Are you wondering if your softener is working? There are a few quick and easy checks you can perform on your softener to confirm it's performing correctly. Because all water supply compositions are different, we recommend walking through these steps rather than judging the 'soft' feeling of the water. Let's go through these checks together.
Click here to read step by step instructions.
1. Go ahead and confirm your bypass is pulled out. The bypass valve allows water to come in and out of the unit, so we want to make sure this is open. Depending on how your unit was installed, you should see one of the following valves - single bypass or 3-valve bypass (with the inlet and outlets.)
2. You'll need to review your water hardness. Click on the Program/Select button and continue to press and let go until you see Hardness on the screen. Here you can make sure the right hardness number has been entered in. Make sure your programming is correct with our Hardness Level Programming Guide.
3. Now, you'll check water flow. We need to find out if your unit is metering water usage. To check:
- Hold Program/Select until '000' appears on the screen.
- Then, turn on a hot water faucet and leave it running. Come back to the softener. Are the numbers counting up?
- YES; your unit is functioning properly and will perform automatic recharges, based on your water consumption. You may also wish to remove the top cover here and verify there are no external leaks when the unit is under pressure. Make sure to go turn off your water faucet and then continue to step 4.
- NO; your system is not metering water usage, so it won't recharge automatically. Please visit our Failure to Meter Water article for troubleshooting.
4. Verify your Salt Level. We recommend keeping the salt level between level 2 and 5 on the brinewell number scale (pictured below.) Depending on how long your unit has sat idle without performing recharges, you may want to check for a Salt Bridge as well.
5. Check if your softener has a blending valve on the bypass assembly (pictured below). If it does, visit our How Does a Bypass Valve Work article for instructions on making sure this is closed.
6. Lastly, you'll need to test your water. Go ahead and run a manual recharge cycle by holding the Recharge button until the motor kicks on. You should hear it start making noise within 5-10 seconds. A recharge cycle lasts around 2-2.5 hours. After the cycle has finished, test your water at several faucets with a hardness test strip. 0-3 gpg or 0-50 ppm is considered soft.
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