Water softener funny

[Capitol]

Having lots of visitors for long periods this year, I took my eye off the ball and allowed the water softener to run out of salt. I refilled the softener from the leftover salt box, pressed the regenerate button and all went back to normal for a few weeks. I noticed the dishwasher looked a bit smeary and then she was complaining about hair washing not being right, so I thought that perhaps I had exhausted the resin bed and so proceeded to run a few extra regeneration cycles. This did not solve the problem, so I thought well, after 33 yrs perhaps the control unit motor or valves had clapped out. I looked around the market and found that most of the new units were too big to fit the space I had available, however Amazon had a unit which would fit. As the problem was annoying and not urgent, I put off buying a replacement until the new year. In the meantime I looked at causes of water softener failure and discovered that under certain circumstances the salt pellets could stick themselves together and form a salt dome which would not drop down under gravity. Hence the regeneration cycle would not work as there was no salt available. The cure for this problem is very sophisticated and involved violent poking of the salt mass with a very large screwdriver. Voila, one repaired water softener, hair washing normal and dishwasher working correctly. I came to the conclusion that the problem was caused by using the dregs of two bags of salt which had a lot of fine salt in the mix which then stuck together. So, one to remember if the softener stops working. I'm amazed that the timer motor is still working after all this time. I didn't realise it was that old.

[Gatuzo]

[Davey]

The old Calgon softener that was in this house when we moved in was like that, a solid block of undissolved salt sitting in a vat of brine, and the whole works were immobile. I replaced it with a unit that uses blocks of salt, partly because the lack of access makes pouring powder in almost impossible, but I like the idea of something that is already in solid and manageable form. The unit only allows in the amount of water it needs for a cycle, so there is never a pool of brine sitting there ready to get hard. And it is powered by its own softened water, so it doesn't need electrical power, and recycles based on the throughput rather than a fixed timer.

[JimG]

I replaced it with a unit that uses

Apologies for jumping in but Davey, can you tell me which make/model you have now. Thanks

[Davey]

It's a Twintec, from these folks:

It isn't cheap, but it just works. Patmore is an East Anglian supplier, but I would think that the Twintec is available everywhere.