Water Softener: hot water soft; cold water hard?

[Nikster]

Dear all,

First time poster so please go easy on me!

We recently moved into a two bedroom flat and were told that there was a water softener fitted in out loft. We had it serviced and I think it's working fine. However, when we tested the hardness of the water in the house, we discovered that all the cold water taps (kitchen and bathroom/en-suite sinks) had hard water and the hot water taps had soft water. Furthermore, our showers when hot seemed to have soft water but hard water when turned to cold.

I've had a look at the lines coming into and out of the water softener but to be honest I can't work our what's going on. (photo attached)

I just wanted to check that it was normal to have this set up? I know it's good to have hard water coming out of the drinking cold water tap in the kitchen but should other cold water taps also have hard water? Is the softened water only going through the boiler?

Your advice would be really appreciated.

Many thanks

Nik

 

[gpbeck]

you're stuck with lugging salt upstairs to keep the softener working though.

 

[plumberdarren]

Sorry i havent replied, if you want to be 100% sure ask a plumber to take a look or think about moving it into the kitchen and plumbing into the incoming mains, it will also give easier access for maintenance.

 

[Nikster]

Thank you so much for all the comments on my problem. I've had another look at the water coming out of the taps and it's clear that the kitchen cold water tap has mains water which is hard but the other taps have slightly hard water (40ppm) rather than soft.

The re-generation process was set up by an engineer when the system was serviced on 10 June. At that point, the engineer also added about 17kg of salt pellets. As far as we (and the engineer) could tell, the softener hadn't been serviced for a number of years. I think he set the re-generation process for every three days (we are two adults and a baby in a two-bed, two-bath flat). Do you think one of the problems could be more salt required? Or should I increase the re-generation rate? Forgive my ignorance but how do we change the rate - we have an Autotrol series 255/440 control water softener?

Also, would the dishwasher and the washing machine be supplied with tank water or mains water?

I'm not sure why the water softener was put in the loft (it was previously owned by an elderly lady!) but presumably it couldn't be placed in the kitchen?

 

[Nikster]

I've worked out how to change the re-generation rate and have changed it to every two days. Hopefully that will help...

 

[gpbeck]

You need to keep the softener topped up with salt pellets - probably monthly. So it being in the loft is a bit of a pain. Possibly the cold water header tank has some old hard water content from before 10th June. It will be slowly replaced from the softener as you use water.

 

[gpbeck]

Two days is I would guess way too frequent for the size of your house unless the mains water is extremely hard. This will cost you a lot in salt and water if you've got a meter (regeneration might use 80 litres+) . Try weekly.

 

[Nikster]

It was set for every three days but I thought that might have been the reason for mixed water coming out of the taps. Do you think that I should set it back to every three days (as the engineer had suggested) and add more salt. I'm a bit surprised that more salt would be need as 17kg was added 17 days ago but I guess it has been several years since any salt had been added to the unit.

Aaargh...I can't work this out 🙁

 

[gpbeck]

test the softness just before a regeneration. if still soft, regeneration not needed yet, so lengthen cycle. set it to weekly, test on day six i would.

 

[gpbeck]

regeneration uses a fixed amount of salt whether necessary or not. costs money

 

[Nikster]

Hi all,

No progress yet. Regeneration took place yesterday but when I tested the water flowing from the bathroom taps, the water was still slightly hard (although not as hard as the mains water). I also checked the water softener and noticed that the water level was quite high and there was no salt at the bottom. Does anyone have thoughts on what I could do next?

Is it normal for 17kg of salt to be used in less than three weeks with a bi-wekly regeneration cycle? Also, can anyone tell me whether the water going into our dishwasher and washing machine should be tank fed or mains?

Any help or suggestions would be really appreciated.