How To Set Up Water Softener

Installing a water softener can help immensely with common water hardness issues that many people in the United states of america deal with. Softening your water can prevent calibration buildup and eliminate problems with soap scum, spotting on dishes, dry peel and hair, poorly performing appliances, and much more.

But to exist successful in softening your h2o, you demand to make sure that your water softener hardness setting is authentic. In this guide, I'll be sharing the factors that affect your water softener's hardness setting, and what you should set your hardness setting to.

📋 What Factors Bear upon a Water Softener Hardness Setting?

There are three factors that make up one's mind how to fix your water softener'south hardness setting: the grains of hardness in your water, the presence of atomic number 26, and the historic period of your water softener.

H2o Hardness

It's important to know your h2o hardness before programming a water softener. The more grains of hardness your water contains, the harder your water softener will have to work.

You lot need to make sure that your system is programmed to tackle the hardness your water supply contains. This will ensure that the resin can remove all the calcium and magnesium present in your water. If your water hardness is college or lower than your water softener is set to, it may be unable to properly do its job.

Hardness	Grains per Gallon (GPG)	Parts per Million (PPM) & mg/L
Soft	<1	0 – 17
Slightly Difficult	1.5 – 5	17 – 60
Moderately Difficult	three.v – vii	sixty – 120
Hard	7 – 10	120 – 180
Very Difficult	>10	>180

If Iron is Present

Nigh water softeners are also capable of removing dissolved iron from your water – but just if yous program them properly.

I recommend testing your h2o for fe as well equally for calcium and magnesium. Iron test kits are inexpensive, like shooting fish in a barrel to use, and evangelize a result quickly.

Once you lot know how much iron your water contains, you lot can work out your softener's hardness setting. For every 1 PPM (role per 1000000) of iron, add 4 to your total hardness number. And then, if your test results prove that your water contains 1 PPM of iron, add together four to your overall hardness number. If you lot have 2 PPM of iron, add together eight to your hardness number, and so on.

Programming a higher hardness number into your water softener means that it should be well equipped to bargain with dissolved fe, as long as it has the chapters for it in the first identify.

It's important to note that if your h2o'due south fe content is excessive, a standard water softener may struggle to remove it, and the fe could even end upwardly damaging the softener. I recommend purchasing an additional iron removal system if you have a big iron problem.

Historic period of the Softener

If you have an older water softener, you will virtually probable need to set it higher than if y'all had a brand-new system.

Water softeners contain a resin, which holds onto sodium ions and releases them into water during the ion exchange process. This resin and so swaps the sodium ions for hardness minerals, effectively softening the water.

A new water resin is at its top in terms of efficiency and operation. The resin can agree onto hardness ions and operate until its maximum capacity. As a resin ages, information technology becomes less capable of holding onto these ions, and this may touch its ability to soften your water.

For this reason, you volition demand to increase the hardness setting of your water softener to account for decreased efficiency. This will ensure that the resin is nonetheless able to perform as it could when your water softener was new.

📌 How Can I Notice Out My Water Hardness Level?

There are several ways yous can observe out the hardness of your water.

The easiest method is to exercise the soap test. Add together a teaspoon of liquid dish soap to a plastic water bottle and fill it well-nigh to the height with water. Close the chapeau and shake the bottle. If, later shaking, there are bubbling in the water, your h2o is relatively soft. But if there are no bubbles, and a milky layer has formed on the surface of the water, your water is hard.

For more insight into your h2o hardness level, y'all tin buy an calm hardness test, which measures h2o hardness in grains per gallon (GPG). This type of examination uses test strips, which yous can dip into a water sample. The strips volition change colour to bespeak your hardness level.

The virtually accurate method is to utilize a certified laboratory. After yous have posted a sample of your h2o, a laboratory will test your water and give an in-depth breakup of your water hardness in grains per gallon and parts per one thousand thousand (PPM) or milligrams per liter (mg/l).

🤔 What Level Should My Water Softener Hardness Setting Exist Set To?

If your water doesn't contain dissolved iron, you just demand your water's hardness rating – plus a hardness buffer, depending on the historic period of the water softener – to figure out what to set the softener hardness to.

The tabular array below gives an idea of how you might set up your water softener based on your water hardness, your atomic number 26 content, and the age of your h2o softener.

