Why Isn't my Water Softener using Salt?

        Often times when the water inside the house doesn't give that soft slimy feeling, or water spots show up on dishes or shower doors, people will automatically think that their water softener has a problem. The first thing they do is to check the brine tank or salt tank for salt. The following examples could be the reason the water softener isn't using salt. Salt bridge, broken or worn part, the water softener is in bypass, no electricity. Hopefully this blog will help the reader find the answer and be able to solve the problem.

Salt bridge; a salt bridge is caused from the water filling the brine tank with water and slowly dissolving the salt in order to regenerate it. Over time as the salt dissolves it slowly falls or moves toward the bottom of the brine tank so that it can be dissolved and ready for the next regeneration cycle. Often times what happens is that the salt will not fall or move to the bottom of the brine tank and thus creates a bridge. A couple of ways to determine if there is a salt bridge;

 1.  Hit the brine tank with your hand starting at the top of the tank and moving down until you get near the bottom. Along the way down, make note how much resistance there is and if there is a soft spot about midway down then you know you have a salt bridge.                     

2. Using the end of a broom handle or other pole type of tool. Push through the salt; at first there will be resistance because of the salt up top, once through the salt the broom handle    will begin to go down more easily than before. This is an indication that the salt has bridged. Once you have determined it is a salt bridge, a hammer can be used to hit the salt  until it finally begins to fall, ensuring that the brine tank is not damaged in the process. A salt bridge can be avoided often times by only putting in enough salt to just cover the water, although this will require more checks to ensure there is enough salt in the brine tank to be dissolved and ready for the next regeneration.                                   

Broken or worn part: Depending on the make and model of the water softener will determine which part to look for. All Kenmore, Ecodyne, Whirlpool, GE and North Star water softeners use the same types of parts and the problem is usually the same. It is usually caused by a worn rotor disk or a problem with the venturi.

Kenmore water softener venturi

Kenmore water softener rotor disk

 On the ever popular Fleck water softener valve there is a gear in the back in which the piston is attached to. In the photo below it will be the gear right behind the middle piston. On occasion this gear will break off and unless there is something to compare it to, the problem will go unnoticed unless the person doing the servicing has plenty of experience. 

                  

 

Water softener in bypass mode; sometimes but not too frequently the water softener will be in bypass, either from a recent service call or a frustrated homeowner who was just pushing buttons and moving levers out of sheer frustration. These two bypasses are  typically found on most water softeners. 

Water softener bypass valve in bypass position

Stainless steel bypass valve in bypass

      The below bypass belongs to either a Kenmore, Whirlpool, Northstar or GE. 

Kenmore bypass valve in bypass position

 

 No electricity; it may be relatively easy to tell if the water softener isn't plugged in depending on which model, on the digital models there will be nothing on the front screen and on mechanical ones the time will normally be off or the back can be taken off to examine the motor to see if it is still running. There is a little round hole that will show a red mark and white mark as the motor spins, if it is not changing color then the motor is not turning or just feel the motor with a hand and determine if it is running or not.

        

                      
             Here is a video on how to check to see if the motor is running

      In case the video above does not play  https://youtu.be/2J-9vDVwy9w

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

   

 Why are Water Softeners so Expensive?

            With the price of things today,  this is a very good question. One must think about all the dynamics that goes into owning a business. We will discuss the overhead it takes to run a water softener business, market share, what the market will bear, and the price the dealer gets them for. These are things that any business owner must consider before starting their business. Knowing these things of many will help the business owner in deciding whether or not they should really open a new business.

            Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a 10 percent share in that market. This part involves the competition; how do they sell their product, how much do they sell it for and how many water softeners are sold.  The answers to these questions will have another determining factor as to whether or not the business owner will open their business, and how much should they charge for the product.

            Whatever the Market will bear; If you took Economics throughout your educational years, you learned that the selling price of goods and services are determined by “what the market will bear.” Consumers and the market decide what a product is worth and will give so much money, but no more for that product. In other words; charge the customer as much as they are willing to pay. In some places like Florida, water softeners ranged around 6-8 hundred dollars. Whereas, in Texas they can go from $800.00 dollars to over $7,000.00 and the people are willing to pay these amounts because of the destructive results one gets from hard water.

