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gestetner_gw

Plastic Taste from New Water Softener/Filter System

gestetner
15 years ago

Hello. I have visited here a number of times since I bought my first house in May. I've gotten some great info! This is my first post. Hopefully I posted it in the right place.

My house previously had a whole house softening and carbon filter system. The prior owners ripped it out after I bought it in foreclosure. My insurer paid to replace the system. I just had it installed on 9/11/08.

The problem I am having is that now the water at the tap has a plastic flavor, kind of like a garden hose flavor but more "plasticky". It's kind of nasty--makes you open your mouth, smack your tongue and want to spit it out. I would rather have the overpowering chlorine flavor back.

The system is a Culligan Total Home Plus, single tank carbon and softening, based on the Platinum Plus Softener line; 14"x65" tank; 1 1/4" control valve; 24"x42" salt barrel. (The house is 3750 sq. ft with 4.5 baths, hence the large system.) I live in Orange County, CA and we have somewhat hard water here. IIRC, my tap rated 15 or 16 gpg when it was tested, a little higher on another occasion.

Needless to say, I am disappointed that a $3,000 system makes the water taste worse. I manually set the system to regenerate several times since it was installed in the hopes that it would flush the bad taste out. It still has this bad taste.

I called my salesman yesterday and he, of course, does not think it should have a plastic taste. He said that he'd never heard of this before.

Does anyone here have any idea of what the problem is? I presume that softeners/filters are not supposed to impart a plastic taste to the water, otherwise who would want one! I would greatly appreciate some insight on this problem. From past posts, I've seen some very experienced people here (about softeners) so I'm hopeful that someone knows something.

Thanks.

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