amsunshine, what are your goals exactly? You're looking for something that will rinse more easily and not leave a residue that causes rashes? It must have no enzymes? It seems that the main purpose of water softeners in detergents is to inactivate the mineral ions so that THEY don't inactivate the cleaning agents. It's all about cleaning power. I've done quite a bit of research now, yet I never read a WORD about rinsability of these detergents. I now have 8 or so different detergents I'm testing, and only one mentions rinsing out cleanly: it is a scent-free product for deer hunters to wash their special gear in. It says nothing about ingredients, so I have no idea if it contains anything special. I think sshrivastava already mentioned this, but citric acid does form SOLUBLE complexes with the mineral ions. So it should rinse easily, and maybe adding some to detergent will boost cleaning and rinsing for your hard water conditions. IIRC you recently got an HE machine. Did you have problems with rinsing or rashes with your old machine? My mother has naturally very soft water (not softened). She has a traditional TL that uses tons of water. And she uses a high water level for fairly small loads of clothes. She uses TINY amounts of detergent, because of course in the soft water, they suds like crazy. She will only use certain detergents because she says others cause her skin rashes. I'm thinking that if SHE can't get everything to rinse out of her fabrics so as not to irritate sensitive skin, who can? Not that I want to discourage you...but it seems like a hard problem.

The problem with iron-laden water in a softener is that softener resin has a great affinity for iron and does not release it easily. Iron will slowly foul the softener resin from the inside out. Extra measures need to be taken to remove the iron. For this you have several option. The easiest option may be to simply use Iron-Remover salt. Alternatively, you can use Super Iron Out. You may choose to layer this in with your salt. If you choose this option, use 1/4 C per 40 lb bag of salt. Super Iron Out is a bit more effective if used monthly with the following procedure: Ensure you have a strong brine in your brine tank - at least 24 hours since the last regen. Dissolve 1 C Iron Out in cool water and pour it into the brine well inside your brine tank. If you don't have a brine well, for some reason, pour it down the side of the tank rather than through the salt. Place your softener into manual regen and stay right there. When backwash is complete, the softener will move to the brine/slow rinse mode. Pay attention to the way it sounds. After 10 minutes or so the sound will change when there is no more brine to draw. At this point, we want the Iron Out to sit in the softener for an hour. To do that, push the button to advance to the next regen step, then the next until your softener is back in service mode. Do this as quickly as you can. Switch your valves so your softener is bypassed and wait one hour minimum. Place your valves back in service mode and manually start a softener regen. Once the regen is complete you're good to go for another month. A liquid iron removal system such as Res Up can be installed in your brine tank to feed citric acid to the brine to aid with iron removal. My preferred methods are A or D because they employ citric acid, which is a much safer chemical than those in Super Iron Out (sodium hydrosulfite and sodium metabisulfite). The choice is yours - pick a method and follow it religiously and your softener will give you many years of reliable service.

SFR = service flow rate. Bypass your existing softener. Using the bathtub as the measuring point, open BOTH the hot and cold water faucets completely open. If your tub has a single faucet then find a hose bib near the water entrance to the home and use that. Place a 1 gallon container under the faucet and measure the amount of time it takes to fill the container in seconds. Year old water quality reports with results in ranges is hardly conductive to accurately sizing your softener. Since you're wanting to treat the water at your house that's where water samples should be taken and that's what should be tested.

As a first run, your numbers can get us close. I strongly urge you to obtain your own water test from a sample of the water at your house. Although it should be similar to the city's analysis, it won't necessarily be. Particularly, water can pick up iron along its run through the various pipes on its way to your house and iron makes a huge difference in required softener size. For example, if you actually have no iron, a 0.75 cubic ft softener will do nicely. However, if you have just 1 ppm of iron, you would need a 1.25 cuft softner - that's a pretty big difference. In order to properly size your softener, we need to know: pH TDS hardness alkalinity iron manganese sulfates As to your questions: 1) Absolutely you want a gravel base in your softener. This will ensure you get proper flow without channeling and improve backwash. Many softener providers will tell you this is not necessary, but they are incorrect. The issue is that gravel is heavy and expensive to ship. Too bad - you need it. The only time you shouldn't have gravel is if you have a turbulator. I don't generally recommend one though as they have a tendency to be a maintenance issue. 2) Any made-in-the-USA resin will be of high quality. You don't need fine-mesh resin (that simply means that the resin beads are smaller diameter) in your case, but since you are on city water with some chlorine, you do need resin that is 10% crosslinked, rather than a more standard 8% crosslinked resin. The 10% crosslink will withstand the chlorine and provide longer resin life. It's generally a good idea to get a local water treatment company out and see what they recommend. You may get lucky and have a good one. See what they can offer your - you may be pleasantly surprised.