I Have A Water Softener! OMNIfilter OM34K-S-18

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support AutomaticWasher.org:

frigilux

frigilux

Well-known member
Platinum Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Messages
12,663
Location
The Minnesota Prairie
I’ve used Culligan’s weekly tank exchange service since moving to the apartment in July of 2017, to the tune of $38 per month. Money well spent as far as I’m concerned, but have had problems with the service since the office in Jackson, MN was bought out by the one in Fairmont. Twice in the past six weeks they’ve given me tanks that had either not been regenerated or whose aging resin beads could no longer pull minerals from the water.

A couple of weeks ago, my landlord asked how much I pay for soft water and said, “You’re the only tenant I’ve ever had who has opted for soft water service.” (He’s owned the building for about 6 years.) He also admitted he really enjoys having soft water at home.

Anyway, he called yesterday afternoon and said he’d picked up a water softener for me at Menard’s and was going to come over and install it. I just about flipped! No more running out of soft water on weeks when there is extra laundry, showers, and dishwasher usage. No more dealing with an increasingly unreliable Culligan service, either.

Went to the Menard’s website and found it. The brand is OMNIfilter; model OM34K-S-18. It regenerates based on how much water is used rather than having pre-set regenerations times, although I suppose they all do that these days. I remember when it was considered a premium feature.

My only costs are for salt pellets and the water used for regeneration.

I’ve always thought my landlord was a nice guy. He gets a gold star for this one![this post was last edited: 6/27/2020-11:45]

frigilux-2020062707340907235_1.jpg

frigilux-2020062707340907235_2.jpg

frigilux-2020062707340907235_3.jpg
 
Soft water

Have used a softner for many years to help with the the cities river/blended in well water.

Between spotless dishes out of the dishwasher (without rinse aid or lemi shine) and the softer cleaner skin/hair and plumbing fixtures - soft water makes life much easier and cleaner.

Using half the laundry detergent along with better results from cheaper detergents, who would say no..

Had a plumber in before moving in to install softner and asked him to bypass all the cold water faucets from softned water with exception of the showers - havent looked back since. -was an easy job on a smaller home and always thought softwater on toilets was silly. Much less salt usage from fewer regenerations/water usage!
 
I love mine...it's my third one.  First was a Rainsoft...total scam of a system that was unreliable and the techs were just idiots.  Took it out and put in a Whirlpool from Lowes that lasted about 10 years until it failed internally.  I had kept the Rainsoft tanks and found online how to replace their faulty valves with Fleck valves so I just retrofitted it and reinstalled it with new resin about 7 years ago and knock on wood all has been good since.  I guess I should go on ebay and order replacement seals and spacers for the day it needs them to be replaced.  Easy and pretty cheap.
 
Rainsoft

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ours is a Rainsoft and we've had only one issue with it and it really wasn't the water softener.  I opened our water bill one day and it had jumped about twice.  The first month I didn't pay that much attention because summer had started and we were watering the lawn on a regular schedule.  The following month it went four times the normal.  I called the water company to come out and check for leaks.  While he was looking at the meter I was standing next to the little hut that houses the Softener and I heard this noise like running water.  I set the bypass and the sound stopped.  I keep a warranty on it so I called and they said the seals had blown out and the water was essentially running down the drain.  The Rainsoft people replaced them.  The following month the same thing happened, I called again and they came out found the seals blown and they replaced them.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">After much troubleshooting and visits from the water company, the irrigation people and everyone I could think of we determined the water pressure from the street had jumped above 130 PSI even though the water company insists nothing had changed.  I didn't notice a difference in the house or with the sprinkler system they seemed fine.  Turns out the softener was installed BEFORE the pressure regulator to the house and the sprinkler system had its own.  I called the Rainsoft people again and they came out and put another pressure regulator on the water softener and we haven't had an issue since.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">You just never know.  When you own a house, it's always sumthin'</span>
 
Installed in 2001.  First it was the seals...water running all the time down the drain.  They fixed.  Then the timer got stuck...they "fixed". Then it got stuck again.  Said timer motor was faulty and on back order.  Supposedly fixed.  Stuck again.  Said it was user error...how could that be, I didn't touch it.  Perhaps referring to themselves as users.  Stuck again.  Fed up, jerked it out and replaced it.  Filed a ripoff report.
 
Congratulations, Eugene!  That's great news 😀

 

I researched and learned about softeners before replacing an old, leaking one at our home recently.

