front load washer to save water and we take short showers. So, I would guess we use around 60 gallons per person, per day. We had a Kenmore softener that was given to us brand new. It did okay for 12 years, although it was cycling every 3-4 days. Last month it wasn't softening and random water would taste terrible, like a metallic salt. So we disconnected the softener. We have great tasting well water that is spring fed but it is so hard I feel like my skin is being rubbed off in the shower. Our dishes are now all cloudy and we're worried about the appliances, pipes, etc. I doubt we can live without a softener for long.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks,
John
The basics (let me know what other info is needed):
We are a family of 6-7 (one son is in college so is only home Summer months; 2 other sons will probably be
leaving home soon, as they are adults)
We have livestock and use about 100 gallons a day for them (we would like to bypass the softener for them)
Test results:
Hardness 260 mg/L (as CaCO3)
Hardness (gpg) 15.2
Iron <0.01 mg/L
Manganese 0.016 mg/L
There is a bunch of other test results, but I think those are the pertinent ones? We have a front load washer to save water and we take short showers. So, I would guess we use around 60 gallons per person, per day. We had a Kenmore softener that was given to us brand new. It did okay for 12 years, although it was cycling every 3-4 days. Last month it wasn't softening and random water would taste terrible, like a metallic salt. So we disconnected the softener. We have great tasting well water that is spring fed but it is so hard I feel like my skin is being rubbed off in the shower. Our dishes are now all cloudy and we're worried about the appliances, pipes, etc. I doubt we can live without a softener for long.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks,
John