How Do I Set My Water Softener Hardness
Do yous accept a water softener? If and so, you've probably wondered what the hardness should be set up at.
Water softeners are a great way to improve your water quality, but they can be confusing to operate. It's very important to know how they work and how to modify the hardness setting. That way, when information technology comes time to set up your system or change its settings, yous can do so confidently and finer.
You don't want to mess effectually with something as important as your water quality – specially if hard water is already causing bug in your home similar scaling on faucets and appliances or soap scum buildup in showers and tubs. But what is the right hardness level for your water softener?
In this web log post, we will discuss the dissimilar hardness levels and what they mean for yous and your water softener. We will likewise provide tips on how to detect the right hardness setting for your system and how to optimize its performance. Continue reading to acquire all about what the hardness setting should exist for your h2o softener.
How Water Softeners Work
Water softeners remove hardness from water through a process chosen ion exchange. In an ion commutation organisation, h2o passes through a tank of resin beads. The resin is able to concenter and hold minerals similar calcium and magnesium (the hardness minerals).
When the hard water enters the tank, information technology comes into contact with the resin beads. The minerals that brand up the hardness bind to the resin, and the difficult h2o is then able to period through the system without any of those minerals. The resin beads are periodically cleaned through a process known as regeneration so that they can continue to remove hardness from the water.
Regeneration involves flushing the resin beads with a saltwater solution. This removes the minerals that are jump to the resin and replaces them with sodium. Once the resin has been regenerated, it is placed back into service where it can continue treating your water.
Read my Ultimate Guide to Water softeners for more data.
Why the Hardness Setting Matters for Your H2o Softener
The level of hardness in your water will determine how often your system needs to regenerate – and therefore, how much salt you will need to use. Your water softener isn't able to measure out how soft your water is. It relies, instead, on settings like hardness to tell it when to regenerate.
My pattern guide for water softeners provides a lot more than information about this and a lot more.
Water softener hardness setting too low
If the settings you enter aren't authentic, your water softener won't operate at optimum levels. Setting the hardness too low would result in poor removal of hardness from the water – your h2o might not be as soft as yous want it to exist. This would let difficult water into your pipes where it could cause scaling and into your appliances where they might exist damaged.
Water softener hardness setting too loftier
If yous set the hardness too high, your softener will regenerate too frequently. This wastes water and uses more than salt than you need.
The key here is to fix your hardness level properly, so your water softener is removing all of the hardness without wasting h2o or using a lot of salt.
Determine How Hard Your Water Is
The near important footstep in setting your water softener's hardness level is to determine how difficult your h2o actually is. You can exercise this by testing your water or calling the water section if you're on public water.
Testing your water
If you want to test the hardness of your h2o, there are a few ways to exercise so. One way is to use a home test kit similar the H2o hardness Test Strip from LaMotte. This examination strip measures the calcium and magnesium levels in your water, so you can get an accurate mensurate of how hard information technology is.
Another fashion to test your water's hardness is to send a sample off to a lab for assay. This will give you more authentic data most the mineral content of your water, likewise as other information like pH and alkalinity.
Lab testing is the virtually accurate way to measure out water hardness, simply it can also be the most expensive. If you only demand a general idea of how hard your water is, then using a dwelling house exam kit is a more than affordable option.
Calling your water department
If yous're on public water, you lot can call the city or county to notice out what the hardness level is. They routinely test the water and should be able to give yous a range of values that tells you how hard your water is.
Measure the iron in your h2o
Water softeners don't remove iron very effectively, but they are afflicted by the amount of iron in the water. If at that place'due south a lot of atomic number 26 in your h2o, then the hardness level needs to be prepare higher.
The best style to determine the iron level is to test your h2o. In that location are several home examination kits that provide authentic data. These tests are inexpensive and simple to use.
Setting Your Organization's Hardness Level
One time you lot've determined how hard your water is, it's time to gear up your water softener's hardness level. This setting tells the arrangement how much calcium and magnesium are in your h2o which is used to determine the regeneration cycle.
Footstep one – Mensurate your hardness and iron
The showtime step in setting the hardness level for your h2o softener is measuring the hardness and atomic number 26 concentrations. For homes on well h2o, the all-time method is to test your water using either a examination kit or a testing laboratory. If you lot have tap water, call the h2o department and ask them for the most recent hardness and fe information.
