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

FIRST: one bag to start will be enough and add 3 gallons of water to the dry brine tank. After a regeneration add salt to cover water and check it at least once a week. I like the Diamond Crystal Bright & Soft (yellow bags) @ Home Depot. SECOND: 7.5 feet up is not problem but is has to be air gapped. THIRD: drain line is 1/2" ID and the brine line should be 3/8" OD. Both are PE (polyethylene) milky white semi rigid tubing. FOURTH: If your K60 is a packed bed using fine mesh resin then you need a pre-filter. If it is uses standard hi-capacity resin with freeboard design then you don't. Make sure you get service and return CORRECT. Did your K60 come with a Kinetico bypass valve? If it did note that some designs can be REVERSED. If it didn't, and even if it did, plumb in a three ball valve bypass in case you need to service the softener. You may need to change the # disk and salt (float) setting for correct setup for your water conditions and water usage.

ok yes I remember now the thing about iron, and that kinetico uses a packed resin bed and smaller amounts of brine to perform the recharge -- its an attempt to reduce waste in the recharge cycle and give a certain small advantage in salt consumption, even as they adhere to the same laws of physics as all they others. My resin beds have never been changed in 25 years so iron must not be a problem where I'm at. I do have a sediment filter that turns dark brown quickly, so it gets changed monthly. I'll have to check that out on the new place re: iron thanks for the catch. I'm afraid the comparison of water softener controllers to mars rovers and other electronics designed for harsh environments, such as automotive computers especially, is not accurate. These components are manufactured under different standards, and intended to withstand environmental extremes and to resist oil/gas corrosion, etc. The cost of doing this is much higher and produces a much reliable product. When a residential water softener circuit board is manufactured under the same standards as the ECM in my car, then I'll agree, but until then: no they are inexpensively manufactured offshore and subject to higher failure rates and will require more service over a 25 year period of time than small mechanical components washed in soft water. One look at a $100 controller board, and anyone with a lick of electronics repair experience will recognize that these boards are no where near as reliable as an automotive ECM, and that this level of quality is not found on the mars rover. Put that same $100 board with exposed tinned circuit traces and wire harness connections close to a brine tank and you have a micro-climate marginally corrosive condition... that's why my sprinkler controller is on the other side of the garage. The analogy of carburetors and port fuel injectors doesn't apply here either. Both are mechanical devices with their own failure modes and vastly different motivations for their respective design changes, compared to water softener controllers. Fuel injector design has undergone an evolution in reliability, especially for common rail diesels where injection pressures are very high and the switching mechanism has to be very well designed. There are good designs and bad designs, but generally speaking -- warranties, laws, and consumer demand have driven reliability rates up very high. the same cannot be said for the $100 controller board. now, then, one important factor to consider is the cost of reliability! One can buy a lot of those $100 boards for the increased cost of a non-electric softener. So a case can be made, especially for those who want to maintain their own, that the availability of relatively low-cost replacement parts is preferable to the reliability one might obtain by paying more for a mechanically controlled softener. And, as long as the supply is large and costs are low, this remains an attractive option. similarly, stepper motors are reliable electro-mechanical devices in their own right. Thus, as long as the valve failure modes are designed well, and one is amenable to the model of "more, less expensive service events" , then a case can be made for the electronically controlled softener. I would have to factor in the impact to my downstream RO unit who's reliability would also be affected by a downed softener. For those who want nothing to do with service, and prefer to hire a local shop to perform these tasks -- I suppose its worth crunching a few numbers to evaluate the costs of hiring a shop to come out for these service events.

Aliceinwonderland is the person you want to hear from. I will take a stab at some of this though: You should not be losing resin from your tank. If a tank of resin washed out, that would clog up your plumbing pretty badly I would think. I'm guessing there's one person in your house and a fair amount of irrigation -- or two people and not much irrigation. My point is that a dual tank system for 1 or 2 people seems like overkill - and I'm saying that without knowing any real specifics about the size of the system, hardness levels, amount of treated water, etc. I think that you should review what would be a properly sized system for your needs (so, you need to know hardness levels, city or well water, how many people in household, any extraordinary uses (multi-head shower, big tub, etc). If the system you have is properly sized, then you want to determine how much life is left in the system and if you want to continue with proprietary Kenetico hardware. You should expect about 10-12 years out of the resin unless you have iron in your water. The life expectancy of the valve head is unknown... but my guess is that yours needs a rebuild by now. Generic water softeners with a Fleck digital valve are going on Amazon for under $600. If you need service and local help then you will expect to pay more than that from a local dealer - but that gives you a good idea what just the hardware is valued at.