You go down to your water softener to check if it is time to add some salt to your brine tank. It seems like you have been adding salt less often than you used to. Is your water softener regenerating less, maybe the hardness setting is not correct, how do you know what your water softener hardness setting should be set at?
Your water softener hardness setting should be set to the amount of hardness in your water plus 4 for every part per million of dissolved iron in your water. On an older water softener, you may need to set your hardness slightly higher as the resin becomes less efficient.
Under ideal conditions, a new water softener will need to be set to the actual hardness of your water and the water softener will do the rest. But not all water is the same and not all situations are the same so there can be times when your water softener hardness setting will need to be set to an amount other than your actual water hardness.
Your water softener needs to know the hardness of your water and a few other things!
Naturally, your water softener hardness setting should be set to the hardness of your water. An older water softener may need to be set slightly higher than your actual water hardness and your hardness needs to be set higher if you need to remove iron from your water.
In order for your water softener to maintain soft water for your home, it needs to know how much hardness is in your water.
The resin inside of a water softener can only remove so much hardness from your water before it will need to be regenerated, the hardness setting tells the water softener how many gallons of water can be used before it needs to regenerate its water softener resin.
Most electric water softeners will use the hardness number set in your water softener to not only calculate how often the water softener will have to regenerate, but it will also use that number to control the salt dosage needed to regenerate the amount of water softener resin inside of its tank.
On some more basic water softeners, the salt dosage will need to be set manually depending on your particular water situation. This salt dosage is quite easy to set yourself, just check your user manual for how to set the salt dosage on your water softener.
On a non-electric water softener, setting the hardness is a bit more difficult.
A non-electric water softener does not have an electric computer to keep track of when it needs to regenerate, so it will have to rely on a mechanical disc to know when it needs to regenerate.
The benefit of having a metering disc is that you never have to change the setting providing that your water situation never changes.
But well water or municipal water can change over time, and there may come a time when the meter disc in your non-electric water softener will not regenerate your water softener often enough to provide you with soft water, or it may regenerate more often than needed, wasting water and salt.
If your water situation changes, you will need to have a water softener professional change the meter disc, this is not common, but if your water source changes, so can your water hardness.
When do I have to set the hardness setting on my water softener?
If you are planning to install a new water softener yourself, you will have to use a water hardness test kit to determine the amount of hardness in your water and program the hardness number into your water softener.
Although many digital water softeners have a battery inside of them to keep your programmed settings, eventually this battery will lose its power and you may have to re-enter the hardness of your water again if there is a power outage, you unplug your water softener, or if your water hardness changes.
Setting your water hardness on a digital water softener is usually quite simple but it varies from water softener to water softener. See your owner’s manual for detailed instructions on how to set the hardness of your water softener.
You will need to adjust your hardness setting if there is iron in your water.
A water softener is not just used for removing hard minerals from your water, it can also do a great job of removing dissolved (ferrous) iron from your water if you program it properly.
After you have tested your water to determine the hardness of your water, you should also test your water for iron. An iron test kit is very simple to use and will give you a result very quickly.
Once you have determined the level of iron in your water, you should add 4 to your hardness number for every 1 PPM (Part Per Million) of iron in your water. If your iron test kit shows that you have 1 PPM of iron, add 4 to your hardness number, 1.5 PPM of iron add 6 to your hardness number, and so on.
By compensating the hardness number that you program into your water softener, it should have no problem removing dissolved iron from your water providing that it has the capacity to do it.
Excessive dissolved iron in your water might be too much for a standard water softener and a separate iron removal system might be a better way to take care of the iron in your water.
The hardness on an older water softener may need to be set a little higher than on a new one.
The reason that a water softener is able to remove hard ions from your water, is because there is water softener resin inside of its tank. Without properly functioning water softener resin, a water softener is basically just a big tank that your water flows through.
New water softener resin looks like a tiny smooth bead to the naked eye, but on a microscopic level, it looks more like a ball of yarn that has many crevasses around it that capture the hard ions from your water.
As water-softener resin gets older, these crevasses become less defined and become less efficient at holding hard ions. The water softener resin will still be able to remove hardness from your water, just not as efficiently as it used to.
Because the resin becomes less effective as it gets older, you will have to increase the hardness setting on your water softener to add more water to your water softeners brine tank and regenerate the resin more thoroughly so it can remove hardness as well as it could when it was new.
