John..neAR - 12/9/2013 16:52 My whirlpool water softener has quit working (I think) Never has been good, always varying from to much /to little softening. What brand would ya'll recomend or can this thing be fixed. I did clean a venturi valve as per instructions and didn't find anything in it. Wife says the dishes and bathroom fixtures are streaking and she ain't happy. You know the rest of that one>:) TIA, John Water softeners are very basic . . . . don't let them intimidate a person. Heck, it's only plastic tank and a filter media product to collect calcium and / or iron out'ta the water, much like a fuel or oil filter. What kind of water problems do you have ? Iron (staining reddish streaks) or Calcium (foggy clear build up streaks) ?
You don't need to spend tons of money for calcium filtering. . Iron, that's a bigger problem and cost more to filter. Have you tryed running a couple cycles (flushes) with iron out or another softener cleaner (some use liquid phosphric acid) through the softener? How old is it ? If not, I'd start there. Most softeners do not get maintained and the big name brands try and confuse consumers that a softener is some complicated mistical contraption, that only they know how to operate and contain.
If your softener has run out of salt or not enough salt is used, it can't clean (discharge) the minerials off the media beads, so a good flushing with a cleaner is neccessary. If the softener doesn't clean up with a flushing/cleaning of the media bed (iron out or other softener cleaner), then the media bed (filter) maybe full and unable to be cleaned. Generally, a media bed will last for at least 7-10yrs in hard/irony well water and on city water up to 20yrs - with normal cleaning / maintinanc of the media bed. I wonder if youtube has any vid's of how to flush or clean your media bed ?
At any rate, I would not pay $1500 or more for a water softener (not iron filter, but softener - there's a difference). There's a guy, here locally, that does nothing but picks' up old (thought to be junk) water softeners. He runs a couple cycles of iron out through them - back flushes the media bed a couple times, adds more media (some is lost over the yrs from cleaning themselves and his cleaning cycles and then installs them when people call him. He's generally gets $500-$750 installed and garrentted for a yr. He has the big name brand ones refurbished in that same price range. If a couple cleaning cycles don't clean it up - call up a local plumber, that doesn't handle a name brand and ask his advice - maybe time for a new one? | 
Water Softener Prob