 

Your new softener has a pretty big capacity. As you mentioned, it is a metered model and it will meter how much water is being used and will regenerate as necessary.  However, in addition to the meter, it's also normal for softeners to have a "calendar override" that will cause them to regenerate after a certain number of days has elapsed since the last regeneration.  This can be programmable, but on your model it appears to be set to every 7 days and cannot be changed.  So your softener will always regenerate every 7 days regardless of how much water you have used, or even if you are not home and use no water at all.  All the meter will do is measure your water usage and regenerate more often than 7 days if necessary.  

 

It's great that this softener lets you select a "high capacity" or "high efficiency" salt setting.  If you live alone, especially if your water hardness is not exceptionally hard, I would recommend  the "high efficiency" salt setting.  This will use around one-third of the salt per regeneration but still provide two-thirds the "capacity" before the next regeneration is due.  This would often mean that the softener uses less salt but more water.  However in your case you would likely find that you will actually use much less salt and less water.  Because whichever setting you choose, it will probably end up regenerating every 7 days anyway as you will probably never use its full softening capacity.  If I knew your exact water hardness and how much you use, then I could calculate this accurately.  The default setting of this softener is "high capacity" and 25 GPG hardness.  The installers may well have changed these default settings already, but I thought I would mention all this, as I personally found this information useful for my set up.  

 

Hope this helps

Mark

 

 
 
That is a good landlord, in the long run it will benefit him with fewer hard-water plumbing issues and the like.  

Our house didn't have a softener installed when we bought it 20 years ago, but the plumbing was here.  I had a Culligan system put in on a month-to-month rental basis we had for several years.  It was a timed regeneration, set way too often for our 2 person household and used 185,000 pounds of salt a month.  I had them reset it to regenerate less often and that annoyance improved.

 

Tired of paying the monthly rental, I installed a GE branded unit bought at Sam's or Costco.  It began to fail after 8 years but with some fiddling, was able to keep it running for a while longer while I researched new units.  I ended up buying a single tank, Morton branded unit at Menards for around $400.  It's worked fine for a few years now, no issues.  The only thing not plumbed for soft water is the garage sink/washer (cold) and the outdoor faucets.  Our water runs 18-24 grains so wouldn't want hard water running to toilets, etc. as they can be some of the most troublesome fixtures coping with that level of hardness.

 

One of the brands I researched was Fleck and nearly ordered one from Amazon at the time as I was impressed with the reviews, etc. but our old resin bed tank sprang a leak filling the salt/brine chamber to the top with water and I had to replace quickly so opted for the in-stock, right now unit at Menards. 
 
Mark-

The water here has a hardness level of 25 grains per gallon. My landlord set the softener for 30 gpg and the HC (high capacity) cycle.

I downloaded the user manual from the OMNIfilter website and immediately reduced the water hardness setting to 25 gpg. I left it on the HC setting for now, but calculations show I can switch to the HE (high efficiency) setting if I keep soft water use down to less than 600 gallons per week. It will soften about 1,360 gallons on the HC setting, which is far more water than I use in a week. However, as you mentioned, the "calendar override" regeneration takes place automatically on Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m.

The landlord ran a regeneration cycle immediately after installing it on Friday at 5:00 p.m. I was shocked to hear it regenerate again early Sunday morning, as I'd used very little water between Friday evening and Saturday night. Then I remembered the "calendar override" regeneration happens whether or not you've used any water.

My utility bill averages about 500-675 gallons per week. I'd like to keep regeneration down to that once a week "calendar override" regeneration, so right now am going to leave it on HC. If I can consistently keep soft water use below 600 gallons, I'll switch to the HE cycle. It certainly uses far less salt!

The toilet and a separate cold water faucet on the kitchen sink are the only things connected to the hard water pipe in my apartment. There's an adapter on the main kitchen faucet to connect the portable dishwasher and a different adapter on the hard water faucet to fill my Clear 20 water-filtering pitcher.

At any rate, the ideal situation would be to use the HE setting with regeneration occurring only once a week.
 
Mine isn't the metered version so it regenerates every 12 days, which is the longest interval available.  I've only ran out of soft water once in between cycles and that was because the salt had gotten low for the previous regeneration and it wasn't up to full capacity.  There are only two of us, we have a FL washer, 1.6 gal/flush toilet, and a dishwasher.  I could probably reduce the amount of salt used in regen cycles...just haven't done it yet.  A full salt tank lasts us almost a year.
 