Pace 2 – Determine your adapted hardness level
Iron affects the functioning of your softener. For every one function per million (ppm) of atomic number 26, add iv grains per gallon to your hardness level.
Allow'south consider an example where the iron concentration is one ppm and your hardness level is 10 grains per gallon.
- Summate iron correction: Fe correction = 1 ppm 10 4 gpg/ppm = iv gpg
- Calculate adapted hardness value: Adapted hardness = hardness + iron correction = 10 gpg + 4 gpp = 14 gpg
Here is a footling more information to help you lot with this aligning.
- 1 ppm of iron – increase hardness by 4
- 2 ppm of fe – increment hardness past 8
- 4 ppm of iron – increase hardness by 16
Too much iron in your water will overwhelm your water softener. If you take more than 10 ppm of atomic number 26, you should install an fe removal system before your water softener. Otherwise, you'll have problems with your softener.
Footstep 3 – Adapt for age of your system
As your water softener gets older, the resin loses its power to remove calcium and magnesium from your water. Yous demand to account for this reduced efficiency by increasing the hardness setting.
I recommend the following:
| Age of Water Softener | Increase in Hardness |
| 0 – five years | No aligning |
| 5 – ten years | Add one gpg |
| Older than ten years | Add 2 gpg |
Step 4 – Optimize your settings
The optimum regeneration wheel is one time every calendar week at 75% of your softener'due south capacity.
Why only use 75% of the capacity? Because yous want to have some buffer in case your weekly water usage is higher than normal, or if the hardness goes up.
If your water softener has a capacity of 32,000 grains, 75% is 24,000 grains. Utilize 24,000 grains with a cycle set to 7 days to calculate the settings. This will requite you the maximum do good from your h2o softener.
Important Regeneration Cycle Settings
Most water softeners allow you to control several operating parameters. The well-nigh common settings that you can arrange are:
- Hardness setting. The hardness setting tells the water softener how much calcium and magnesium to remove from the water. The higher the setting, the harder the water will be
- Regeneration bike fourth dimension. This is how long the regeneration process will take. A shorter time means more frequent regenerations but uses less common salt.
- Common salt dose. This is how much common salt will be used during the regeneration process. Read more about common salt in my article.
- Time of day for regenerations. Yous can set your water softener to regenerate at a specific time of day. Ideally, it should regenerate when y'all don't normally apply h2o to prevent untreated, hard h2o from entering your plumbing system.
Factors to Consider
When deciding what hardness setting is best for your water softener, you need to consider a few factors in add-on to how hard your water is.
Iron concentration in your h2o
Iron competes with the hardness in your water for the Nine sites in your water softener. You accept to recoup for the corporeality of iron by adjusting the hardness setting of your softener.
For every 1 ppm of iron, add iv grains per gallon to your hardness setting.
Age of your water softener
The age of the resin in your water softener affects its performance. Older resin becomes fouled and loses its ability to remove hardness. As a result, you need to arrange the hardness setting for older softeners.
- New softener (0 – 5 years): no adjustment to hardness
- Slightly old softener (5 – 10 years): add ane gpg to hardness
- Sometime softener (x+ years erstwhile): add 2 gpg to hardness
Unusually high water usage
If you have a large family and use a lot of water compared to your neighbors, you may need to set the hardness college so the softener can keep up with demand. I recommend adding ii gpg to the hardness setting to business relationship for the unusually high consumption.
Tips and Strategies
I have a water softener and have spent a lot of time optimizing it and adjusting the hardness setting. I've learned a few tricks over the years that help me keep everything running smoothly.
Routine quality checks of your water
I check my h2o quality all the time. I'm not talking near testing it – although testing is of import. I'm talking looking for signs of hardness in your h2o.
Practice you see calcium scale on your fixtures or your shower? How well does your soap make suds? Is your laundry starting to expect dull and dingy?
These are all signs that you lot have difficult h2o and need to accommodate your h2o softener.
Test your hardness every month
One of the key things that I do is employ a water test kit every month to measure out the hardness of my water. I then accommodate the setting accordingly and make sure my softener is keeping upwardly with demand.
If you don't want to track the timing of when to test your hardness, just exercise it every time you add table salt to your brine tank. The key is to test your hardness on a regular basis.
