One of the smaller things on our list of house to-dos was to sort out the existing water softener. Because we’re on a well, we really need one, else we get nasty scale stains everywhere. Case in point: we use small amounts of not one but two rinse aids in the dishwasher even with the old softener; otherwise we end up with a film on our dishes.
The existing water softener was a very, very old Kinetico. I did some research online and found they stopped making tan tanks in the late ’80s. Amusingly enough, it was made just one town over from where my grandparents used to live. The unit is not original to the house though, as Kinetico was founded in 1970 according to their wikipedia page. Still, the thing was old and replacing it with a more modern system seemed like a good idea.
I did a bunch of reading online to determine what the new system should be, and decided on a Fleck. I then used my online searching skills to find a few places in the area that sold and installed the unit I wanted. I decided to go with City Water Filter out of San Jose, but the guy there actually steered me away from Fleck and towards Hankscraft.
I called them yesterday afternoon to set up the install, and they asked if they could do it immediately. Figuring sooner is better than later, I said “sure.” While Friday traffic for them was a bit of a nightmare, they arrived at 6pm and promptly got to work. The only real hiccup was when they went to pull out the old system–there was no valve to shut the water off and we had a small flood, so things got a bit soppy until Agent Smith went to the main junction and shut off all water to the house.
Once the sediment filter was removed, we got a good look at how much crap the previous owners let accumulate due to (probably) not replacing it for a few years. Pretty nasty. Even the interior of the sediment filter canister was gross. We’re pretty certain some of the crap was from rust and sediment buildup in the old well, so we’ll see what the new filters look like in a year when we replace them.
Which brings up a new term we use here at Purgatory–whenever AS or I run into some half-assed fix the previous owners did, like, say, putting in glass sliding doors at $10K a pop but failing to address the dry-rot surrounding them, or putting in exterior wooden French doors with no awning or other feature to keep water from running down them in the rainy season, we say “They really [PO’s last name]ed that one!” There are countless such examples, as we’re pretty certain they were having income issues, but seriously, who builds a deck over the septic tank, complete with hatches so they can pump the thing–and then never actually pump it?
But I digress. Below is a shot of the new softener head. It’s pretty stout and actually tells us what is going on–quite an upgrade from the old system, which you could only tell was working when you’d hear the sound of water moving through it. It’s more robust than the Fleck head, as the plastic quality is higher and the interior bits are all ceramic.
The installers from City Water Filter did a simple hardness test on our non-softened water, and we come in at a stunning 32 grains per gallon (gpg), meaning it is very, very hard. They also checked out the reverse osmosis system that came with the house, and recommended a mineral filter be installed and hooked up to our refrigerator since I like to use the tap from it for cold drinking water. As I type this I’m currently waiting for them to arrive to do that little bit of work today. While we hate our primary fridge (more on why at a later date), at least this work will easily transfer to the new one we have picked out, as it will be plug-and-play.
The guys worked for about two-and-a-half hours and now we have sediment and charcoal filters in place. They left us the original salt tank and I will clean it out this week and store it away, as we may find a use for it later.
Here’s a last pic of the finished work. Note the random iron attached to the wall is now gone–anyone need/want it? We have no use for it. Also now I get to try using the dishwasher with just one rinse aid!
