Anyone here replaced their water softener on their own?

[sixdogs]

Our water softener is 15 years old and winding down. The dealer that put it in wants over $1,000 to replace it and I'm thinking I should maybe do it myself. I see units for sale at Costco and Walmart so if their customers can do it I sure can. I'm handy with tools, mechanically inclined and reasonably intuitive. The unit has an inlet, an outlet and a plug so how much trouble can I get in? Trouble is, I've never done it before.

Has anyone here replaced their water softener unit that can offer any commentary or words of advice?

 

[techman]

If you can do basic plumbing, easy job.
Check sears for a softener
paul

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Easy if you can do basic plumbing.

 

[polkwrangler]

pretty simple ,you could also look youtube

 

[oldpilgrim]

You can do the whole job with no soldering if you use Shark bite connectors.

 

[s219]

Easy to do -- I installed ours (first one) and it was a piece of cake. Took some reconfiguring since we hadn't planned the plumbing to accommodate a softener, but still not a big deal. I made sure to plumb in a bypass arrangement.

Bought the softener from this place:

Ohio Pure Water - Water Treatment Equipment and Accessories

They had good prices and good selection of equipment. Went with a Fleck 5600 SXT.

 

[Gary3032]

Eazy Peazy. Hardest part is hauling the old one out!

Gary

 

[sixdogs]

Starting to feel confident about this.

 

[RNeumann]

Starting to feel confident about this.

You should!

Unplug it
You will need to shut the water off to the place
Remove the 2 water flexes
Remove the back flush/drain line
Remove the hose between the main unit and salt rank if it's 2 pieces
Slide the old one out and the new one in!
The only other thing that would be nice to do is replace the water flexes. Hopefully they aren't soldered in on one end. If they are hopefully you can cut them off and use Sharkbite fittings. They are fine for the homeowner. Not a must but a "nice to do."

I've had good luck with the GE brand from HD. Note the reviews are top notch as well. They have a few sizes and the price is right. After installing and using several over the years their is no need to,pay a salesman $1000-$2500 for one.

GE 4, Grain Water Softener-GXSH4V - The Home Depot

 

[BoylermanCT]

Can you post a pic of your setup? Will be much easier to give advice. I am re-piping my house from copper to PEX, and PEX is so easy to work with, I love it. As mentioned earlier, Sharkbite (also called push to connect) fittings make going from copper to PEX super easy.

 

[MossRoad]

About 6 months ago I replaced a 30+ year old water softener in our house. I went with a Morton unit from Menards. Its just me and the wife at home now (until the kids move back in, of course! :laughing: ), so we went with a 27,000 grain unit. It was on sale and we had Menard's 11% rebates from past purchases so it ended up being about $300.

Very easy to do with a little planning.

Turn off your water in your house and open the highest and lowest faucets in your house. Hopefully there's one lower than the top of your softener. If not, put a garden hose on the lowest faucet before you open it, run the end to a bucket or floor drain lower than the softener, then open it and drain out your pipes till the hose runs no more. May take several buckets if you don't have a floor drain, but this will relieve any pressure on your pipes and also may save you some water on the floor when you cut the pipes to the old softener.

If you have bypass/shutoffs for your old softener, close then now and bypass.

Cut the two pipes to the softener with a hack saw or tube cutter, but be sure to leave a several inch stub on the house side pipes to slip the new flex pipes on to.

Get two of these in the correct size for you pipes.

U368FLEX24LF - SharkBite U368FLEX24LF - 1/2" Sharkbite x 3/4" FIP Flexible Water Heater Connector - 24" (Lead Free)

Install the softener per instructions.

Be sure to have electric outlet nearby for controls and be sure to plan for a drain line/overflow line.

Took me about an hour.

You can do it.

Once its installed, be sure to open the main water shutoff and let the air out of your pipes through some open faucets. Then check for leaks.

We don't have a floor drain, so for an overflow, I ran the overflow tube of the new softener to the old salt tank of the old softener and put a water alarm in that to warn me if it ever overflows.

Again, its an easy project.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Several people mention draining the pipes to help prevent a mess. Good idea. BUT be sure to turn your hot water tank to pilot on gas units and off on electric. Just in case the water gets to low and the elements or burner come on. Element out of the water will ruin fast. Gas heater low on water boils fast.

 

[sixdogs]

Here are the requested pics. Fittings look easy. I know how to solder anyway, so no big deal and all is accessible.

That's my water filter--blue-- on the right. The pump coming down into the softener tank is from the garage and allows me to dump the salt from there and it falls into the tank. It's just the way people do things around here.

If I do it myself, and I almost certainly will, I want to do it when things warm up in the spring.

 

[RNeumann]

This will be straight forward! Shut water off, cut the two lines the connect to the softenerclose to the fittings on the softener side and push on the Sharkbite 3/4" C/PEX male adapter (C=copper). From the male adapter you will need water flexes. The flexes will have to be 3/4" x 1" OR 3/4" depending on the softener you choose!
I don't see a water shutoff in the picks. If you don't have one you will need to add one. Most of the new softeners have a bypass built in so you don't need to worry about that.

I know PEX makes water flexes. They would work if you got a softener that has 3/4" fittings. Not my personal choice but an option.

 

[sixdogs]

Rather than Sharkbite or PEX, that are new to me, I plan on plain old pipe unless there's an issue. When I get closer to this, I'll revive this thread and you guys can help me over any rough spots.

 

[speedbump]

I see two possible problems with the swap out.
One, your softener looks like a twin tank unit which are generally used with extremely hard water. Check your hardness first. If it's over 30 grains hard, you will need another two tank unit.
Secondly, be aware that not all softener heads have the in and out on the same sides of the head. You certainly don't want to hook it up backwards and pump mineral through your plumbing system.

 

[Fossil Farm]

You may want to check with a softener supply house and see if you can just buy the replacement media instead of buying new tanks. We just got done replacing the media for our calcite tank (a full rebed, not just adding calcite) using the same tank. Did not take long at all and was pretty simple. The media is pretty much universal for most tanks. The head screws off, dump out the media, wash tank, cover the center pipe, dump in media, and replace the head. Of course Culligan seems to be proprietary, but yours looks "normal."

 

[sixdogs]

speedbump...Water hardness test done shows 24 gr. harness and 1 1/2 PPM iron.
I have all the original installation paperwork and instructions.

 

[RNeumann]

The GE will work fine at 24gns. I believe it's the same as the Morton unit listed above.

This is a straight forward project- you will do great!

 

[jimmyj]

You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!