The largest Sear/Morton/Whirlpool/GE et al softeners are less than 1 cu ft of resin and are packed bed designs which use less water per regeneration but usually regenerate more often and they are not the most commonly installed softeners in the US. Millions and millions and millions of Industry standard, Rainsoft, ECO Water, and Culligan softeners expelling 50 gallons of effluent and up are more the rule and the Sears style disposable softeners more the exception. Effluent drain from softeners during regeneration is pressurized and not gravity drained. I'll not have 50+ gallons of sodium and chloride concentrated water along my foundation week after week after week after week after week after week after week... cause you say it's OK while code and common sense says it's not. I grew up in the middle Atlantic states and have seen body panels on cars and concrete roadways destroyed by far less exposure to a much less concentrated dose of salt and water much less frequently.

With hardness around 10gpg and manganese at .03 with iron at .1 you are smart to be considering a softener. Aside from the niceties of soft water a softener will lengthen the service life of the plumbing, fixtures, and appliances. Your clothes will last longer and you'll save money by using far less soap and detergent. Ok, water softener 101 ... 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 for comparison 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 or just parts, how long and on exactly what? 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 theirs. 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 components with the costs and we'll give you our opinions. If you're a DIYer then you have other options but they must be discussed privately by email. But remember, when you do it yourself there's no one else to blame.

Check the drain line from the softener to the french drain and see if there's water running continuously through it. If yes, then the softener control valve is stuck in a regen cycle or just plain broken. If that is what's happening then put the softener in bypass. You'll have hard water but you won't be running water to drain and wasting $$$ We might provide more detailed help if you told us the softener brand, make, and model?

I have the whirlpool brand, the 44,000 grain. It is a standing one, and it's on the garage. In my old home, I had it on the garage, but blum a host to the laundry room which was on the opposite wall. But in this house, the laundry room is across a hallway, which means I need to go up into the attic area, and the ceiling is 14' high.