             Overhead is one of the greatest things to consider when you want to open a water softener business. There are things to consider like; what kind of vehicle will be used, the gas, insurance and maintenance. Other things like tools, supplies, training and licensing are among others that will cost money upfront. One of the next and bigger things to think about is the profit margin. If I buy a water softener for X amount of dollars and sell it for Y amount of dollars and after subtracting parts of the overhead, what will my profit margin be? After finding the profit margin, the business owner must decide if they can live off that income. As can be seen, there are a lot of moving parts to consider when it comes to having a water softener business. The aforementioned examples are reasons why water softeners are expensive.

            Dealer Pricing; dealers get their equipment for far less than what they sell it for, the profit margins start at about 300% markup. How to calculate markup  Now that appears to be an awful lot of money coming in; however, one must consider that most water softener companies don't sell a water softener everyday. If they did, the prices would be much lower because they could sell more for less. It is almost impossible to beat water softener prices on Amazon unless the business buys in bulk and or does a lot of business with the wholesaler. This gives them an advantage by having buying power.

Click this link to see a review of water softeners; https://youtu.be/QBn3Y2ykhHM

 

Fleck 5800 Review

Fleck 5800 Review

As time progresses the water softener industry is always trying to make a better water softener and invent ways to better transform water full of constituents to clean healthy water that is tasty and not full of contaminants that make water unpalatable and not suitable for drinking.  Through the years I have seen many variations of water softeners both new and old and have found that they for the most part all work the same.  However, some companies keep trying to make a water southerner with more features than what is really necessary though it may be helpful for the maintenance tech but not necessarily for the consumer which is why I'm here to help support and give objective opinion not only in blogging but in my youtube videos-low cost water softeners.  There you can find helpful videos for the consumer that answer most questions and if not then you can ask the questions you need answered and I will get back with you.

The Next Generation Water Softener 

Over time Fleck has made some very good water softeners and the ones they have made are still on the market and functioning still today.  I suppose that every now and then a company may hire a young vivacious individual who is wanting to show what they know and try to make what is already great even better.  Now Fleck has to very popular valves, the 5600 and the 2510 for the consumer.  These are my most favorite valves when it comes to longevity and durable.  The only thing that needs replacing after many years is the piston seals and spacers.  Aside from those particular parts there is absolutely nothing else that really needs to be changed to include the motor.  On occasion one may have to replace the motor but more often than not it is the piston seals and spacers that need replaced. Around 2010 Fleck came out with the 5700 series valve which was seemingly built to be the competitor with the Clack valve.  It wasn't very long after its arrival that it soon left.  From my understanding there were too many flaws and it didn't live up to its name which I find interesting because I know these engineers spend a lot of time trying to perfect these valves and I would have thought that it would have made a big hit but it soon fizzled out and then Fleck came up with its next big idea.

Flecks Next Big Idea

Fleck has now recently come out with the 5800 valve in which I from a technicians point of view is a superb model.  It has many functions that a technician needs sometimes in order to troubleshoot the water softener when other valves won't allow you to do so and when that occurs you must rely on total experience in order to troubleshoot the valve and fix the problem.  From a DIY point of view it has way to many moving parts and is too difficult to work on for your average person in my opinion and that is why I always stick with the Fleck 5600 for the DIY type of person.  Below you can watch the video on the Fleck 5800 and decide for yourself, I hope it makes the cut for the sake of Pentair and their Fleck products.

Why do I need a water softener

Why do I need a water softener

Some people like their water just the way it is and think that hard water is just fine and have no complaints at all with their water.  Some people don't like the slick feeling that softened water makes when they are in the shower.  Needless to say everyone has their own sense of feel and what appeals to them.  There are benefits to having a water softener that you are usually told about but in this blog you will not only be told about them but shown in an actual case of a homeowner who did not have a water softener and how it affected his quality of life as well as his pocket book.

Do I really need a water softener

The answer to that is almost always yes, and the reason for that answer is because not all water is soft  or reasonably soft and actually the large majority of water is hard.  I have also found that when hard water is combined with chlorine for disinfection purposes the calcium is precipitated out and you will see it sticking to the ends of faucets or on the faucet handles and over time it becomes very unsightly and very difficult to remove so the homeowner is now force to spend more money to buy a new faucet if they want their home to look nice for guests and or for themselves. 

