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Kinetico water system

6 years ago

We've purchased a house and inherited Kinetico water system. I called the local dealer today to find out what do I need to do to make it work. She said that we will need a professional to come in and take a look at it. Sounds all good, except for the fact that she doesn't know how much I will need to pay for this visit, it's $89 for a visit that includes 15 minutes service, and then it's $15 for every 15 minutes. She wouldn't give me any approximate number on what I will end up paying no matter what. I wanted to see if someone could identify what system we have, and may be help me to understand what we will need to do in order to make it work again? I really don't won't to spend tons of money on it... And the representative was not very helpful

Thanks a lot!

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Comments (5)

Jake The Wonderdog
6 years ago
Hi,

So I'm not going to fault the rep for not being able to tell you how long a service person would be there and I understand not wanting to write a blank check - esp when you just bought a house and probably have a million other things to spend money on. Congrats on your house BTW.

One way to deal with that is to just put a cap on the amount of time. An hour total should give a pretty good indication of how old, what condition, etc. Presumably one of the local reps has the service records on it as well.

Here's something to know though... all water filters/softeners require some maintenance and the more elaborate, the more maintenance they require. A simple softener with a high quality valve will give you years of dependable service with just salt needed. Carbon filters and RO filters will require much more.

Something else to know is that Kinetico is known to be expensive to buy and maintain. They use proprietary parts and dealer network. Some people believe that they provide superior hardware... but from what I have read on here it can vary. My opinion is that that they don't provide a good value for the money.

If you are hesitant to pay for a service call and "don't want to spend a ton of money on this" then you probably want to consider bypassing the unit at least until the dust settles from moving and you have a chance to figure out what you want to do.
Anna
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks a lot for your response. Yes, that's probably what we will do, settle in and then look into that. I was very surprised in a good way to find this unit in the house, the previous owners said absolutely nothing about it.
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Since you're on city water the water utility should provide you with a copy of a water conditions report. That will tell you the conditions of the water as treated at the point the city sends it into the distribution system. That report will not tell you the exact conditions of the water at your water meter which is what the softener will be treating. Understanding that you want to do this yourself and on the cheap here's what I would do... The model 100 is has a higher hardness treating capacity than the model 60 so all things being equal it would regenerate less frequently which may not be desirable. The orange color in the top window of your free Kinetico would seem to indicate that is has been treating water with iron. The resin could be fouled or tired. It would help to know the water conditions where the softener was previously installed. If it were me, I'd relay the water conditions report to the the Kinetico dealer along with the specifics of your water use and plumbing requirements and ask them if a properly functioning model 100 would be a good fit for your water treatment needs. If they say yes, then I'd get them to disassemble and service the control valve and put in the correct disk for your needs and set the brine tank for the proper salt dose. I'd have them check the resin and sanitize the softener. If everything is done right you'll enjoy a decade or so of trouble free soft water.
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The service manager was to be here between 8 and 9 this morning. So finally at 11am, I called his cellphone. "Oh, I got tied up, I am on my way to your house now". Very nice, as I took 1/2 day vacation, and now must take the rest of the day off. (Actually had to switch shifts, so now I get to work midnight shift tonight in the ER). Anyway......he shows up at 12:45, states he will only be here for 30 min, and we will have soft water again. Ha. An hour and a half later, he declares something inside the head was partially clogged with sediment, and he replaced the clogged part, and after a few regenerations, we should be good to go. The jury is still out, as the second tank will need to be regenerated again this evening, and the hot water tank completely flushed, yet again. I asked him what the next step will be if this doesn't fix the problem-his answer, "there won't be a next step because I am confidant your problem is resolved". So. If it recurs, I will call corporate directly. Six days with hard, nasty water is enough. And 4 days of vacation that I have used waiting for their service techs over the last 4 months. Geesh. We have really "bad" water, so we will stick with Kinetico-had an "offbrand" when we first moved in that did nothing, and at least this system has done a good job for many years. Keeping my fingers, toes and eyes crossed! Thanks for all of the info!
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That seems like a crazy high price, but I will caveat that by saying I am not a pro and have no experience with RO drinking systems. I do know that sometimes those are included when they are really not needed, so if you haven't already done it, I would start by getting your water tested so you know whether you really just need a softener or additional filtering is needed. Find a local water treatment company and/or your plumber and get them to come in and give you an estimate and feedback based on what your water content states you actually need vs. what some salesman is trying to sell you - maybe unnecessarily. We were told by one large/well recognized name we needed a whole bunch of things based on nothing but (it seemed) a sales quota. When we brought in a local water treatment company and our plumber and they sent out our water for testing, the results indicated we really only needed a water softener installed - which was not cost prohibitive and nowhere near $6k. The "no electricity used" thing bothers me and tells me this person is selling you on features that are really not a selling point since water softeners use about the same amount of electricity as an alarm clock.
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Jake The Wonderdog
6 years ago
There are three, red handled valves that I can see in the top photo. That's called a 3 valve bypass.

You have two of those valves with the handles parallel to the pipe (the on position) -- turn both of them off.

You have one valve in the middle that is perpendicular to the pipe (the off position) - Turn it on.

That will turn off the water to the softener and allow the water to go around it.
Jake The Wonderdog
6 years ago
The other thing you could do is leave it on and keep salt in it and just let it go for a while.
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6 years ago
Do you have reason to believe it is not functioning? Was the house unoccupied for quite a while before you moved in? If not, then add salt to the cylindrical tank on the left and let it do its thing. You have a very nice setup with valves than can be used for sampling before and after the softener. I always recommend every homeowner with a softener have a Hach hardness test kit. The Hach 5-B will do nicely. Test the water on both side of the softener and you will know very quickly if it is working.

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