Is my softener doing anything?

[nibeck]

We just bought a house that has a well, and septic systems (something new to me). In the utility room is a water softener, acid neutralizer and pressure regulator. Again, I'm new to all of these, and am trying to learn about how they work, and the general maintenance/upkeep, etc.

The softener is an EcoWater s3000 unit. Simple question: How do I know if it is working, or how well it's working?

- Based on water test kit from Lowe's (probably not too reliable, but it's all I had). The softness looks OK.
- Water "feels" OK when bathing

I don't see any water in the unit, and the salt cubes all partially loose, but a lot of them are all caked together.

Everything might be OK, just trying to learn how these unit operate on a day to day basis, so I can't determine if I need to do any service.

_mike

 

[SlowDrip]

Those little test kits are good enough for generalities. sure they don;t give you exact ppm's of every chemical ion the world like a professional tester, but they do help to point out problems.

I started typing a long description of what your softener is doing for you, but then I got lazy and decided to just post a link to a better description and a basic FAQ about the systems.

Water Softeners | CMHC

 

[speedbump]

The name ecowater might be on hundreds of other units. Most softeners are put together by the company that sells them. They buy the parts from a supplier then assemble them to their specs and sell them under their name. Then there is Culligan, Kinetico etc.

The salt (brine) tank your referring to, could be bridged. If the tank is filled too high, the salt can stick together and not move downward as the salt below in the water is dissolved. This can make you think the tank never needs salt when in reality the water in the tank can't reach the salt to dissolve it.

 

[nibeck]

Good info, thanks. I guess I'll assume everything is working OK as long as the tests are coming out OK.

Should I be seeing water at the bottom of the tank? I dug through the salt, and ended up with a small amount (<> 1") at the bottom, is this right?

_mike

 

[speedbump]

There should be more than that. 1 gallon of water will dissolve around 2.5 lbs of salt. Most standard softeners use approximately 9 pounds of salt per regeneration. So there should be at least 4 gallons of usable water in the tank.