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kinetico softener and r/o advice

13 years ago

I have an older kinetico r/o water system that has not been used in several years. Can I just replace the filters and go, or should I have it serviced before placing it back in service?

I also purchased a used kinetico model 100 softener today and I am interested in what to expect (in cost) to have it re calibrated and possibly new media.

Water data is hard-40, iron-2, ph-7, sulph-0, bact-yes, no in family-3

Thanks in advance, Scott

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Comments (7)

User
13 years ago
RO - As long as there are no leaks, you should able to just disinfect, rinse, replace the filters and go.

Softener: Call your Kinetico rep to find a price

Water data: units are required. There is, after all, a huge difference between ppb, ppm and %
andy_c
13 years ago
As far as your softener is concerned: what color are the tanks? What is the number on the wheel at under the lens on top. Look at the float control in the brine tank, does it have a plastic cone or styrofoam disks?

One of the problems of getting nay USED piece of water treatment equipment is the condition it is in, the age, and the type of water it came from. These are rebuildable but you need to know what to look for. Can you describe the appearance of the RO: color of filter housings, tank, etc.

ROs can be sanitized. I recommend complete change of filters and membrane. The holding tank needs to be sanitized, too. Is it metal or plastic?

Get your water tested.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II
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I don't know whether the resin needs to be replaced (we had to replace our 10-year old softener because the resin was just shot, and it was cheaper simply to get a new one), but I believe that an R-O will definitely get rid of the salt (it does for us at least). Due to the excessive amount of salt in the water, you may find that you have to replace the R-O membranes more often than usual. Another idea is to replace the sodium salt with potassium salt. I think that potassium is less detectable to taste than sodium is. And, it's healthy for you, too. The potassium bag says that 8 glasses of potassium water is equal to eating a banana. In any case, I do think that you're softener needs to get looked at. If the water is going hard in-between softening cycles, it could be the resin, or it could be that it's not being regenerated enough. If your water varies in hardness throughout the year, you may have to modify your regeneration cycles correspondingly, or set your regeneration cycles for the maximum hardness you're likely to encounter.
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asolo
13 years ago
FWIW....I had 16-year-old Kinetico softener refurbished by them a few years ago. Head cleaned, new gears and palls and disk....whatever it needed. New media. Pretty much made like new again. As I recall, I paid them about $225.00. They did all. I did nothing.

If you can find filters and membrane for the RO just replace them and sanitize the whole thing and you'll be fine. Be advised Kinetico has upgraded their RO systems over the years and no longer provide filters/membranes for some older units. That's one reason I recently upgraded mine to latest K5 W. They were no longer providing filters for my 19-year-old unit.
GreatScott68
Original Author
13 years ago
The tanks are tan, the wheel is an 8, the float is a plastic ball. The float assembly was replaced last year by kinetico.

The r/o is black with a blue filter on either side. the tank is metal.

When questioning the kinetico rep about refurbishing the softener and r/o, I received a sales pitch for new equipment. are there other sources for what I need to service these units my self?
asolo
13 years ago
Your softener is very old. But it only has one job to do. Do you have a water-test kit so that you can determine whether or not it's working?

Your RO unit is three generations old. You should explore availability of the filters you will need and whether or not you can get a new membrane-cartridge if needed. May or may not be available at this point. You should also get a TDS meter so that you can determine whether or not it's working.
GreatScott68
Original Author
13 years ago
no water test kit.

I don't know what a TDS meter is.

The plan is to install the softener and pre-filter Saturday, flush both tanks with iron out, and schedule a service call to calibrate to our household needs. The softener was working fine when I purchased and uninstalled it.

I will question the kinetico tech when he is out about the parts for the r/o unit.

do you know which disc will be needed for my home?
asolo
13 years ago
How did you know water softener was "working fine" if you had no means by which to test the water?

For softness testing, I recommend the Hach 5B test kit linked below. Hardware stores also have test kits. Or the Kinetico tech can tell you with his own testing. Whatever the inbound reading is (measured in "grains") the outbound should be zero.

The disc used will be determined by the inbound hardness and by the unit itself. Kinetico tech will explain.

Kinetico tech will also have a TDS meter. (Total Dissolved Solids; measured in PPM = Parts Per Million) This is how you determine whether or not your RO membrane is working properly. You're looking for "exclusion ratio" of 90% or better from any membrane. 95%+ from higher quality membranes. For example, my inbound water reads about 200 on the TDS meter. Outbound from my RO system reads 2. That's 99% exclusion. My brother-in-law bought a used el-cheapo unit that he figured would do the same thing. After he set it up and ran it for a couple of weeks, we were reading 200 inbound and 146 outbound -- indicating that his membrane was shot.

TDS meters available here: http://www.h2odistributors.com/hm-digital.asp?gclid=CIivsJSS_KcCFagZQgodFyporQ

Here is a link that might be useful: water softness test kit

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