You can kind of think of this as an old sponge that doesn’t soak up as much water as it used to and need to be rung out more thoroughly to soak up the same amount of water as a new sponge.
When do I need to check if my water softener hardness is still correct?
For the most part, the hardness of your water is not likely to change significantly for many years, but that can be very different depending on where you live and what is going on in your area that could affect the hardness of your water.
New construction miles away from your home could change the hardness of the water that is coming into your home, so if there is significant activity in your area that could affect your water hardness, you should check your water hardness to see if you need to change the hardness setting on your water softener.
Power outages and even brief interruptions of your electrical power could cause your water softener to lose its programmed hardness setting. If your water softener loses its programming, it could be regenerating more often than it needs to or perhaps not often enough to provide your home with soft water.
I suggest testing your water hardness about once per year just to make sure that there has not been any change in your water hardness that would require changing the hardness setting on your water softener.
By using a simple water hardness test kit, you will know in seconds if your water hardness has changed and you can make adjustments to your water softener’s hardness setting if needed.
How do I know what my water hardness is?
If you had your water softener installed by a professional water treatment company, they should have tested your water in order to know what type and size of water softener would work best for you and they should have put your test results on your receipt.
If you installed your water softener yourself or have lost your installation receipt, you can easily test your water hardness with a simple water hardness test kit.
Check out this quick video on how to test your water hardness.
How to convert water hardness in pPM (parts per million) to GPG (Grains Per Gallon) And Vice Versa.
To convert water hardness in parts per million (PPM) to grains per gallon (GPG), simply divide the water hardness parts per million (PPM) amount by 17.118 to get the hardness in grains per gallon (GPG).
To convert water hardness in grains per gallon (GPG) to parts per million (PPM), simply multiply the water hardness grains per gallon (GPG) amount by 17.118 to get the hardness in parts per million (PPM).
Parts Per Million (PPM) To Grains Per Gallon (GPG) Conversion Calculator
You can also use this easy-to-use water hardness conversion calculator that you can open in a new window by clicking HERE!
Can I test if there is iron in my water?
You don’t have to bring a sample of your water to a laboratory to find out how much iron you have in your water.
An inexpensive iron test kit will give you an accurate reading of your iron level in your water in just a few minutes so you can compensate for your hardness by setting on your water softener to remove the iron in your water.
You should set your water softener hardness based on your water hardness with a few variables.
Here are a few examples of how to calculate what your water softener hardness should be set at.
If you do not have any dissolved iron in your water, just use your water hardness and the hardness buffer of 20% of your water hardness based on the age of your water softener.
Not all water softeners will need to be set higher just because they are more than 10 years old, but water softener resin does lose its efficiency as it gets older so a small buffer adjustment may be necessary.
Remember, we are adding 4 to our hardness setting for every 1 part per million of iron in your water.
Water Softener Hardness Setting Chart
| Water Hardness (GPG) | Iron PPM | Add to hardness for iron | Age of water softener | Hardness buffer based on age | Do the math | Set your hardness (GPG) to: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | .5 | 2 | Less than 10 years | 0 | 5+2= | 7 |
| 5 | 1.0 | 4 | Over 10 years | 1 | 5+4+1= | 10 |
| 5 | 1.5 | 6 | Less than 10 years | 0 | 5+6= | 11 |
| 5 | 2 | 8 | Over 10 years | 1 | 5+8+1= | 14 |
| 10 | 1.0 | 4 | Less than 10 years | 0 | 10+4= | 14 |
| 10 | 1.5 | 6 | Over 10 years | 2 | 10+6+2= | 18 |
| 10 | 2 | 8 | Less than 10 years | 0 | 10+8= | 18 |
| 10 | 2.5 | 10 | Over 10 years | 2 | 10+10+2= | 22 |
| 20 | .5 | 2 | Less than 10 years | 0 | 20+2= | 22 |
| 20 | 1.5 | 6 | Less than 10 years | 0 | 20+6= | 26 |
| 20 | 2.0 | 8 | Over 10 years | 4 | 20+8+4= | 32 |
| 20 | 2.5 | 10 | Over 10 years | 4 | 20+10+4= | 34 |
Water Softener Hardness Setting Calculator
Water Hardness Setting Calculator
Input Water Hardness:
Input Iron (ppm):
Iron (ppm) * 4:
Set Your Water Softener Hardness To:
Understand What’s In Your Water!