Mark,

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Thank you for this information.  I had no idea I should be looking at all these settings. I haven't touched the program since we put in the softener and the installer set up the program.  We fill the tank with salt about every six months or so and they come out once a year to do the routine maintenance.  I just looked at the phone app and I don't see these options but it looks like it regens about once a week so I bet I have the calendar override.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I will have to go outside and look at the panel to see how ours is set to run.  I guess I have a lot of work to do.  I am looking at our water bill and it lists usage in CCF.  The water softener lists usage in gallons so I'll have to start there.  </span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Really, I had no idea.  I figured the installer set it for optimal usage and the system does the rest.  I don't know that we've ever run out of soft water but it wouldn't surprise me if we are doing regens more often than needed.  It's just two of us too.</span>
 
Ralph- Keep in mind that Mark was referencing the softener I have, which is an OMNIfilter 34K. Your Rainsoft unit has instructions specifically designed for it. Check your user’s manual. If you don’t have it, find the model number of your softener and Google the user manual for it—or it may be available at the Rainsoft website. My guess is that if it’s only regenerating once a week, that’s probably the longest amount of time the unit will allow, regardless of how much or how little soft water you’ve used.

I called my local water department and they told me the hardness of the city’s water. Ours is 25 grains per gallon. Technically it’s 24.97 gpg, but they round it up to 25. The information may also be available at your city’s utilities website.

If your city utility lists water hardness in ppm (parts per million), just divide that number by 17.1 and you’ll get the correct conversion for grains per gallon.
 
Thanks Eugene for the reply.

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">I was going to dig into this later today and see what options ours offers.  The app gives me some information like what I have attached.  Ours is in a little shed outside designed for it and we were planning to add salt today anyway so I thought I'd poke around on the panel.  I also have the book but its like Greek to me.  If I read some of this correctly it sounds like it will do a regen when it needs one based on usage.  According to the app it almost looks like its doing one about once a week.  Ha, I may be better off to leave well enough alone.  He told us, based on our water usage, that we should expect to add salt about every six months and that is pretty close to what it's been. </span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">BTW Eugene, how are you enjoying your soft water?  Are you noticing a difference yet when carrying out your daily activities?  Ours was more for my psoriasis than anything else.  I found when I was traveling to a hotel in PA where I stay for work (usually two weeks at a time) mine would clear up and when I came home it would flare again.  Turns out the hotel has soft water from what they told me.  After we put in the softener I found a huge difference in my skin.  Very few flare ups.  We've also seen the other obvious benefits.  I'd sure hold onto that landlord.  He sounds like a gem.</span>

chachp-2020070108362102776_3.jpg

chachp-2020070108362102776_1.png

chachp-2020070108362102776_2.png
 
Ralph- How nice to have all that information about your softener available on an app! If you’ve had only 4 regenerations in 28 days you’re probably already optimized.

I’ve been spoiled with soft water since I was born in 1959. Had it wherever I lived, including college. On the occasions when either a softener malfunction or some other anomaly led to hard water, I can really feel the difference in the shower. Windom’s hard water feels almost astringent when showering. The dishwasher doesn’t clean as well either, especially pots & pans. Laundry requires substantially more detergent and even then stains aren’t removed as well.

My landlord and I get along well. He’s 38 years old and has a big family—seven kids between the ages of two and sixteen. This 8-plex is the smallest of his three properties. The others are in Worthington, MN, 28 miles southwest of here. I keep an eye on the building and always let him know if there’s a leak somewhere or some other problem.

Every other Monday he pulls the building’s five recycling bins out to the street and I move them back to the north side of the garage when they’ve been emptied so he doesn’t have to make a trip back later. I regularly run the vacuum over the carpet in the front entry, the steps leading up to the four apartments on this level and the landing because I like the front of the building to look spotless. He values having a long term, reliable tenant who takes good care of the place; he treats me well in kind.
 
Wow, Eugene, 25 GPG is crazy hard!  As for the calendar override, I was quite curious about this and I wanted to learn more, so I have just called your water softener manufacturer in Brookfield, WI at (800) 279-9404 and asked them about this.  They said that the calendar override will only trigger a regeneration if it has not regenerated for 7 days.  So I don't know why it regenerated on Sunday when it had only just regenerated on Friday.  I'd keep an eye on that and see what's going on.

 

Looking at the manual:

The HE setting uses 3.4 lb of salt and 46 gal of water and will provide 600 gal.