Monitor your salt usage
Keep an centre on how much common salt you use. If it varies more than 20% from month to month, you need to adjust your settings. This is also an indication that you might take bridging in the tank or salt mush has formed. Check your tank and make adjustments as needed.
H2o Softener Settings by Make
Each h2o softener has unique characteristics and properties that need to be considered when setting the hardness. This article covers the general requirements, merely yous also need to optimize the setting for your item brand.
Culligan water softener hardness setting
The hardness setting for Culligan water softeners tin exist adjusted using the salt dosage.
- Briefly press the "Setup/Enter" button on the control console. The first display you'll see is "tod," which is the "Fourth dimension of Day" setting.
- Curlicue through the menu options using the "Setup/Enter" button until y'all meet "SLtP". This is the common salt dosage display and is the amount of table salt used in pounds.
- Adjust the value using the "Plus" and "Minus" keys.
- Salve the new value by pressing "Status".
- Gyre through the menu screen using the "Setup/Enter" push button until the screen is blank.
- Press "Status" to exit the programming style.
Kenmore water softener hardness setting
Setting the hardness level on a Kenmore h2o softener is simple. You lot need to know the hardness (gpg) and total fe concentration (ppm) in your water.
- Press "Select" button the right center of the command console. The display will flash the discussion "Hardness" below a number.
- Multiply the atomic number 26 concentration (ppm) by 5. Add this number to the hardness. If your atomic number 26 is 2 ppm and the hardness is 8 gpg, your adjusted hardness is (ii 10 five) + 8 = eighteen gpg
- Using the upwardly and down arrow buttons, adjust the number until the display reads the adjusted hardness value. In our example, this is 18.
- Press the "Select" button in the center of the control panel once and y'all will leave the programming mode.
Morton water softener hardness setting
Morton water softeners are easy to arrange. The hardness (gpg) and full atomic number 26 concentration (ppm) in your h2o must be determined before you tin know what the hardness setting should be.
To set the hardness setting on the Morton water softener, follow this procedure. First, make up one's mind what the harness setting should exist.
- Multiply the iron concentration (ppm) by v. Add this number to the hardness. If your fe is 2 ppm and the hardness is 8 gpg, your adjusted hardness is (ii x 5) + 8 = 18 gpg
- Press the MODE/Set key until the indicator points to HARDNESS. The number 25 volition appear in the display (flashing).
- Printing the Upwards and Down keys to adjust water hardness value to xviii.
- Once you've entered the h2o hardness value, press MODE/SET to accept.
FAQs
Why does the hardness setting on my water softener matter?
The hardness setting on your water softener matters considering it determines how much hard water the unit can remove before regeneration. Setting this value based on the level of calcium and magnesium in your water will optimize the performance of your water softener and eliminate waste of water and salt.
What is the best hardness setting for my water softener?
In that location is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question – each household has unique needs that must be considered when adjusting the hardness. That said, based on your water hardness and family unit size, there is a specific setting that will piece of work best for you.
What are the units for hardness?
Hardness is reported in units of grains per gallon (gpg). This value is a measure of how much calcium and magnesium are in your water. Another unit of mensurate for hardness is parts per meg (ppm) to dissolved solids. This value includes other ions besides calcium and magnesium, but there is a adept correlation.
Does my water's hardness change over time?
The corporeality of hardness in your water fluctuates over fourth dimension. This is why it's of import to test your water and conform the hardness setting of your water softener accordingly.
How do I know if my softener's hardness setting is correct?
There are several ways to determine if the hardness setting of your water softener is correct. Ane mode is by periodically testing your water'southward hardness. Another method is past monitoring for any changes in quality of your laundry, lather suds, or anything else that might indicate hard water problems.
Concluding Take on Setting Your Water Softener'southward Hardness
Water softeners are the best style to get rid of hard h2o problems. With a little effort, you tin can find out how your specific organization should be set up up and what hardness setting is appropriate for your needs.
Nosotros hope this article has given you some insight on how water softeners work, what the hardness setting means for your organisation, and how to set that level.
How Do I Set My Water Softener Hardness,
Source: https://purewaterblog.com/what-should-my-water-softener-hardness-be-set-at
Posted by: reynoldsfoure1965.blogspot.com
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