Easily check that your water is free of hard minerals!
Know if your water contains dissolved iron!
Check the Total Dissolved Solids in your water!
Get more facts about your water!
To Sum Up!
A brand-new water softener will work very efficiently so you may only need to set the hardness at the exact hardness contained in your water. As a water softener gets older, the water softener resin becomes less efficient so you may need to set the hardness setting slightly higher than the actual hardness.
Add 3 to your hardness setting for every 1 PPM (Part Per Million) of dissolved iron in your water when your water softener is new or if your hardness is minimal (less than 10 Grains Per Gallon).
Add 4 to your hardness setting for every 1 PPM (Part Per Million) of dissolved iron in your water if your water is very hard or if your water softener is more than 10 years old.
Hello sir. I have a 7 year old fleck 5600 SXT. It’s at a rental and I found it has been bypassed for 6 years. The manual says it’s been programmed for 25 grains. I don’t know it’s capacity. hand written in the manual were these notes: BW: 6, Brine Slow Rinse: 50, Fast Rinse: 6, Salt dosage: 12. I went through the programming and set the hardness to 17 as the town of Pflugerville told me that was their hardness. No idea on iron. The test kit says it’s REALLY hard (over 250 ppm). So, I set the hardness up to 30. We’re now around 100 ppm. I called Quality Water Treament, but they won’t help as the system is too old. Should I just bump up the hardness setting until I test around 50 ppm or lower? Thanks for any help you can bring
Hello Mr. Fox and thank you for the question.
First of all, 250 ppm equates to 14.6 grains per gallon of hardness so the 17 grains of hardness is probably correct.
Because the water softener has been bypassed for several years, the water softener resin may be damaged if there is chlorine in the water.
The settings for regeneration sound fine, I would set the hardness to 20 just to provide a small buffer. It may take several regenerations before you have softened water as the resin has been sitting for so long.
Make sure that you are testing the water hardness with non-expired hardness test strips! Yes, water hardness test strips have an expiration date on them and can show a hard water reading even when the water is soft.
A 7-year-old Fleck 5600 SXT is certainly NOT too old to work properly. You can easily refurbish a Fleck 5600 valve if need be but it could last you a good 15+ years with minimal maintenance.
I would let regenerate the system every day for 3-4 days and then re-test the hardness. If you are still showing some hardness, wait a few weeks and test again. If you still have water hardness at that point, increase the hardness setting by 5 and give it a few more weeks.
Check that your water hardness test strips are not expired! If they are, you can get some fresh ones HERE!
Hope this was helpful.
Paul
Absolutely useless. I know the hardness for my area is 266.5. but how do I take that number and convert it to the number I enter into my water softener? To say the least, my water softener does not go up to 266.5!
I cannot believe how difficult this information is to find!!
Hello Matt and thank you for the question.
Thank you for pointing that out to me, I will add that information to my article A.S.A.P.
Your hardness of 266.5 PPM (parts per million) converts to 15.550588371 (round up to 16) GPG (Grains Per Gallon).
You divide your 266.5 parts per million by 17.118 to get 15.550588371 grains per gallon or multiply your grains per gallon by 17.118 to get your water hardness in parts per million.
Thanks again for pointing that out!
Paul
Hey Paul
I am missing 1 crucial figure, the capacity in grains (denoted by C in the controller program).
The incoming hardness is 180 ppm, there are 2 vessels of 48 litre capacity each. The figure in C features a multiplier of 1000, so a figure of 48 actually means 48000.
Any idea what figure I should put in C?
Regards,
Simon
Hello Simon and thank you for the question.
Unfortunately, I can’t be sure if you should enter 48 for 48,000 grains capacity.
I do believe that “C” is for the capacity, but I can’t be sure if you need to enter the capacity of the tanks or the capacity required based on the hardness of your water.
If you can let me know the brand and model of water softener that you have, perhaps I can give you a better answer but you might need to contact customer service for the correct answer to what should be entered for “C”. Normally a water softener would just need you to enter your water hardness and then it would calculate the capacity of the system based on the hardness entered.
I hope this was helpful
Paul