I didn't recommend a 1.5 cu ft softener anywhere in this thread. I said "just to get the 12 gpm SFR for your tub you'd need 1.5 cu ft of resin and that wouldn't accommodate your other appliances". To clarify, a 1.5 cu ft softener would only support the SFR needed by the tub and that would be ignoring any other water use in the home. During the holidays with 20 people it would be difficult to find any moment when there wouldn't be someone using water somewhere in the house like sink, toilet, bath tub, washing machine, shower, water heater, etc... understand? "Soft [not salt] water brining -- my mistake"... now more to learn... There is soft water brining with hard water regeneration and there is soft water brining with soft water regeneration. The 1.5 cu ft softener you seem to have fallen in love with only offers soft water brining with HARD water regeneration which is a good feature but not as desirable as soft water brining WITH soft water regeneration which the Kinetico offers. The 1.5 cu ft softener you seem to have fallen in love with will regenerate at 2:00 AM (in some control valves you can change the time but it MUST be during a period where there is NO water use) generating the noise you don't want to hear and do it for a longer time interval and waste unused hardness removal capacity set aside as a reserve while the Kinetico will regenerate immediately whenever the gallon count zeros with no set aside reserve capacity being wasted. The Kinetico will use less water and salt to treat an equal # of gallons of hard water than the 1.5 cu ft softener you seem to have fallen in love with which SAVES you money every time it regenerates... and the resin will last longer because it is being regenerated with SOFT water. "Previously posted information: 1.5 cu. ft. tank handles 30,000 - to 45,000 grains of hardness, using a minimum of 6 # to a max of 15 pounds of salt for regeneration. Am I missing something?" Yes you are and for the umpteenth time... the max hardness removal capacity of 1.5 cu ft of resin at the max salt dose of 15 lbs/cu ft or 22.5 lbs for 1.5 cu ft of resin is 40,000 not 45,000 The occasional use you now define is a considerable percentage of your annual water use. The additional occupancy at your home during the holidays will be a huge increase in water use for that period. If you're smart you'll buy the Kinetico 2060S OD and get what you need. The Kinetico will have a longer warranty and cost less to operate then your 1.5 cube favorite and in the long run it will cost you less than buying what you don't need.

Often, vendors will specify their softener size by grain capacity, so make sure you specify by resin volume. A 2.5 cuft softener will regen every 7-8 days. Since your house is so large, you may wish to consider a 3.0 cuft softener. It would regen every 8-10 days and offer you more available flow. With your large household, the larger softener might be a better fit, but either size will work. The following requirements are for an industry standard softener, and should be available from any decent softener vendor: High quality American or German made resin. This will provide a tight size distribution for optimal flow within the resin If you have WELL WATER: 8% crosslinked resin. If you have CITY WATER: 10% crosslinked resin. The oxidizers that city water treatment plants use, such as chlorine or chloramine, are harmful to softener resins. Higher crosslinking will resist chemical attack longer. Top basket. This serves two purposes. It sets up a proper water distribution during normal operation and prevents resin loss during backwash. Gravel underbed. The gravel underbed is there to set up proper flow patterns, improve backwash, keep the bottom basket in place, prevent basket failure, and prevent channeling. Many softener sales companies like to leave this out or sell softeners with a vortex system instead. Vortex systems weigh less than gravel so they cost less to ship. In addition, they are a more expensive item that adds profit for the softener salesperson, but provides no additional benefit to the homeowner . It simply adds another piece of equipment that can break. Fleck or Clack valves. These set the industry standard. Be aware that you will not be able to purchase Clack valves online. This is not a problem if you purchase locally. The valve should regen based on water usage, not time. Noryl bypass. Most softeners are available with either Noryl or stainless bypass valves. Both are good valves, but the noryl tends to be more reliable when not used for long periods of time. Install the softener with a three-valve bypass. This will make it so much easier if you ever need to remove the softener for repairs or wish to take it with you when you move. Use full-port, quarter-turn valves. This is a redundant bypass, which is my preference. If you choose to have only one bypass, install the three-valve bypass and skip the noryl bypass above.

If a ball valve has a problem it's usually at install. Either a defective ball valve or more likely the installer applied too much heat or took too long when soldering it in. The reason I recommend a three ball bypass along with the OEM bypass is that most dealers want to install just the OEM bypass and the redundancy of the additional three ball bypass, at it's modest cost during installation, is a good idea. With no Kinetico bypass what you have will serve you once the ball valves that leak are taken care of. Understand before you speak with the dealer that the water at the float valve is under system water pressure and all that is between correct operation and failure is the float. The tank drain elbow is provided so that if the float fails the overflow will be directed to a drain cause if it fails when no one is around it will be pumping water into the brine tank at house pressure. If there is no floor drain handy then it is common to drill a hole through an exterior wall and run a PE tube from the brine tank elbow through the wall to the outside. The elbow is a gravity drain and will not run water up. Many softeners are installed disregarding the brine tank drain and as long as the float never fails or leaks it's OK. I've seen quite a few where the float failed and there is substantial water damage. Do not let the dealer minimize the importance of the brine tank drain or say it can be ignored because you're betting a lot on that float mechanism... an awful lot. If something does happen and there is no line to drain there's a chance your homeowner's insurance won't cover the damage. With a washing machine I'd think that one of the Gap-It airgaps from airgap.com will do nicely. Pick the one that accommodates both the washer drain hose and the softener drain hose.

It appears as if your Kinetico dealer is guessing rather than using science and math to size you system. 1st, the conditioner is increasing the pH of your water by adding hardness. 2nd, your softener was not initially set up properly and was not regenerating often enough. These two things combined explain why you saw higher hardness AFTER your softener just prior to regeneration than you did in your RAW water. Now your softener is regenerating often enough to keep your water soft. However, I am suspicious of your dealer since you are being told your water was "hard" and is now "soft" with no numbers provided - lazy or incompetent on the part of your dealer. The fact that you are seeing staining indicates that your water pH is likely still low but, again, numbers from a properly calibrated pH meter are necessary to be certain. Your dealer should sample the water himself and either 1) test it immediately or 2) seal it properly to ensure pH remains the same until lab testing. If he samples your water and dunks a pH meter in it without calibrating his meter, ignore his numbers and ask for a competent person to deal with. Once the pH neutralizer is working properly, the softener will need to be tested again, because the neutralizer will be adding even more hardness to the water upstream of the softener. You pay a premium for Kinetico equipment. That is supposed to get you competent people to specify your equipment. So far, you haven't gotten that. Keep insisting until they get it right - you paid for it.