Now you have probably heard how hard water affects your clothes by leaving stains on them and how you need to use a larger amount of laundry detergent in order to get your clothes clean as opposed to soft water where you only need to use 1/2 the amount of laundry detergent and shampoo and conditioner which over time save the homeowner hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the life of the home and water softener. When most water softener salesmen give their presentation they talk about all that and some even have a little kit to show the difference in hard water and soft water when it comes to the sudsing of the water as hard and soft.  There really is a difference but here you are going to see the larger impact that not having a water softener will do to your appliances.

Is my water really hard

Many people I run across will say that their water is soft when indeed it is not but the homeowner swears it is soft, so I will show them that the water is hard by using these little test strips to see exactly how hard the water really is.  You can see how hard your water is considered by the Water Quality Association here-https://www.wqa.org/learn-about-water/perceptible-issues/scale-deposits

Once you have established that your water is either hard or soft then you can make the determination of whether or not you want to buy a water softener or water conditioner.  Whats the difference between a water softener and water conditioner https://youtu.be/Uq847l8Nho4

How hard water effects appliances

Here is a video that shows just exactly how hard water can affect your appliances which in turn can affect your energy bill. 

Can A Water Softener Remove Iron

Do Water Softeners Remove Iron

The question "Do water softeners remove iron" is often times asked for a couple of reasons the first being the cost of both a water softener and an Iron Filter.  Depending on whom or what company you buy your water softener from you can pay as little as $600.00 found HERE  up to over $5,000.00 and though the salesman may not agree with my statement they are work basically the same in that they do remove hardness from the water.  Here is a water softener review that you may like; https://youtu.be/QBn3Y2ykhHM

Iron filters can be expensive as well whereas you can buy one HERE for as little as $750.00 or up to around $3,000.00 or more depending on your water dynamics and what kind of system the sales person is trying to sell you in order for them to make the most money since many of them work off commission.

How to Remove Iron From Your Water

There are many ways of removing iron from your water and they can range from easy and relatively inexpensive to expensive.  We will cover just a few of ways of how to remove iron from your water; The method used most is an iron filter which will either use air, chlorine, ozone or hydrogen peroxide in order to oxidize the iron and precipitate it into a solid which is then caught in the filter media and then removed by back washing the filter.  Some people will just install an ozone generator and others more commonly will use chlorine which will not only remove iron but will remove odor and disinfect however in many cases a storage tank of some size is necessary for best results and making mention of a storage tank some people will just put a piece of PVC pipe into a storage tank and drill hole in the PVC to allow the water to spray into the tank (called a spray bar) thus mixing the water with air in order to oxidize it.

Using a Water Softener to Remove Iron

As most people know we use a water softener to remove calcium, manganese and other contaminants from the water however it's primary purpose is to soften water but there are also other benefits to a water softener.  It can remove barium, strontium, cadmium and other constituents in the water but more salt is needed to remove these constituents as well as calcium from the resin beads inside the tank.  So let's talk about using a water softener to remove iron from the water.

I have had a couple of occasions where my customers did not have enough money to purchase an iron filter and water softener so I used a water softener to do both, one case in particular I can remember is when the lady hard approx 17 gpg of hardness and 3ppm iron.  She however did not have the money for an iron filter and as you can see she really needed both.  What we did do was also figure how many ppm iron = gpg of hardness, so we multiplied 4x3ppm iron and got 12 then added 12 to 17 and got 29 so we estimated So she had 29 gpg of hardness.  Not many people would agree with doing this method but we did what we could for our customers and we never got a call back to fix the water softener.  However, what I did was install a water softener with a "Turbulator" distributor tube. The difference is that on a normal distributor tube the water is forced down to the bottom during regeneration and stirs the bed from the bottom up

Turbulator Distributor Tube

however with a turbulator you can see that there  is another screen towards the top which is there to ensure that the entire bed gets stirred up in order to allow the brine mix to be used at full advantage and that the bed is lifted completely.  If this doesn't happen then over time the weight of the iron since it has not been removed will foul the entire bed and either a super good cleaning is necessary or just replacing the media beads would be the other step.  Speaking of good cleaning you can do a couple of things in order to maintain the health of your water softener when using it to remove iron also, that is to adjust your salt setting a little higher according to your water softener size and hardness or you can purchase Resup which I highly recommend.  You can get a gallon of the cleaner HERE  keeping in mind you will also need a feeder which will help in cleaning the resin beads in your water softener and definitely extend its life.  Get a feeder HERE

Now we can see that a water softener can be used to remove iron though it is not recommended but can be done with the right equipment.
https://www.facebook.com/Low-Cost-Water-Softeners-1490645221225279/

What kind of water filter do I need

What kind of water filter do I need

This is one of the most asked questions there are in the water treatment world and that is What Kind of Water Filter Do I Need.  Many people in the United States have problem water and it really doesn't matter if they have ground water (from a water well) surface water (from a lake river or stream) city water or rural water which may come any of the above or a private water well.  In order to answer the question of what kind of water filter do I need we will first have to identify which contaminant is in the water.