The HC setting uses 16.7 lb of salt and 57 gal of water and will provide 1,360 gal, as you mentioned.

So whichever of the two settings you use, it may well be the case that your softener will regenerate once per week based on the calendar override, so the HE setting will save lots of salt and a little water.

On the other hand, if your water usage is higher, then it may end up regenerating every 5 or 6 days on the HE setting.  But in this case the calendar override should NOT cause it to regenerate at all as it will never go longer than 7 days.

 

Ralph, when I was reading about softeners, I read a piece of advice that said you should never let your plumber program the softener LOL.  I bought our softener from a company in Canada and I had a local plumber install it.  He made a really nice job of the plumbing and the installation and I was very happy.  I asked him if he had programmed the hardness and he sheepishly said, "I don't know what that is." I told him not to worry and that I would do it.  But obviously if you have an actual water softening company to do the work, then they should know.

 

Also, Ralph, our water softener records our water usage in gallons and litres.  And our water bill records our usage in CCF (748 US gallons).  It appears that almost all our water usage is taking place outside the house for irrigation and only a fraction is going through the water softener for use within the home.  In fact, the water bill shows that we have been using just over 1,000 gallons (about 4,000 litres or 4 cubic metres or 4 tonnes) per day.  Apparently this is normal in the desert and our neighbours' water usage is not massively below ours, although ours does still seem unusually high.  It still sounds shocking to me.  I can see why many people opt for "desert landscape" in the desert.  Green lawns, flowers, trees and plants may look nice but they sure do need an obscene amount of water to create the oasis in the desert.  Fortunately water is extremely cheap in Palm Springs.  

 

Louis, inside the home, we tend to use about two-thirds of what Ralph uses in our homes in Sitges and Palm Springs.  It was the same when we lived in the UK, typically around 500 litres per day.
 
Our water bill separates them out.

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Mark, </span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">We have a water meter for the house and a separate meter for the sprinkler system.  We pay less for the water used for the sprinklers vs. the water for the house because that water doesn't use the Sewer.  That's what they told us.  We used to live about 30 miles north of here and water was crazy cheap.  Even with watering in the hottest months we never hit above about $70 a month for water.  Not here.  Water is a lot more expensive.  In the summer we easily double that.  It's the price we pay to have green landscapes in the south.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Our hardness is around 10 as I recall.</span>
 
Mark- My landlord had set the hardness level at 30 gpg, which apparently caused the softener to regenerate after only 2 days. I backed it down to 25 gpg and it regenerated again at 2:00 this morning (3 days) which I think is still too often for the amount of water I use.

Looked at some user reviews online and several mentioned the unit recharges more frequently than necessary. I reduced the hardness level again, this time to 14 gpg, so we’ll see if that gets things under control. If the water gets hard before the next regeneration, I’ll move the setting up to 18 gpg and try that.

Thanks for your research and input! I appreciate the help.
 
Eugene, have you seen anything about the reserve capacity?  I didn't see anything mentioned.  If the reserve is set to a very high percentage then that could explain why it's regenerating sooner than expected.  Although if it's set to 30 GPG and HC, then it should provide 1,133 gallons before regen.  So with a 20% reserve, a regeneration would be triggered after using 906 gal.  So you'd still have to have used an enormous amount of water in two days for it to have triggered a regen.  I see that page 13 of the manual shows how to access all the stats on water usage etc.  I would keep an eye on those and see what's going on.

 

Ralph, that's interesting that you have two meters!  In seems that in Palm Springs they just assume that very little of what you use goes to the sewer.  So that explains why the cost is pretty low at $2.08 per CCF ($0.73 per cubic metre).  Although there are also standing charges and also a sewer tax included with the property tax (but not metered).  The cheap water makes up for the punishingly expensive electricity rates in Palm Springs.
 

Similar threads

philcobendixduo
Water Softener Recommendations, Please
Replies
4
Views
195
bpetersxx
bpetersxx
swestoyz
A 20 year old dream turns into reality
2
Replies
44
Views
1K
appnut
appnut
askolover
Another water heater failure! 6 years
2
Replies
42
Views
451
sudsmaster
sudsmaster
N
Whirlpool Direct Drive top load washers always smell
Replies
19
Views
467
mark_wpduet
mark_wpduet
H
End of ownership review - Miele W1 PowerWash & T1 EcoSpeed
Replies
5
Views
1K
henene4
H

Latest posts

Back
Top