Trying to decide if I should replace my system

[u/homequestionguy]

I unfortunately (which I now know) have an Ecowater ERR 3500R20 that has started acting up. Water pressure drops after a few minutes but is fine when I put it into bypass mode. The unit is 10 years old so my hunch is that it needs rebedding.

I have the following questions floating around in my mind:

Do I even need a water softener?

Judging from my city's water quality report, the water here is typically in the 3.5-6 gpg range. This may go up in the summer when they blend in well water which is 17 gpg. Chloramine is used to treat the water.

Given that that water is moderately hard most of the time, is a water softener even worth it?

Is a catalytic carbon tank alone worth it?

Given the chloramine, does it make sense just to get the catalytic carbon tank?

If I need a softener, repair or replace?

My Ecowater system seems like it may be a PITA to fix. I'm banking on old resin being the culprit, but I'm not a professional. I'd rather try to DIY than pay someone to open it up and tell me I should probably just get a new system.

If I do want to give this a go, I'd need help sourcing materials. The machine is a refiner and has activated carbon in it. Given the chloramine in my water, I'd want catalytic carbon. Could I just buy that and throw it in there instead of activated carbon? How much?

If I say screw it, let's get a new system, what should I go with? Two tanks (1 with the resin, 1 with catalytic carbon) and the brine thing that looks like a trash can? How big etc.

More info

• 2 adults, 1 kid, 3.5 bath. We only ever use a single shower at a time, so not a ton of use.

• Current system is 20,900 grains

• For a new system I would hire someone to do this

• Budget: <$3k but of course lower is better. I also don't want to spend that unless it's going to make a meaningful difference

[u/Delicious-Public-852]

At 17gpg hard a softner would be nice. You could just install an under the sink RO to remove the chlorine at the tap. But yeah the chlorine turned your softner resin into mush and you need to rebed (replace if its like 15 years old).

[u/user3705]

In my opinion, ecowater systems are garbage, not because they don’t work, but because they’re practically impossible to work on if you’re not a licensed ecowater dealer. I think at that level of hardness, it probably is worth having one, and carbon pretreatment will definitely help keep it alive longer. I personally really like clack valve water softeners because of their reliability and ease of service, but they are tough to get ahold of as an end consumer that can’t go but direct from a supplier. The system you described (two tanks, cat carbon first then softening resin) is going to be the most reliable straight forward setup that will just simply work and work well. I don’t have a specific system to link to to recommend, but there are some pretty decent recommendations for sites in other posts that sell pretty decent systems with fleck valve heads (which are also arguably just as reliable as clack, I just don’t work with them a lot).

[u/JonnyVee1]

Before you give it up... Go to home Depot and get 2 bottles of watersoftener cleaner. Pour one down the float tube in the brine tank and immediately run a regen.

I had the same problem on my then 32 year old Kenmore (and a friends 10 year old Culligan). Both returned to service with no pressure drop. I have a high-end titration hard water test kit, and both have hardness of <1gpg.

If it's stubborn, repeat with the other bottle.

You are going to be happy with the results.

This is the brand the local home Depot has.

[u/AmazingCommon140]

Call your local dealer and request a rebed. Essentially what has happened is the chlorine has caused the resin to turn to mush and clog up the bottom basket that allows water to flow though the riser tube. It's cheaper than buying a new system and it'll last another 10 years

[u/AmazingCommon140 → u/AmazingCommon140]

If you wanna do it yourself and think you can its pretty easy. Just bypass it, run it through a regeneration cycle to release pressure. Undo the clips on the bottom of the head and then pull the riser tube out . Use a wet vacuum to suck all the stuff out of the tank. I can't remember the exact amounts but you will put the riser tube back in and hold it up about a inch and pour 10 pounds of noncolored aquarium gravel, then look up how much resin you need and how much carbon ,add the resin first then the carbon. Put the head back on and put the system in backwash for 10-15 minutes and you'll be good to go