Problem Water

Most people that have problem run into the challenge of determining which kind of contaminant is actually in the water though many guess or listen to the advice of a neighbor which is not always correct. For example a lady who lives near the Guadalupe River told me that her water well gets water from the river.  I explained to her that she was misinformed and yet she still insisted though I am a licensed water well expert and not only have a license but must have continuing education classes each year.  So then I had to show her by means of what is in her water and what is in the river water.  Her water well had iron in it and left red marks on her trees and out buildings but the river water was always green and never stained the dock or boats in the river.  After she saw the difference did she actually begin to believe me over that of her neighbor whom she thought knew what they were talking about. So I explained she needed an iron filter since we could tell that she had iron in her water but in addition to the iron she also had hard water.  Now the difference is in this case that you need an iron filter to remove iron and a water softener to remove calcium or hard water.  Find out the difference HERE

 What's in My Water

The next and most important step is to find out exactly what is in your water in order to know which kind of water filter you will need.  Here is a kit that you can use to determine what kind of contaminant is in your water;  https://amzn.to/2RmQjOP   Once you know what is in your water you can get the right kind of filter because to use the wrong filter for the wrong contaminant not only brings frustration but will also cost you time and money which is the most important thing we have in our busy world today.  Most of what we find in our water is Sediment, Iron, Sulfur, and Hardness which doesn't need a water filter but a water softener.  So let's get to what you came here for

Water Filters

Sediment Filter Needed for sand and sediment

Click For Link

  

 

Click For Link

 

Iron Filter- Removes Iron

Click For Link

Sulfur/Chlorine Filter-Removes Odor Caused by H2S

Click For Link

Whole house

 back 

washing carbon filter

The Best Water Filters

The above water filters should take care of any of your needs for filtration however if you do not find what you are looking for then you may want to watch this video and then you can ask questions to narrow down your search for your water filter needs; https://youtu.be/Uq847l8Nho4

https://www.facebook.com/Low-Cost-Water-Softeners-1490645221225279/

Do I Need A New Water Softener

Do I Need A New Water Softener

Over the past few years I have been called out to homes and the home owner asked me "Do I need a New Water Softener" because the guy that was here from the other company said that I need a new water softener.  It usually agitates me when I hear this because usually you never need a new water softener.  If there is a reason you need a new water softener they are far and few between.

 The Reason You Need a New Water Softener

I was called out to  a home and the home owner had another company at her home to see if there was a problem with her water softener.  It was a plumbing company and so I thought she had a plumbing company there because she had a plumbing problem.  Well, when he left she called me into her home and asked me to check here water softener.  I went outside and and ran it through its systems and found nothing to be wrong.  I then went into the house and tested the water and found it to be soft so that indicated to me that the water softener was working.  The home owner showed me the report and suggestions to her water softener problem,  the plumber said he "Pressed the button and the water softener didn't work" well that is a true statement, if you press the button it will not go into regeneration unless you press and hold the button.  He said she needed a new water softener and  quoted one that costs around $4,200.00 

Water Softener

The Real Truth About Water Softeners

As you are able to tell it only takes a few things to determine if the water softener is working, and if it is not then you most likely need some replacement parts but you will almost never need to buy a new one.  The most difficult thing is to find someone who will tell you the truth about the findings and not try and rip you off.  There are some things you can do to help.  Like get a water hardness test kit, watch a couple of videos on how to tell if your water softener is working, ask friends who they use for their water softener service and ask questions on forums or ask this guy on these videos, he seems to be honest and trustworthy and answers questions that people ask on his videos

She also asked me to check her reverse osmosis system, so I took my TDS tester and checked her water and did the numbers and found it to be fine though we did change the filters and membrane since she requested it.  I hope this article helps you to find the answers you need.

.

 

https://www.facebook.com/Low-Cost-Water-Softeners-1490645221225279/