Ok, water softener 101 ... First, get a complete water test from an independent lab. This is a MUST DO because without it everything is a guess. A quickie water test from Sears or a water softener company won't be complete. They only test for the "profitable" stuff. Second, hit the Yellow Pages and call at least three local water treatment pros. Make sure you call at least one of the big dogs like Kinetico or Culligan and at least a couple independent pros. DON'T TELL THEM YOU HAD YOUR WATER TESTED. Give each an opportunity to offer suggestions and provide you with a quote to meet your water treatment needs. IGNORE ANY THAT DON'T TEST YOUR WATER THEMSELVES as they can't speak intelligently to water treatment without knowing what needs to be treated. Ask lots of questions. Warranty, parts & labor, how long? Install, permits required, licensed plumber? Routine maintenance and costs? Do they stock parts? Response time for emergency (water leak) calls? If they don't explain things to your satisfaction that is a good indicator of how you'll be treated after the sale. After they've gone use your water test to compare with their's. Are all your treatment needs being addressed? Ask your neighbors if they have any water treatment experience. They might tell you who's good or who to avoid. Come back here and post the specific recommendations and hardware with the costs and we'll give you our opinions. If you're a DIYer then you have other options and here's a good place to start ... http://ohiopurewaterco.com/shop/customer/home.php?cat=179 These other threads may interest you ... http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=284967 http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=285326 The negatives regarding the pre-built softeners are ... Lower quality materials, mostly ABS which ages and becomes brittle. ABS does not do well with really hard water. On 3 gr hardness city water most any softener will give a decent service life BUT harder water than that seperates the pre-built box store softeners from the quality ones. While all ion exchange water softeners use resin and "tanks" there's a big difference in the resin and resin "tanks". Again, the pre-built softeners do not use the top quality resin from companies like Purolite or Ionac and the materials their resin "tanks" are made of are not the same quality as the Structural brand (10 year warranty) resin tanks the top quality softeners come with. Most of the parts are proprietary and available from limited sources and they tend to be expensive. The pre-built softeners are "cabinet" (all-in-one) designs and are much harder to work on. The cabinet design puts the resin tank inside the brine tank. The routine cleaning of the brine tank is more difficult and takes a lot more time than a conventional design softener but the Sears type does take less floor space (the ONLY advantage in it's design). The greatest falsehhood is that pre-built BOX store softeners are less expensive than the industry standard softeners. The Sears softeners around 40000 hardness capacity generally run a little under $500. For $466 you can have a Fleck 5600SE electronic on demand metered softener delivered to your home including shipping. You'll need to assemble it (takes less than 30 minutes) and install it. You can have a plumber assemble it and install it (you'd need a plumber to install the Sears softener also or DIY). You'll get a control valve that has proved it's reliability over 20+ years, is made of state of the art materials (Noryl) which does not turn brittle and is totally inert. You'll get a 5 year warranty on the control valve and ten year warranty on the resin tank. You can buy parts for the Fleck control valve locally or all over the internet. Complete parts and service/repair manuals are available for download and there is always someone everywhere who can service Fleck control valves as they are the long established industry standard AND they are as easy OR easier to program than the pre-built softeners. They tolerate the hardest water with no problem. Real softeners generally last 20+ years EVEN on ludicrously hard water while the service life on a pre-built softener seems to be under 5 years (if you're lucky) on really hard water and lasting longer than that is a rare exception. Sears, GE, Waterboss, North Star and the like are the most commonly complained about water softeners on this forum and all over the internet. The Fleck, Autotrol, and Clack water softeners just work and work and work and work and work ... Why buy a lesser quality water softener for more money?

The air check is to prevent the control valve sucking air during the brining stage of regeneration not during the brine tank fill stage at the end. You should have a float assembly in the 4" round tube to prevent overfilling of the brine tank during a control valve malfunction exactly as you are experiencing now. If your softener is old enough it may not have the Fleck 2310 safety float and you should upgrade to that once the problem is solved. 1.If the brine tank overflows continuously then you have a problem in the 5600 piston assembly and possibly the brine valve. 2.If the brine tank overflows and stops them you have a problem in the injector, screen, and/or brine valve and/or the drain line from the 5600 could be clogged. The way it's supposed to work is... The last stage of regeneration is the brine tank fill. The control valve puts a volume of water into the brine tank based on the salt setting in the back of the 5600. That water dissolves the salt and waits till the next regeneration. When the next regen starts the 5600 sucks out the brine and flows it through the resin. If there's a problem and the 5600 doesn't suck out almost all of the brine the level of water will be higher after the last (brine fill stage). Each successive regen will add more water till the brine tank overflows. Questions... Water system or well water? How old is the softener? Has anyone been doing routine maintenance on the softener?

Thanks, I'll ask those questions. They are softening all the water in the house. I'm also wondering whether to get a RO system for the kitchen sink. Our water is drinkable but not great. The plumber who never sent the estimate said not to get an RO bc the taste is just chlorine and if I left a pitcher on the fridge overnite the chlorine would dissipate and the water would taste fine. I've read on this forum, that using an RO on soft water results in great tasting water. I suppose I could also get a Brita. Any thoughts on the RO? He's pricing it at $375 installed for free with the softener. It's a 4 stage RO. Watts zero waste RO @ costco is $289, but then I would have to install it. Thanks, Cathy

Industry standard softeners based on Fleck control valves are usually sold locally by independant water treatment professionals who can usually be found in the Yellow Pages under water treatment and whose ads show NO brand name. To find a WQA certified water treatment professional go here http://wqa.org/ and click on "find a water professsional" on the LH side. They sell softeners assembled using the best of the industry components and usually have no brand name. While some plumbers can be trusted to "hook up" (make the water go in and out) a water softener, most shouldn't be trusted to install and set up one. Your "good" plumber may be the rare exception but I'd defer to a water treatment professional if you want it done right. The conventional design 2 piece (one resin tank and one brine tank) is easier to service. It takes slightly more floor space but when it comes time to do the yearly brine tank cleaning you really appreciate the seperate brine tank... didn't you just go through the PIA brine tank cleaning with your all-in-one Sears softener? For the $466 Fleck 5600SE you have to order it long distance and assemble it yourself. Takes about an hour if you go slow. Then you need your plumber to hook up the water lines. The dealer will preset the control valve and you can get help on the phone fine tuning it. You'll only have a parts warranty and will be expected to do any repair labor yourself or pay someone else to do it. Reflecting on your past threads and posts I recommend you spend a lttle more and find a local independant water treatment professional who will correctly size, install, setup your softener, and provide service after the sale so you can just sit back and enjoy your soft water. Check your email.