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Frequently Asked Questions About OMNI Water Softeners
- What contaminants does a water softener remove? What is not treated?
- What maintenance is required?
- What kind of salt should I use?
- I don't have a drain nearby -- can I extend the drain line or run it upstairs?
- It seems like my hard water comes back before my system regenerates.
- I don’t like the slippery feel of the water
- My unit is regenerating at the wrong time. How do I fix that?
- How much sodium is added to my water?
- Is there a way to "reset" the control head?
- Can I force the unit to proceed to the next step in the cycle?
- My system seems to be working, but the flow indicator does not light. Why?
1.What contaminants does a water softener remove? What is not treated?
- The primary purpose of a softener is calcium and magnesium reduction which leads to less scale build-up and white staining on glasses plus increased efficiency of soap. A practical limit is around 50 grains/gallon total hardness inlet concentrations, although hardness concentrations up to 99 grains / gallon can be removed. |
- The softener will also reduce dissolved (clear water) iron which cause red/orange staining on laundry and toilets. A practical limit on dissolved iron is around 2 ppm inlet concentrations but higher concentrations can be removed. . Note iron begins staining above 0.3 ppm. |
- The softener will also reduce manganese which causes black/gray staining on glasses and toilets. A practical limit on manganese is around 1 ppm inlet concentration. Note manganese begins staining above 0.05 ppm.
- The softener is not designed to remove sediment. It will not affect Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
or
pH in most cases.
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2. What maintenance is required?
- Keep salt level above the water level in the brine tank |
- The injector screen may need to be cleaned occasionally (every year or two) if brine draw slows over time. If severe, install a sediment filter prior to the softener |
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3. What kind of salt should I use?
- Use pellet salt (typically yellow bags) for "typical" water -- iron below 1 ppm |
- Use pellet salt with iron out (typically green/blue bags) for challenging water -- iron above 1 ppm |
- Do not use rock salt, solar salt, sea salt etc... as these are less pure and will deposit dirt and sediment on the bottom of the brine tank. If used frequently can cause issue with brine air check in brine tank resulting in poor or incomplete recharge |
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4. I don't have a drain nearby -- can I extend the drain line or run it upstairs?
- Limit drain length to 20 ft and drain height to 6 ft above valve. Longer lengths will cause issues with brine draw and can lead to incomplete recharge, hard water, salty water to service, and/or overflowing brine tank |
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5. It seems like my hard water comes back before my system recharges.
- Salt in the brine tank? |
- Does the unit regenerate? |
- Start a manual regeneration by holding the recycle button 5 seconds. Wait 2 hours for regeneration to complete and retest water hardness. – does this fix the issue? |
- If the water is soft after regeneration, either the hardness setting is too low or it is not metering water |
- Turn on water flow and confirm flow light (decimal point between the two digits on screen) flashes with flow... |
- If light flashes with flow... |
- Increase hardness value AND/OR set capacity to HC |
- If no flashing light with flow... |
- Check meter cable connection is clipped in (off-white cable on back right of valve near outlet). Follow wire back into the control and assure it is plugged in |
- If still no light... wave magnet by sensor to see if light flashes. |
- If magnet gets flashes -- need to clean/replace turbine meter |
- If no flashes with magnet -- need to replace meter cable and then if still no flashes, replace the unit controller |
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6. I don’t like the slippery feel of the water
-The slippery feel is what good soft water feels like. There is no adjustment on a softener to give “less soft” water. |
- Try it for a while and you will get used to it and start liking it |
- Can mix untreated water with the softened water by opening the bypass valve slightly. Inlet side on the bypass valve can be rotated slightly to blend feed water with treated water. •Use trial and error to find the appropriate comfortable “feel”
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7.My unit is regenerating at the wrong time. How do I fix that?
Hold the time button until the current hour is on the display correctly |
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8. How much sodium is added to my water?
Water softeners will add sodium to the treated water (if NaCl salt is used to recharge). The amount of sodium added depends on the feed water chemistry, but is generally "very low" according to the FDA guidelines for food. Even with a relatively high hardness of 20 grains per gallons, the sodium added from softening per liter of water is less than the amount of sodium in a slice of white bread. |
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9.Is there a way to "reset" the control head?
If you feel you need to force a regeneration, simply hold down the REGEN button for 5 seconds. The system will start a regeneration and continue through that entire cycle. The display will show cascading dashes when it is in regeneration. If the cascading dashes don't show, try holding the button again. Beyond this, there really is no way to "reset" the control head.
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10.Can I force the unit to proceed to the next step in the cycle?
You can force the control to move into the next step of the cycle by pressing the REGEN and TIME buttons together. Note that if the system is in its service mode, this will not do anything.
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11. My system seems to be working, but the flow indicator does not light. Why?
1) check meter cable is clipped in on back of valve
2) check meter cable (three pin connector) is clipped inside cover
3) If still no flow -- unclip meter cable from back of valve. Wave magnet across sensor back and forth. Each time magnet touches the light should blink
3a) If light blinks with magnet, but not with water --> the turbine is not spinning. Remove the turbine and see what is binding??
3b) If light does not blink with magnet, the meter cable is bad and needs to be changed.
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