Should my soft water always feel slippery?

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ditttohead

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Lowering the hardness changes the way the system is regenerated. Efficiency settings, etc all affect the performance of the softener. Here is an old article that explains the difference between soft, and very soft water excellently. http://www.wcponline.com/2012/03/05/soft-soft-water/



Here is a chart that also explains this in a lit
resin chart.jpg
tle more detail. Even a few ppm of hardness can negatively affect the performance of your water.
 

compddd

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Thanks for the article Ditto. Do you agree that the first couple months old deposits are being dissolved out of the pipes and water heater and will negate the slippery feeling and add in a few ppm of hardness?
 

ditttohead

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Yes, very common. I have two personal examples.

My house in Huntington Beach was nearly 100 years old with galvanized. I installed a softener and proceeded to have red water for the next two years. It eventually cleared up but two years of red bathtub water was a little annoying. I was planning on getting rid of the house so I didn't want to do a copper retrofit, it would have been nice.

My grandpas cabin in Wrightood, after installing a softener, he had nearly two years of clogged aerators and shower heads due to all the junk coming off the water heater. It also cleared up, but we could not get below 1 GPG for over a year on the hot water side.
 

Otto Mation

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Yes, very common. I have two personal examples.

My house in Huntington Beach was nearly 100 years old with galvanized. I installed a softener and proceeded to have red water for the next two years. It eventually cleared up but two years of red bathtub water was a little annoying. I was planning on getting rid of the house so I didn't want to do a copper retrofit, it would have been nice.

My grandpas cabin in Wrightood, after installing a softener, he had nearly two years of clogged aerators and shower heads due to all the junk coming off the water heater. It also cleared up, but we could not get below 1 GPG for over a year on the hot water side.

This is encouraging news for me. We were in our house for about a year and a half and our softener was not set up properly for the extremely hard well water that we were dealing with. I only got it working correctly about a month and a half ago (with the help of forum members here) and still have 2 GPG of hardness on the cold side and about 4 GPG (or more depending on usage)
on the hot side. I was thinking that sometime in the near future, I may get the hot side down to 2 GPG with frequent water heater flushing and cleaning with citric acid. I wasn't sure that it was possible to get below 1 GPG but now am encouraged that it may be possible.
 
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compddd

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On the Fleck 5810, it alternates between displaying the time and another number, started at 1900 something and it's down to 1200 now, I'm assuming that's the gallons remaining until regeneration? Is it normal on a new system for that number to fluctuate up and down sometimes? For example one night I checked it and it said 1750, and the next morning it had gone up and said 1768.
 

Reach4

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On the Fleck 5810, it alternates between displaying the time and another number, started at 1900 something and it's down to 1200 now, I'm assuming that's the gallons remaining until regeneration? Is it normal on a new system for that number to fluctuate up and down sometimes? For example one night I checked it and it said 1750, and the next morning it had gone up and said 1768.
Yes. You chose
RS = cr ; Cr = base reserve on recent experience

You could have chosen a fixed reserve, but the variable reserve is probably best for most people.

You are not set for H=20 anymore, I infer.
 
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compddd

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Yes I adjusted H to 14 after the Hach 5B was 11 drops after testing. So I'm on variable reserve? Is that a setting I can check to make sure?
 

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Yes I adjusted H to 14 after the Hach 5B was 11 drops after testing. So I'm on variable reserve? Is that a setting I can check to make sure?
Yes, (RS), but that would be the only explanation for what you observed.
 

compddd

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The slippery feeling is back and now the Hach 5B test turns blue without any drops. I guess it's done dissolving the old deposits? The house was re-plumbed along with replacing the water heater 3.5 years ago so must not have been much buildup.
 

ditttohead

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CR setting takes about 6 weeks to get "smart". It is a simple algorithmic setting that learns your water usage over time to determine how the reserve should vary on a daily basis. It is normal for your gallons remaining to even go up a day later as the system "learns" your water usage.
 

compddd

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I did another manual regeneration and the brine tank looks like this now inside, I can physically see water is that ok?
 

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Reach4

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I did another manual regeneration and the brine tank looks like this now inside, I can physically see water is that ok?
Yes. There should be some salt above the water, and you have that with your tilted salt pour. If the water is higher than the salt all over, you could get stratification.

I liked keeping it as you show for a while to watch, but now have gone ahead and added more salt.
 

compddd

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Ok thank you, so should I add more salt? I added four 40 lb bags of Mortons initially, and I've only regenerated twice so far, shouldn't I have used only 16lbs of the 160 lbs I added? Doesn't look like 160 lbs of salt is in there, and the water level seems high since my settings are only supposed to put 4 gallons in there is that correct?
 

Reach4

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Ok thank you, so should I add more salt? I added four 40 lb bags of Mortons initially, and I've only regenerated twice so far, shouldn't I have used only 16lbs of the 160 lbs I added? Doesn't look like 160 lbs of salt is in there, and the water level seems high since my settings are only supposed to put 4 gallons in there is that correct?
You add 4 gallons of water. When the salt gets dissolved, there will be a little more than 4 gallons of brine. So you expect to use a little under 1 bag every 3 regens.

You have what, an 18 inch diameter tank? If 18, 4 gallons would be 3.36 inches if there were no salt, but might be 9 inches if full of salt. With a dipstick, how much brine depth do you measure?
 
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compddd

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Yes brine tank is 18”, should I take the cap off the white housing assembly in the brine tank and do the dip stick in there?
 

compddd

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There is an arrow in there that I can look at? By the way thank you so much for all your help in this thread Reach!
 

Reach4

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There is an arrow in there that I can look at?
Not without pulling the assembly... but don't bother with that. Declare success.

But if you really want to do deep research, use your dipstick during the later half of the BD cycle. The brine is expected to be sucked down at about 15 minutes ± 5 minutes into BD. If you do that some may think you are obsessive. But heck, it's a cheap hobby.;)
 
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