water softner help in chosing and is this true

sunil1234

Avoriaz wrote: »

Hi Sunil

There is a float mechanism inside that determines the maximum level of water. Perhaps that is set too high and the brine water is rising so high that it is leaking out the top, evaporating and leaving a salt residue.

Or perhaps you are just a bit clumsy when you refill with salt and some water splashes out. You don’t notice that until it dries and leaves a salt residue.

thank you for the reply. It must be the former reason as the staining is all the way around where the hinged mechanism allows the section to drop down. Any ideas how this float can be adjusted please or should i just call kinetico for service?

thank you

Avoriaz

It is a while since I looked inside a Kinetico softener and models may vary so I can't really advise on how to set the float level. If I recall properly there is a vertical plastic pipe or tube with an adjustable mechanism at the lower level that is used to set the maximum brine level. It is probably fairly obvious if you take the lid off and look inside.

Perhaps someone more experienced or knowledgeable can help.

You could try removing the lid and forcing the softener to go through a few regeneration cycles and see if the brine water level gets too high.

On top of the double tank is the metering system. At the centre you should find a philips or star type screw. Use a screwdriver to depress that slightly until it engages on the meter disk below and turn it slowly clockwise to the next line until the regeneration starts.

That will take maybe 7 to 10 minutes. When finished move it again to force a second regeneration.

One full turn of the meter disk is two full cycles. This should become clear once you have a look at it.

See what happens as you do this.

Here is a picture of a typical Kinetico meter.

Avoriaz

Sunil, alternatively you could not worry about it. Provided the softener is not using excessive salt or leaking water, then some salt staining is probably harmless.

Again, hopefully someone more knowledgable than me might comment on that as I don't want to mislead you.

Matt_Filterman

Hi sunil1234.
I often find salt crystals 'tracing' up on inside of brine tanks well above the salt level.. I can imagine that on a small brine tank this salt tracing could easily work its way up the inside of the tank and then onto the outside. I've never quite worked out why this occurs but it might explain what's happening on your softener.
Matt

Catbells

Have now moved into new home and got round to getting quotes for a water softener. I was given the following information about Kinetico. Do you think the price sounds about right for one of these kinetico water softeners.


"The MIni Kinetic B is looked upon as being the downgraded version of the 2020c but there is little difference in specification. The MKB uses slightly more salt per regeneration (.3kg as oposed to .23kg) and has lower flow rates, but this will not have any noticable affect on a conventional gravity fed system. The main difference is in warranty with only 1 year labour and 2 year parts. This system is £740.00 inc VAT". (fitting costs at least £225 extra)

The Kinetico 2020c is £200 more but has a 10 year parts warranty - a big difference compared to the Mini Kinetic B. Is there any real difference - the installers say not but why the big price difference if this is so?

In addition I am having Harveys coming to quote for one of their softeners. I haven't seen so much on here about them. Any experiences with them would be welcome. Thanks.

Catbells

Have just had Harvey's round to quote for their water softener. I was more impressed than the rep for the Kinetico 2020c who told me that the softener system bypassed the dishwasher altogether which I now see is unnecessary. It just means you don't put salt in the dish washer. Am pretty sure I will go with Harveys who gave me a there and then quote and threw in a drinking water tap + filter when I told them I was also having Kinetico quote too. I had to ring the Kinetico installers to remind them to send me the quote. Just didn't get a safe feeling from them. Also Harvey's have a good back up service whereas the Kinetico doesn't as they are not manufactured here. The Harveys rep said they used to run Kinetico and built it up to what it is today. All I can say is if Kinetico carry on their business in this way they won't stay successful for much longer.

Matt_Filterman

Hi catbells.
your experiences of the two companies makes interesting reading.. I don't know much about either but I have a feeing both product lines must be reasonably good as I haven't heard any negative feedback.. Harvey himself seems to be a bit of a character, but obviously knows a lot about the industry and talks a lot of sense. As far as I can tell the Harvey softener is also British made which can only be a good thing.. As this is a money saving web site I have to add though that both Kinetico and Harvey softeners seem relatively expensive compared to single tank units.

Catbells

Thanks Matt. The two prices are within £100 of each other but I was much more reassured by Harveys so went for them (they were higher priced). They also threw in a cold drinking water tap worth £40 and did a demonstration which Kinetico didn't. I'm paying £1330.

I got the feeling that the Kinetico name should be sufficient to clinch the sale. Their quote came days after the survey was done (Xmas Eve) and I wanted to get the order in before the new VAT comes in in January and there wasn't any offer from them to this effect. I saved £40 on this.

Re the single vs double tanks. I decided that the single tank would require a bit more attention with regards regeneration whereas the double tank is fully self regulating. All I have to remember is to replace the salt.

Doc_N

Catbells wrote: »

........I got the feeling that the Kinetico name should be sufficient to clinch the sale.......

Probably just me, but the Kinetico name would be more than sufficient to stop me buying one. Can't really explain that, but the company's not been around that long in softener terms, and there's something about the way it's marketed that I don't like.

Just a personal view, though.

Avoriaz

^^^ Kinetico has been around since 1970.

They are not newcomers to water softening.