The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Steve85]

I had the same issue at the old house on well and septic, the lower element would get completely caked even with the water softener system. Admittedly though, I was often not so great about getting salt in it until it was too late and it takes a couple days to recover. It makes a YUUUGE difference in the way the water feels. The old system had a pretty big salt tank and two treatment tanks, the original owners of the house either wanted overkill or they were just weren't efficient systems 20 yrs ago.

You should get the water tested so you can get the proper "grain" which is the amount of hardness that can be removed between regeneration cycles. You need to know how hard the water is (test or I think you can call water supplier if on city water) and there is calculation based on hardness and gallons per day used. My friend across the street has a Whirlpool unit WHES44 (or 33 depending on grain, 33K and 44K) and it works great. I'll likely be getting the same.

As I mentioned before though, be careful if you have a concrete septic, the discharge water has salt that will damage the tanks.

Oh, and Costco sells 50lb bags of Morton salt, which is 10lbs more than the 40lb bag, I know, because it says it right there on the bag "50 lbs - 10lbs more than 40lb bag". I don't know how much moreit is than a 30lb bag though because it doesn't say...