Sears Intellisoft 420 Series

[masisneros]

I purchased this water softner 3 years ago this month and it has worked fine up till now. Mechanically, it works fine, the only problem is the water is not as soft as it should be-I suspect the resin needs to be replaced. Water is at 36 grains of hardness-not sure about iron content.

Everything is fine with it-the water is just not as soft as it needs to be.

My question, should I go through the trouble of replacing the resin? Is it hard to do?

Should I just replace it with something else? I read a thread recommending replacing their sears with a Fleck or Autotrol-should I do this? Will they fit easily in the same space and are they actually better than what I have?

Please help!

Mike

 

[Gary Slusser]

Have you left it run out of salt? That can casue hard water getting through the resin bed.

Resin only 3 years old should not be bad.

You have a cabinet model and another brand of control probably won't fit the cabinet. Plus you have a tank that is not industry standard and would need an adapter. So it's probably better to buy a new softener with a Clack WS-1 control valve.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[masisneros]

I did run out but that was 3 weeks ago, so I'm starting to get worried that the water hasn't returned to what it use to be....

 

[Gary Slusser]

Then your resin is not fully regenerated and you have to do 2 back to back manual regenerations )one after the other) with no water use during or between those two at the max salt dose of 15 lbs/cuft of resin in the softener or it will never work right again.

I don't know how to set the lbs on your brand of softener control. There's probably a secret way to get into the compter that isn't published in the consumer manual. Call tech support.

If you can't find out how, then do 3-4 regenerations back to back without changing anything. Make sure the salt tank is like half full after each one.