WHAT SHOULD My WATER SOFTENER HARDNESS be Set At?

Is your water softener set correctly? How do you know? What determines the correct hardness settings for a water softener anyway? You may’ve heard that the settings are different if you’re on well water compared to city water but what are the correct settings? Maybe your current water softener settings are causing you to waste salt and water! Wait a minute, aren’t the hardness settings already set from the factory? Does it really matter? Relax, in this video I’m going to explain how to determine the best water softener hardness settings for your family starting right now.
Hi I’m Gary the Water Guy and I simplify water filtration to help you conquer crappy water for your family!
Whether you’re a homeowner, plumber or water filtration specialist, this video is for you!! By the end of this video you’ll know exactly what the hardness settings of your water softener should be and how to set them!
Modern water softeners are far easier to program and as a result are far more efficient than ever before but unless you set the correct hardness settings, you’ll just be throwing away all that efficiency or the water softener just won’t be softening your water properly at all!
To Calculate your hardness settings, you’ll need the following information:
Hardness in grains per gallon-gpg (parts per million [ppm] divided by 17)-ex 12
Mail to:
Water Store, 1004 King Street, Midland, Ontario L4R 0B8
And if on well water, you’ll also need to know:
Iron in ppm-ex 1.5
Manganese in ppm-ex .5
If you’ve invested in a relatively modern water softener like one of our HUM Water Care water softeners, which are all metered and come pre programmed, you just need to calculate the compensated hardness number as follows and add that number to the settings:
1) Hardness in gpg (grains per gallon) – example 12
2) Multiply the Iron in ppm (parts per million) by 4 – example 1.5 x 4 = 6
3) Multiply the Manganese in ppm by 6 – example .5 x 6 = 3
4) Total up 1-3 to get Compensated Hardness – example 12 + 6 + 3 = 21
Just enter the Compensated Hardness Number for hardness in the settings and you’re done! Now based on your water usage your water softener will regenerate either based on your usage or every 14 days, whatever comes first.
Any questions or comments about this video or water softeners in general? Please enter them below, I read them all and would love to answer yours.
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[GarytheWaterGuy]

Are you wasting salt, water and money becasue your water softener is set incorrectly? Check this out!

[ostroffwarren]

you just saved me $200 from a service call. my hardness setting was 15 the calculation you gave me was 23. I reset it and will know in a few days if its adjusted... a great video.

[sarahritchie]

I’m a plumbers daughter and my dad passed away in March. Trying to do this on my own now and I appreciate the video tutorial

[russking]

Your information has helped me tremendously when I checked the hardness of the water it was actually set to 50 which is not correct I’m hoping by changing it to 23. I will use less salt and have a savings and better water in the end. Thank you very much GARY.!

[jimmyb]

I can’t believe you reply to all of the comments!! 5 stars for service!!

[joer]

Awesome video. Thank you this helped me figure out that our softener was set much higher than necessary. I noticed it hadn’t gone off in quite some time. My city claims we should set to 12 and it was at 20 !

[tfcjiel]

Hello Garry, very educative DIY videos!
Hopefully you can advise on the most economical setting for my WS.
This is what I have:
Factory capacity according the spec:
10x54 size mineral tank with1.33 cft resin
Clack valve WS1, white injector
Water hardness set for 32, however noticed some white spots on kitchen sink. The city indicates 26 gpg hardness. One water company tested 28 gpg, no iron or manganese or TDS detected. Another company tested 40 gpg and no presence of iron or manganese, no TDS. Quite inconsistent hardness results within a two weeks interval..…weird.
Household : 2 persons with 40 gallon/person water daily usage
Installer setting:
Hardness level: 32
Salt fill: 9.5 lbs
Capacity: 30 000 grains
Regeneration: 10 days
I did watch your videos and looked on internet for calculations, however there are so many variables.
I really appreciate your expert advise. Thank you

[stevenpgross]

Great video but you didn't say what changing the hardness setting on the softener actually DOES? What effect does the setting, or change in setting have on the softener? I'm in the dark on this. Thank you!

[merrittime]

Great, simple explanation and the way you set the levels on your system worked on my Water-Right brand too. Thank you for helping me!!!

[scottl]

I have a Fleck 5600 analog. How do I set the hardness? The only setting I can adjust are the intervals (in day) for regeneration and pounds of salt during regeneration.

[joefuckingtweten]

You the best Gary. Just bough a replacement part from you for my Water Boss and it was delivered to my door within 2 business days!! Now you have all the best videos for getting things dialed in too! Love it

[FletcherRSmith]

We have a HE Municipal water softener. It's factory default was 4.3lbs salt and 25gpg hardness. The technician changed it to what was claimed to be the current local water hardness. It was changed to 5.0lbs salt and 15gpg hardness. I got the feeling that this seemed a little high based on the most recent water quality report. It stated that the hardness was 86ppm (5.02gpg) with next to no Manganese or Iron. I did my own hardness test after bypassing the softener and found that the incoming water hardness was almost exactly as what our local utility stated. Wouldn't correct hardness setting be about 8gpg? How about the salt dose? I changed the settings recently to be 4.0lbs salt and 8gpg hardness and that yields just over 1, 000 gallons of water with a 30% reserve. No hard water symptoms have come up but I am curious to know your thoughts. Sorry for the long post; I wanted to clarify everything.

[patrick-pkbk]

Thank you so much for this video! I was going nuts trying to figure this out. Only question, if using Potassium instead of Sodium, are the calculations still the same? I've read to increase by 20% for Potassium

[sandrashadrach]

I hope you don't min me contacting you. We live in France, in an area with very hard water, and are planning to install a water softener, and strangely enough, the model is exactly the same as the one you are picture with above! After much investigation, I have managed to find that the levels of calcium and magnesium are between 40 and 60 degrees France (1 degree French = 1-ppm). So should we set the level of incoming water at the average of 400, or the higher level of 600 ppm? Your videos are great, you make it all sound so easy - thank you for sharing them. Wish you lived locally!

[datoni]

Hi Gary, and thank you for a great explanation. My situation might be tricky. I am located in Europe and I am wondering if the setting on our valve is correct according to our most recent water analysis, showing: Hardness 13 dH, Iron (Fe) 3.1 mg/l, Calsium (Ca) 70 mg/l, Magnesium (Mg) 12 mg/l and Manganese (Mn) 0.94 mg/l. The Fleck valve setting is defined by the letter "H" and the manual is showing an example of "Ex. : 35°tH". Thanx again!

[kriswilgocki]

Hi. Great channel! Question: What does this Hardness setting do exactly? Does it simply adjust how often the tank is regenerated? Or does is also adjust the amount of brine used, or something like that?

[osamahanged]

My water softener only goes up by 5 hardness levels. I can't add 1 level. So I can only put multiples of 5. My hardness should be set at 27. But can only put 25 or 30. Which option should I choose?

[lisaclem]

I don’t know if you can help but my hardness level says NA. I’ve double checked to make sure it’s on softening and not filtering and it is. What else could I be missing

[martincarcasole]

I installed my system myself now I need to set the hardness. My local water works in peel region gave these results in my area. Hardness = 7grains/US gallons...Iron = <100 ug/L...Manganese = <2.0 ug/L. What do I set my hardness at? Default setting is 20.

[suzanbrinklow]

My water report from our city shows the following: HARDNESS, TOTAL (AS CACO3), highest value 250mg/L. How do I calculate the harness level my water softener should be set at. We moved into a house that has a Kenmore 420 series, no idea of it's age or how well it was maintained.