I'm one of the people who had problems with it with a whole house softener - you probably found some of my old posts on this. Supposedly the softener in the dishwasher can be disabled - and mine supposedly is. However it still etches everything in spite of trying everything recommended by everyone here and at Miele. My KD suggested replumbing to run hard water to it but my other KD friend said might not be such a good idea with the high iron content in our water. My Miele owners manual says hook up to cold water. I have China/Crystal cycle and if you have it hooked up to hot water it can end up being to hot. What I've ended up doing is bascially rinsing anything that's very dirty. Not rinsing any glassware. Washing everything on China/Crystal - since it's the lowest water temperature and supposedly etching is caused by things like too much soap, too hot water, etc. and often rewashing white coffee cups by hand after they come out still dirty. My dishwasher looks beautiful and it's fantastically quiet but my old Maytag was functionally superior because of this issue.

@aliceinwonderland_id, i have pasted the results. Where is says nn it represents none noted. it might be hard to read but note the first number is the result, the 2nd is national standard and the last number In each row is the min. detected level. Test results where contamination was detected at or above the min. detection level , but not above the national standard. Heavy metals: results national standard: Min. detection level Calcium 153.9 nn 2 Copper . 0.008 1.3 0.004 Magnesium 7 nn 0.1 Potassium 1 nn 1 Silica 15.4 nn 0.1 sodium 46 nn 1 zinc 0.01 5 0.004 Other: chloride 39 250 5 sulfate 66 250 5 results national standard: Min. detection level physical factors: alkalinity (total as CaCO3) 370 nn 20 Turbidity .2NTU 1 0.1 Radiologicals: Gross beta 4.33PCi/L nn 4 Test results where the contaminant was detected above the standard, which is not an EPA enforceable maximum contaminant level. Heavy metals: results national standard: Min. detection level manganese 0.053 0.05 0.004 physical factors: hardness 410 100 10 TDS 550 1 0.01 (total dissolved solids) hm I assume it's ferrous since the water does come out clear, BUT I have to say that the water in the toilet for instance is also clear. I will investigate tomorrow when I go to the property if particles develop after leaving out a cup of water for a while and I will let you know. pls let me know what you think regarding results. btw I did not include any results that tested fine. thanks in advance!

In your diagram, the valve just before the filter is a shut-off not a bypass. You never mentioned the pre-filter before... what are you filtering? what size is the filter? What element is inside? Does it have adequate flow as to NOT impede the house water pressure and flow? If there's a good reason to install the filter then install pressure gauges before and after the filter so you can see the pressure drop and know when to change the filter element. Close the open resin bag and keep it clean and dry. I'd assemble the softener and get it plumbed, check for leaks and correct operation, and then program it.

We have very hard well water in our part of MN and have always had a water softener. Growing up my parents had a couple of different brands, Rainy and another common one I can't recall. I don't think they were sized correctly for the type of water and usage but they did help. My sisters with blonde hair actually had red hair at points due to the excessive rust in the water! My husband and I have had Kinetico with iron filter for over 20 years. It's done a wonderful job at keeping up with our family of 6. and basically no maintenance other than adding salt and occasionally cleaning out the brine tank. We can always tell when it's getting low on salt because our soaps don't suds up as well and it just starts to feel 'harder'--not as slippery. Kinetico uses no electricity and has no moving parts to fail. Part of their advertising touts the length of time you have before you need to add salt (I think they say up to 6 months!)...that may be true for a home in the city that already has treated water, but for a home in the country, using well water we still had to regularly add salt every 3-4 weeks. Not a big problem all in all. We also didn't soften our drinking/cooking water to avoid added sodium.