"WRONG, water should NEVER come out of the overflow on the brine tank... never ever. Something is wrong! " justalurker, I agree with you that there is a problem with the softener! I was referring to the immediate problem being resolved - namely, the almost ankle depth water in the utility room that we had to deal with when we first discovered this issue. As I mentioned, we have switched the softener to bypass mode now so atleast we dont have to deal with overflowing water in the utility room, but like you said we still need to fix the root cause with the softener. The documents and links you provided gave pretty good overview of how the softener works and how it can be serviced. I also talked to the softener dealer I had purchased the softener from and they advised me to try some things: 1) Confirm that the PE brine tube connecting the control valve and brine tank is connected securely to the control valve. (verified this is true) 2) Remove the air check valve from the brine tank (BTW, is the "air check valve" the same as the "safety float" you keep referring to in your posts?). Clean out the air check valve to remove anything that might prevent it from sucking the brine from the brine tank back into the control valve. I tried to pull out the PE tube from the white plastic elbow (see photo of this in the link below) so that I can lift out the air check valve from the white cylinder in the brine tank and clean it, but it seemed quite tight (maybe its supposed to be this tight) and I didnt want to yank on it too hard and cause further damage (just playing safe due to my inexperience dealing with softeners). Will it be easier to remove the PE tubing from the white plastic elbow if I turn the control valve to "Backwash" position manually and remove some water from the PE tubing first? If so, when control valve is in "backwash" position, would the water from the PE tubing flow out the "bypass outlet" (and hence require me to turn off the bypass) OR would it flow out the "drain line"? Basically, I am trying to figure out the right way to remove and clean the "air check valve". 3) If cleaning the "air check valve" does not help, the dealer advised to remove the control valve and bring it in because it would probably still be covered under warranty. Per the dealer, since the softener was purchased and installed in late summer of 2006, most of the repair costs should still be covered under manufacturer's warranty. As I understand they would send the control valve to the manufacturer (Water Right) and get it back within 7-10 days and I would be responsible for 25% of the cost. So if it comes to this, I will need to figure out the right way to remove the control valve - I understand it should not be too hard and the control valve can be "twisted off" from the top of the resin tank (how do i disconnect control valve from the bypass or the water meter before twisting it off the resin tank)? As you quoted Clint Eastwood, I can and prefer doing the "basic" troubleshooting (i.e. cleaning air check valve and, if needed, remove the control valve) but since its under warranty, it might be best to have it fixed by the pros (in the case the manufacturer themselves). Would appreciate help with these "basic" tasks. Thanks again, -Topper Here is a link that might be useful: PE tubing connected to white plastic elbow

The total water heating supply needs should be based on the maximum potential demand that could be imposed on the system...not what you and your husband and 1 child will likely use. In other words, the water heating demands for this size home should be based on a family large enough to need 4 1/2 baths and all other hot water outlets supplied adequately. While you and your hubby and child will obviously use less hot water than what the house is designed for, you still need to supply water heating to cover all hot water supply needs as if they were all needed to be met at maximum demand. Simply put: You need at least 2 75 gallon water heaters to meet current and future demands. You also need to consider how the water heaters will be able to distribute hot water so that you do not have to 'wait' for hot water to get to any outlet at any given time. This may require a circulating pump on both heaters... Or you may need to rethink the tanked water heater idea altogether and install on-demand water heater(s) large enough to supply this home's current and potential needs. Given your situation, I'd be thinking multiple 'on-demand' water heaters and scrp the 'tank' heater idea altogether.

The rust is on the outer jacket of the hot water heater. Treating the rust spots is not going to affect the life of the inner tank in my opinion. You could open up the flush valve every few months to remove any sediment. Run the water until it is clear. Set to water temperature to 120 degrees. Running it hotter reduces the life, but running it colder increase the risk of legionnaire's disease. My previous hot water heat I bought in Sears lasted 19 years. I rarely ever flushed it. From my experience a hot water heater life is reduced by heavy usage of hot water. Reduce the amount of hot water you use and it should last a long time.

mandy has the right idea, you should be able to figure out yourself, or your plumber can help to check. Personally I'd be surprised if the smaller model wasn't sufficient. I think the way to understand it is this: the water heater's size determines how quickly you can replenish the storage tank (or recover from all the water being used), and - at the margin - continuously heat. The storage tank's size drives how much hot water you can use in a short period before running out. Bottom line is basically, how many of your seven people take a shower in a short period of time? Does everyone expect to have a shower within a single hour in the morning? On paper, your 120 gallon tank would cover 4-5 standard showers, likely less than that in practice with other needs (handwashing, kitchen usage, etc). The 50k BTU heater should have a figure for recovery in gallons per hour - perhaps something like 50. That's basically its maximum output. It would then take two or three hours to heat up your large storage tank (whereas your current 200k unit would fully recover in an hour). The hot water heater itself will have storage (50 gallons?) to include in your calcs. It sounds like your current set-up is more or less sized to be able to meet maximum likely demand at all times, with no significant recovery period - i.e. it might be able to meet all demand without the storage tank just by running the heater. Of course, keep in mind there are losses in the system and the real world 'hot water at the tap' will be somewhat lower. So you should be able to figure out how to test this. But fairly simple logic test - if everyone takes showers at different times of day, likely no problem. Even spread out over 2-3 hours you may be fine. If everyone takes two extra-long showers a day and all within the same time periods, maybe not. A few additional thoughts: -Of course, keep in mind laundry and dishwashing needs. But also check if they even use household hot water - mine do not, they heat water internally. (Then considerations of when you run them, of course). -Have the plumber check the storage tank - it'd be a shame if it started having problems right after, and they're likely the same age. Also note, assuming this is gas-fired, it's not a bad thing to have a smaller one running for longer periods. (I'm also a bit surprised there are only two sizes available - surely there are in-between sizes available, like 75k or 100k BTU?) I'm in a seven person household, too - and in my experience it's rare that everyone takes showers within short periods. I can't compare my set-up (household heat and hot water from same boiler), but on paper I wouldn't think the extra expense worth it, just based on our actual usage. Of course, if you're the last person to shower after everyone else and you can't stand even once running out, you might think differently.