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View Full Version : Replacement water softner recommendations



Doug Swanson
02-22-2011, 1:54 PM
Hi,
I currently have a water boss (menards 6yr old) water softner that is not softening properly. I only get soft water if it is in "power clean" mode. Which as you can image goes through alot of water/salt. I think I'm done with water boss...any other recommendations? Or is there a component that might be failing on the water softener that is fairly easy to replace?

Thanks
ds

John Fabre
02-22-2011, 2:37 PM
Kinetico, had mine for 14 yrs and still going strong.

Lee Schierer
02-22-2011, 2:41 PM
It could possibly be your timer has gone bad. That is what failed on ours. The resins basically don't wear out, but won't soften if they don't get properly recharged.

What ever brand you decide to get get one that recharges based on usage or water hardness rather than just time. We can't believe how much less salt we are using since we got the new usage timer for our system. It easily compensates for the times when the kids and grandkids come home and we use more water. We have an Aquarite Supreme that we have had for 15+ years. We replaced the timer control about 3 years ago.

phil harold
02-22-2011, 5:17 PM
I have one of those water bosses

I was warned to put a whole house water filter before it
even with piped water i clog filters
easier to change a filter than a softener

George Bokros
02-22-2011, 5:40 PM
Kinetico, had mine for 14 yrs and still going strong.

X2. Have not had mine 14 yrs but works flawlessly. It is based on gallons softened and regenerates any time of day since it has two resin tanks. It also uses soft water for the regeneration which is supposed to be better.

Matt Meiser
02-22-2011, 6:01 PM
I have no idea who made ours but we went through a local company that only does water treatment. They recommended a system, what salt to use, installed it, set everything up and gave us something like a 2 year warranty including service calls. That was 7 years ago. After drilling our well deeper last week they came out, checked the water and did some adjustments. The service call was $65, but that charge is on hold because we are looking at getting an RO system from them and if we do, they'll wave the service call charge and call it a sales call. Its a modular system so if the valve goes bad we can replace just that, they could change out the resin, or just replace the salt tank if that got broken, etc.

Larry Edgerton
02-22-2011, 6:08 PM
Kinetico is the only one I will recommend to my customers. They just keep working.......

Jerry Bruette
02-22-2011, 9:34 PM
Depends if your looking to take out the hardness or if you have other problems with your water. Your Water Boss unit is made by a company called Hague. The Hague units I checked out at the local home builders expo seemed to be top notch units. They're available from dealers only though.

I have some iron in my water, but the biggest problem I have is iron bacteria. It can form a slimy film that will foul your mineral bed and the innards of your toilet tank. In order to combat the pest I bought a unit that has a sanitizing cycle during regeneration. It's made right here in Wisconsin by Water-Rite. The first Water-Rite unit I had lasted about 12 years and it didn't have the sanitizer cycle.

Jerry

Curt Harms
02-23-2011, 8:42 AM
Water Boss water softeners are stone simple. We've had one for a few years and one day had drinking water with salt in it (yuck!!) There appears to only be 2 moving parts on the whole thing. One is a little turbine that sits in the hard water line before it enters the valve block. The turbine measures how much water is used and controls regeneration based on water usage. The other is a valve which is activated by a little motor turning a cam. When this motor activates, it opens the valve and refills the salt tank. Our valve had failed open. Thank goodness there's a secondary float shutoff mechanism. I wonder if your valve has failed closed for some reason (motor has quit? loose cam?) and the resin bed is not being regenerated. I did find the nylon valve stem was somewhat rough but coating it with silicone grease brought it back to proper functioning. I stuck a stick down the well where the emergency float is-front right corner. There should be about 6"-8" of water in there.

Brian Elfert
02-23-2011, 10:07 AM
Contact Water Boss and they will send you instructions on cleaning several areas that may restore operations.

My Water Boss wouldn't actually use any salt after sitting unused for a number of months. I cleaned it and it started using salt again during a regeneration. It still doesn't seem to properly count gallons used and I have to manually start the regeneration cycle.

The Water Boss is the only reasonably priced water softener that will fit in my utility room due to space and height issues. Kinetico could probably design something, but I can't afford their prices.

Larry Frank
02-23-2011, 8:26 PM
I have one by Aqua systems that works very well. However, before that, I have a air induction filter which takes out the sulfur and iron and filters the water which makes the softener only have to deal with the hardness. Before you do anything, get a good water analysis and figure out what you need.

John A. Scott
02-23-2011, 9:17 PM
one more vote for Kinetico