I can vouch for what creekside said about scams. I posted a long time ago about Roy Roy the Water Boy (I am not kidding, that is his marketing name) who came out to my house just when it was being finished to do his 50 dollar water test. Gee - i thought - what a great deal. When the Water Boy turned to me and said, "well, i have some good news, and some bad news" I should have known what was coming. The good news was that we had very clear water and no bacteria. The bad news, it was very hard water and had some iron. And for the mere pidance of "fouty nine ninety five" he could fix it. I turned to my wife and said, what the heck, we can splurge for the 49.95 right now to fix this. And she said, "ah, you need to move the decimal point over a bit - he is talking about 4995!" And that was just for the hard water. To do the iron and the hard water, it was over 8 grand!!! DW then proceeded to ask the Water Boy for his pamphlet, and told him we would get back in touch with him if we decided to treat the water. After he left, she ripped the builder for yet another unforseen oops which we later discovered he knew about and was setting us up (probably getting a kick back from the water boy too). Luckily I had this forum and did a lot of searching over on Plumbing. We wound up doing the water treatment ourselves after I read a bunch of posts - see posts from justalurker and aliceinwonderland - great info. I took the water test results from the Water Boy and called Abundant Water Flow to order the water softener - see link below. They were very helpful and helped me size the unit. I had a water softener delivered to the house site within a few days after Water Boy left and the plumbers were still here to hook it up for a small fee. I put in the resin myself which is the hardest part. FYI - have two people put the resin the tank as spilling it on the floor is not a good idea - very hard to clean up. After I fixed the water hardness issue, i later added a Big Blue water filter to take out the small bit of iron we had plus remove an aftertaste from the Potassium Chloride we used as the brine. In the end I did the entire water treatment for under 1500 bucks and our water is great. I am now my own water treatment maintenance guy and it isn't that hard. I test the water myself once per year with a DIY test kit just to make sure things are still OK. I make sure the brine tank is filled with pellets. I make sure the system is re-generating on the schedule. That's about it. Hopefully this info will hlep others. If your water is not too bad (hardness and moderate iron, no bacteria), then a DIY approach works just fine. if you have really bad water and bacteria - then you probably want a pro to handle it. Here is a link that might be useful: Abdundant Water Flow

I have the exact same problem, but I do know where the noise is coming from in my case, I just can't get anyone to do anything about it. It's coming from the electrical meter and I'm willing to bet this situation is exactly the same given the meter is right outside the bedroom. The noise has also been driving me nuts to the point where I have turned EVERYTHING off in the house by using the main circuit in the panel box and yet I still heard the noise. When I finally put my ear to where I thought the sound was coming from, I could feel the a vibration in the wall as well (bet if you felt your wall around where you think the noise is coming from, you'll feel the same thing). Since I knew there was nothing inside making the noise and nothing in the wall that could make it, since the power was off, I looked outside...and voila, the electrical meter was right there on the other side of the wall where I heard the noise and felt the vibration. I called the power company who came and removed the meter to inspect it, but they didn't find anything wrong; they did say that the conduit that is attached to the house and that the main electrical wires run through from outside to inside my house was a little loose and may be vibrating. I fixed that and still hear the noise. It's the meter..100% sure! But they say it's not.

Hi guys, thanks so much for all the responses and for sharing your thoughts/experience - it's almost overwhelming how helpful everyone is! So last night I ran a load with gel, and there was still grit but less of it. It could be a one-off result, so I'll have to try going back and forth between tabs and gel to see if there's any consistency. The good news is that the cleaning seems to be back to normal (other than the grit) - the past week or so I'd have to rewash certain dishes, and it seemed to be getting worse and worse. Looks like cleaning out the filters and grinder area did something positive there. ci_lantro, interesting that you recommend that. When I was running a load with vinegar I opened the door shortly after it filled and noticed that there was some foam, which surprised me... I figured it was reacting with detergent residue. I'll definitely try drying out the grit and experimenting with how it reacts to acids. As for aerators, I did not check faucets, but did swap out a shower head fairly recently and there were no issues there. The plumber was also surprised by how strong our water pressure was, so doesn't seem like it's bad enough to clog anything.

If it's a service, they've been to my house... roofer, plumber, electrician, architect, designers, general contractors, cabinet makers, granite installers, sheet rockers, texture person, window installers, painters, more painters, arborist, landscape architect, glass installer, appliance repair people (fridge, and washing machine), concrete repair people, carpet installers, tile layers (like 10 of them!!) fence installers... sigh. Worst year of my life! Biggest remodel we've ever done... shudder. Now I need a pharmacist, wine salesman and therapist to help me recover... ;)