While I agree that NaCl softened water and KCl softened water have a taste I have never considered the taste salty. Ion exchange softening replaces Ca ions with either Na or K ions NOT salt. The chlorides are sent to drain if the softener is operating properly. Salty tasting softened water indicates a problem with the softener. I favor the taste of KCl softened water over NaCl softened water and drink it often. Regarding a POE carbon filter... that filter will remove all the chlorine so bacteria can exist in the house plumbing, fixtures, and appliances. A whole house carbon filter does not remove bacteria, but rather removes the chemical that kills bacteria. A POE filter will have chlorine in the water up to that point, so no bacteria, then the POU filters the chlorine and you consume the water. As for RO, I initially was concerned with wasting water but after 15 years I'm amazed how little water two people actually consume in a day. When you're only consuming 2 or three gallons of RO water a day then the wasted water from an RO pales compared to the energy waste of bottled water and driving to buy it let alone all the plastic bottles we generate. I have easily made up for RO water waste by taking other steps to conserve in my home and having a very efficient softener. The great thing about your situation is that you can rent the Kinetico and actually know rather than guess. You will answer all your question right there with your own eyes and taste buds.

I am not in the trade, but I also have a Kinetico water softener (MACH 40) and have quite a bit of experience with pumps and pipes and valves: designing, installing, troubleshooting, etc. Is the toothed gear moving on the head of the softener? Kinetico softeners work without electricity, because they rely on the water flowing through the head to control the conditioning cycles, rather than an electric motor. There are several advantages of this, for example the cycles are based on how much water goes though the resin bed rather than some arbitrary time period. Kinetico has different toothed gears to match the average hardness of the water being treated. Ours has a #2 gear in it, which is printed on top of the gear. This gear moves very slowly, so you may have to mark where the number is positioned and come back and check on it after several hours of water use--if you don't use any water the gear won't move. If it doesn't move, something in the internals of the head is not funtioning, could be the little impeller paddles that cause the timing mechanism to work. Hope this helps, ProudPugParent, PE, PMP

My old Fleck 5600 system I suspect had a salt water bridge that no amount of smashing pellets with a broomstick could breakup. The level of salt barely went down over a year's period and the water level was above the level of salt for the longest time. Didn't want to deal with high priced repair people, so I decided to buy a brand new Whirlpool WHES33 (33k grain) water softener for $322. Quite a deal. About half the price of a new Fleck 5600 system in my area. The 3/4" bypass valve that was replaced two years ago looks just like the stainless steel Fleck on many websites with a red handle, only this one is brass/copper colored and I'm pretty sure is made of copper. I don't think the new Whirlpool has a built in bypass valve. If all I can find are PVC adaptors to connect the new 1" bypass valve to the existing 3/4" copper bypass valve, how do I connect PVC to copper?

I favor the Noryl bypass valve because it is shallower and you can get the softener closer to the wall. also, While the body of the SS bypass is stainless steel the guts and lever are not... I have seen them corrode and bind. Since OPWC and ALL online softener seller drop ship from regional wholesalers EVERYTHING has to be ordered. It is as EZ for them to order the Noryl bypass as to order the SS. They sell 50-1 SS bypasses because SS is a buzzword and they don't know why the Noryl is better. If SS is better then why do ALL the softener control valve manufacturers sell Noryl valves? Sometimes you can't teach an old dog new tricks and sometimes you can't teach an old dog any tricks at all.