I have a Kinetico system from 1994. It has not been giving soft water for about a year now. I’m sure it needs resin, however I would like to make sure it is otherwise functioning before investing in it.
Can you tell me where to begin?

Answer: There are quite a few possible causes of your softener’s performance issues – and breakdown of the resin, or fouling of the resin bed resin is certainly a possibility – but not the only one.  We are assuming that the cause is not due to an air-leak, as this problem normally occurs only during installation or when you are moving the water softener.  So, before you invest in replacement resin, manually regenerate the unit, and see if the water level in the brine tank slowly recedes.  If it does, then this indicates a functioning softener, and replacing the resin may be the next thing to try.  If it does not, check the injector and injector screen to see if these are plugged.  If they are, clean them well with fresh water, and reinstall.  At the same time, remove all of the salt from the brine tank, clean it out with a water wash, and inspect the brine valve to be sure that there are no obvious areas of agglomerated salt plugging the assembly. See if this resolves the problem.  If not, the next thing to do is to re-bed the resin tanks with new resin.

How much sodium does a water softener introduce into the water?  Our water was tested at 12 gpg, 0 iron, pH 7.3, TDS 154ppm.  We bought a TurboSoft 56MT from Ferguson Enterprises 2 yrs. ago, have not used it yet as we’re not in new house yet.  I’m on a salt-restricted diet so if sodium is present in excess, would installing an under-the-sink reverse osmosis system help for drinking water and ‘fridge icemaker?  What is a safe level of sodium in water?

Answer: The amount of sodium a water softener adds depends your water hardness.  Water softeners remove calcium and magnesium from hard water and replace them with sodium. The higher the concentration of calcium and magnesium, the more sodium is donated to the water. Approximately 7 to 8 mg/l of sodium is added to your water for every grain per gallon hardness.  With 12 GPG hardness, you can expect approximately 80 to 100 mg/l sodium added to your water. However, the sodium level would still be very low, and according to a doctor that is a hypertension specialist at the Mayo Clinic, “the amount of sodium in softened water that was originally very hard shouldn’t be cause for concern.”

Still, for people on a low-sodium diet that are concerned with consuming any extra sodium, you can consider using potassium chloride rather than sodium chloride.  We always recommend that you use sodium chloride or potassium chloride purified for use in water softeners (available at many supermarkets, plumbing supply and hardware stores).  Non-sodium potassium chloride is commonly available and sold under the brand names Morton KCL, K-Life, Softouch and Nature’s Own.

As you mention, you can also install a reverse osmosis system to remove all sodium from drinking and cooking water. And it is very common to use the RO system to feed both a tap at the kitchen sink and the fridge as well.  You can take a look at some of the units we offer on our reverse osmosis page.