Water Hardness (GPG)	Iron (PPM)	Buffer for Atomic number 26	Organization Age	Buffer for Age	Hardness Setting
v	.5	2	< 10 years	0	7
5	one.0	4	> 10 years	ane	10
v	i.5	six	< 10 years	0	eleven
v	2	viii	> ten years	1	fourteen
10	i.0	4	< 10 years	0	fourteen
10	i.5	half dozen	> 10 years	2	eighteen
x	2	8	< 10 years	0	xviii
ten	2.5	x	> x years	2	22
20	.5	2	< 10 years	0	22
20	1.5	half-dozen	< 10 years	0	26
20	2.0	8	> x years	4	32
twenty	2.five	x	> ten years	4	34

💭 Ofttimes Asked Questions

What Can Happen If My Water Softener Is Not Set Correctly?

If your water softener isn't set up correctly, you may experience 1 of ii problems.

When a water hardness level is set too high for your actual h2o hardness, the softener will regenerate besides frequently. Considering of this, yous'll go through salt at a faster rate, and finish up spending more money on maintenance than you lot need to.

If your softener's h2o hardness level is set also low for your actual water hardness, your softener won't exist properly set upwards to deal with your water, and y'all won't fully eliminate your hardness problem. You'll end upward spending more money than you need to on things like shampoo and cleaning items.

Can water hardness alter?

Yep, water hardness can change, though it's usually a gradual affair, and not a sudden increase or subtract. Whether your h2o hardness changes at all, and to what level, depends on where you alive, and what is happening in your local surface area that might have an effect on water hardness. Construction work in your expanse might cause a change in your water hardness, so information technology'south wise to test your water once every yr or then and arrange your softener based on any changes you find.

Is hardness measured in grains per gallon or parts per 1000000?

Both. Grains per gallon is a measurement of hard water, while parts per one thousand thousand or milgrams per liter measures the verbal quantity of calcium and magnesium minerals in hard or soft water. If your drinking water has ane PPM of hardness, it means that it contains one unit of hardness out of one million units.

PPM and mg/L are equal measurements, so v PPM is equal to v mg/L.

How practice I know if my water softener setting is correct?

If you desire to check that your water softener is producing soft water, the easiest method is to test your water hardness afterwards handling. Utilise an at-dwelling house water quality kit that measures for hard water. The kit should betoken that yous have softened h2o.

If testing shows that you still have difficult h2o, your softener'south settings might not be programmed right. Nevertheless, water softeners are complicated systems, and there are many reasons why yous may non be getting softened h2o from your unit. It's important to check that your softener is performing as it should be, and diagnose potential bug as they arise.

Is it possible for water softeners to lose their programmed hardness setting?

Yes. A power outage or multiple power surges in your home can cause your water softener to lose its settings and revert back to the basic h2o softening settings that were already programmed in when y'all bought the arrangement. Fifty-fifty a brief power intermission can cause the unit to lose its settings.

I would recommend making a note of your hardness setting and checking the unit from time to time to make certain that it's however working to your requirements. This is also important when you lot accept fourth dimension changes, twice per yr, for purposes of adjusting the timer to the current fourth dimension. If you don't notice that your pre-programmed settings take been lost, your organisation may end upwards regenerating far more oftentimes than it should, or non enough to produce softened water for your household.

Why is it so important to make sure my water softener is programmed correctly?

Hard water isn't dangerous, and zippo truly bad will happen if your water softener's settings are off. But y'all've invested in this form of water treatment, and so it makes sense that you should want information technology to work.

If you're paying to operate the unit but it'due south notwithstanding delivering difficult water to your dwelling house, you may as well have not bought it in the first place. Knowing how to plan your water softener will ensure that you utilize less salt per regeneration, and that you have constant admission to soft water on a day-past-day basis.

What if my water softener is using an excessive amount of salt?

Too much salt being used could exist because you lot've ready your water softener'south hardness level also high. There could be other issues, too, such every bit the brine tank float not beingness set correctly. Bank check that the bladder isn't too far upward in the brine tank, which may effect in also much water, and a lot of salt being dissolved and wasted.

Your h2o softener might only require as well much common salt because yous use a lot of water in your business firm. Check that you don't accept any appliances that run constantly, like toilets, which could exist the reason for your excessive salt employ.

Source: https://waterfilterguru.com/water-softener-hardness-setting/