Actually I do understand how the float works. You said it yourself that the float comes into play to prevent overflowing of the brine tank if the control valve fails. So if the valve did fail, then the float should stop the water flow but it does not and the water drips out the area around the threads holding the float assembly to the brine tank and the hole for the clear tubing. . So the float safety failed since it allowed the water level to rise much higher than the float. Second, is that I have been down this road twice before and if I empty the tank, clean the inlet tube and air check valve etc then its fine. It happens if the tank runs basically out of salt leaving just the white soft undissolved salt on the bottom. But if during the brine sucking phase the air check is clogged or the intake is clogged thus preventing any brine from being sucked out then the water level will not drop but when it goes back to fill the tank the volume of water gets compounded and eventually reaches the level of the float . I do agree that many of the site do not give all the info. although I really did not find any that did not give you a formula of how to size the softener. What I see that can be misleading is that many aren't showing grain capacity needed based on a seven day requirement but more are only 5 days. I did find one that I had gone to before for some info that did calcuate for 7 days. http://www.qualitywatertreatment.com/water_softener_sizing.htm It also uses 75gal per person vs. the more realistic 60 you gave. In their sizing they say you need a 64,000 grain capacity. I get this. In your original post you said I needed 42000 grains to be treated each week. What I then can't understand is why is your recommendation for almost double the capacity for 2.5 cu ft thus a 80,000 grain water softener? This what I am trying to understand.

geovann, If the softener is operating properly and all that happened is that you ran out of salt here's what you do... With enough salt in the brine tank to cover the water, add a couple gallons of water to the brine well (4" tube where the float lives). Wait 2 hours (for salt to dissolve) and initiate a manual regeneration. As soon as the regeneration ends add 2 gallons of water to the brine well (4" tube where the float lives). Use no or as little water as possible while waiting 2 hours and initiate a second manual regeneration. Now the resin will be as replenished as possible and all should be well. If you just wait for the softener to catch up, it never will. Your water heater is full of hard water so you'll need to use that up. Routinely keep as much salt as necessary in the brine tank to cover the water and get in the habit of checking weekly.

You should start by searching this forum for salt free softeners and reading some of the 19.627 sale free softener discussions you'll find. The long and short of it is that no salt free water conditioner has been found to reduce the effects of hardness to any measurable degree proven by any independent testing. From my research the ability of a salt free conditioner to effect the water in any degree diminishes dramatically as hardness increases above 5 gpg. The pros of a correctly sized softener set up to operate efficiently are longer service life of your plumbing, fixtures, and appliances along with less maintenance of that hardware and clothes lasting longer and using dramatically less soap and detergent. The cons of a correctly sized quality softener set up to operate efficiently are that you'll need to check the salt level in the brine tank once a week or so and replace the resin every 10 or 15 or 20 years.. With 27gpg along with a softener you should consider a reverse osmosis unit installed under the kitchen sink for drinking, cooking, and ice making water. If you install an RO on 27gpg water the membrane will fail in short order and repeatedly and that costs $$$. In your circumstances there's no real option other than an ion exchange water softener to mitigate the hardness. In order to assist you further we need to know measured hardness at your home, pH, TDS, iron, manganese, nitrates, and bacteria at a minimum and # of people in the home, # of bathrooms, diameter of the plumbing at the softener location, and the SFR (service flow rate) of the plumbing.

"I understand that the salt free ones don’t remove the hardness rather they crystallize the minerals so that they don’t cling to appliances and form scale. " That is not correct. Let me repeat again, there is NO salt-free softener. There is not a residential salt-free "conditioner" that will cause your problems with hardness to magically not happen. That's the snake-oil part that I was telling you about. If your issue is hardness, and you need more than a couple of gallons an hour (which an R/O unit could provide) then your choice is a water softener. "Also they don’t need electricity." -- Why is that important to you? Is there no electricity in your newly renovated home? If I said to you, "I have this oven for your kitchen - it cooks by focusing good karma and re-arranging the molecules in the food... and here's the best part, it doesn't need electricity!" would you buy it?