Are you not getting soft water with your water softener? If you aren't getting soft water, that hard water buildup affects more than just your fixtures - it can dry out hair, skin, and require more soap and detergent for washing. There are a few common causes for your softener not producing soft water. Together we’ll look at your softener to identify your cause. Let's go through the 6 steps below so we can get your softener back to peak performance.
Before You Start
- You'll want to test your water. Check out our article How to Test for Hard or Soft Water.
Click on each step to expand directions
1 - Is there water above the salt in your tank?
- YES; visit our Excess Water in Tank article. If your tank has excess water, it's not recharging the filtration media properly - giving you hard water.
- NO; continue to #2.
2 - Let's check if your unit is metering water:
Go ahead and hold the Program/Select button until '000' appears, then let go. Turn on a hot water faucet (leave it running). Go back to your softener - are the '000' counting up as the water flows?
- YES; your system is metering water. However, we need to make sure it's not metering in the Backwash cycle so click here to follow those instructions. If you've followed the article and confirmed it's not metering in backwash, you can continue to step 3 here.
- NO; check that your softener's bypass is pulled OUT and check for a 3 valve bypass on your plumbing (correct valve position below). If the '000' still doesn't count, visit our Failure to Meter Water article for troubleshooting.
3 - Is your incoming hardness programmed correctly?
If the hardness is set too low, the softener won't be able to keep up with your household's usage. Visit our Hardness Level Programming Guide to check this.
4 - Has your unit been consuming salt?
- YES; Confirm there is salt above the #2 in your tank. The salt level should always sit between #2 and #5. Continue to step 5 below.
- NO; visit our Salt Bridge article for instructions. If the salt is hard in your tank, the softener will not be able to dissolve it properly to recharge the resin.
5 - Is the tank filling with water as expected?
We'll need to start a manual Recharge to check this.
- Go ahead and hold the Recharge button down until you hear the motor start, then release.
- Open the cap on the brinewell (tube with number scale - pictured below) and shine a flashlight to the bottom. Do you see water moving?
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- YES; Great! Wait a few hours for the recharge to finish, then use a hardness test strip to confirm your water is soft at multiple cold faucets. You can request a strip from us, or find them at your hardware store.
- NO; visit our Is My Softener Filling? article for the rest of your instructions.
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6 - Still no soft water?
If you've gone through every step here and you're still not getting soft water, you'll need to confirm that the distributor o-rings are working. Head to our "Testing the Rinse Water" article and then return here. After following that article:
- If the test shows you've got hard water - you'll need to replace the distributor o-rings. Replacement parts can be purchased here.
- If the test comes back showing the water is soft - it's likely something else is causing this. You'll want to Contact Us and we can help troubleshoot.
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