Hard hard water, softner installed.

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NikkiDemoney123

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We recently moved into a new build in eastern Colorado, with a well. We had our water tested and our total hardness came back 121gpg. Extremely hard water. After doing some research we bought and installed an whole house filter, and water softner.

We installed a pelican system found at this link. https://www.pelicanwater.com/water_filter_and_salt_water_softeners.php

It is 80,000, and my husband and I are the only ones living here. After installing it and getting it up and running, our water tastes really salty. We also haven't been able to use our dishwasher because of the build up, we ran it a couple times with vinegar in the soap trap, but there is still build up on the wracks. We are at a loss and at the end of our rope. Any suggestions as to why the build up is still occurring in our dishwasher? Any suggestions on why the water is tasting salty? Thank you!
 

Smooky

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The hardness minerals are replaced with sodium in the softener. Since you have extremely hard water, the sodium level will be high after it is softened. You may need a reverse osmosis system for your drinking water, to remove the sodium.
 

Atomic1

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First of all, I believe youre talking about ppm or milligrams per liter not grains per gallon. 121 ppm is around an 11grain water. It's hard, but could be worse. Some softeners can cause water to taste salty, and everyone I know who has one will use a RO system for drinking/cooking.

and fwiw, if you only have 11 grain water, you probably didn't even need a softener. Mine is 14 and we roll with cleaning with vinegar. No biggie.
 

Craigpump

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If your water is salty the system isn't properly tuned and now trying to find someone willing to work on an "off the Internet" system is going to be hard to find...
 

Reach4

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First of all, I believe youre talking about ppm or milligrams per liter not grains per gallon. 121 ppm is around an 11grain water.
That makes a huge difference.
 

IsopureWater

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Have you tested the water after installing the softener? It should be 0 but if not then you know it isn't working properly. It most likely isn't equipment issue but more of an install issue. Double check the lines during the backwash/regeneration cycle. Make sure it's pulling salt during the brine draw cycle (which it probably is) then check your brine fill cycle to see if it's filling properly as well.

Once you do that and it appears to be working properly, then you should really consider testing the water after the softener. Sometimes it's not the water hardness that's causing the problem but the TDS. TDS that is high enough can also do that too but it takes a lot like over 1000+ to cause scaling still.
 

WorthFlorida

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First of all, I believe you're talking about ppm or milligrams per liter not grains per gallon. 121 ppm is around an 11grain water. It's hard, but could be worse. Some softeners can cause water to taste salty, and everyone I know who has one will use a RO system for drinking/cooking.

and fwiw, if you only have 11 grain water, you probably didn't even need a softener. Mine is 14 and we roll with cleaning with vinegar. No biggie.

Reprogram the softer for 11 grains of hardness. 121 grains you would have rocks in the water.
I could not find the manual on your unit but I'm sure when you set it up it asked for grains of hardness. If you put in 121 then your 10x's over. Programmable smart water softeners need the grains of hardness and by the number of gallons of water usage determines when the unit goes into a regeneration cycle. It's probably going off every night and if it is smart enough it will also determine how much brine to push throught it. It sure seems to be too much of a good thing going on. My old Rainsoft unit (1982 vintage) had a rinse cycle and your rinse cycle, if there is one, is not enough. I never had salt tasting water and I had 29 grains of hardness (Algonquin, IL), it was extremely hard.
 
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