Hi all, first I'd like to thank all the contributors here. I'd spent some time today in Sears looking at replacement softeners; I now believe I wasted that time. But finding this site has avoided a potential mistake! Now my story: We bought this 200+ year old house almost 8 years ago. It's always had an 'abandoned' system in-line with the water service just after the meter. It's always been unplugged. Never paid it much mind- sort of a 'roundtuit' attitude. Also, we had awful water pressure since day 1. About 2 years in, I figured out that there was a pressure-reducing valve between the meter and softener. I cranked that up, and, viola, up to an at least acceptable pressure. Then late last year we had a large water main (48") break in the vicinity. No water for a full day, lots of eerie sucking sounds around the washing machine. Then after that, water pressure was HORRIBLE with a capital "H" and all the other letters too. Before contacting the utility company, I checked with the neighbors- they had no problems. So I figure it had to be something specific to my property. So we suffered with this for about 8 months, with the situation gradually worsening day by day, before (about 6 weeks ago) I finally got so aggravated I started poking around the mystery softener. I noticed a 'bypass' marking on a valve, but couldn't really figure out how to work it. I pushed and pulled and turned some of the gears manually, but didn't think I'd done anything at all. Then I went upstairs and opened the tap in the bathtub-WOW. Lots and lots of high-pressure water!!! I'd done something!!! So fast-forward to today. All of a sudden we're back to a trickle. Worse than it had been on the worst of days. Again I attack the softener- I find that I can push/pull a rod through this 'bypass' valve. I left it in about the halfway position, and the water was back!! I figured it was time to either plumb the softener out of line or replace it altogether (hence my Sears visit). After reading through here, and feeling *really* smart ( ;-) ), I went to the basement again to revisit the valve. Going from the arrow next to the word 'bypass', It seems I should push the rod thingy all the way to the left, making the right handle-wheel thingy flush with the gear on that side. Does that sound right? Water flow is left>right. The unit is dated 1970. It's a separate resin cylinder/brine tank system (Industry standard", I guess). Handwritten on the contractor's label is "Autorol 155 24K". I peeked in the brine tank, and there's about 3 inches of water, with a good settling of dirt and some lumpy things on the bottom. We do have water quality issues, including frequent plumbing repairs (gotta fix the o-rings on the sink *again*), water stains, etc. I've just sent for a pro water quality test kit from a local university. When I get that back, I'll contact that ohio dude and check out my options. I'm hoping I'll be able to get a system that will screw right onto my existing connections with no plumbing work at all. Some interim questions: 1) Could I have been posing any danger pulling my water through the 'abandoned' resin tank? 2) Does it make any sense at all to plug this in at this stage? 3) Does it sound like I've done the right thing with the bypass valve at this stage? Thanks!

Hey guys, first of all, i'm new here. really glad to have found this place. I'm looking into getting a new water softener. Here's the situation, we recently bought a new house which is 16 years old, i'm assuming the unit that's there now is just as old, but haven't really checked into it. All i do know, is that the water doesn't seem soft at all, doesnt feel soft in the shower and we have all kinds of crap growing in the toilets, like pinkish/orangish ringes around where the water line is in the toilet. We also have build up in the dogs water bowl, , like it's all gritty at the bottom like sand paper, this has happened to 2 bowls and we have to use limeaway to remove it. All this leads me to believe the unit that is in there now is either working very little or not at all. I plan on having my water tested this weekend, hopefully that will shed a bit more light on what's going on with the weird orange stuff. I was looking at a unit at sears, their top dog kenmore unit costs 700 bucks. After reading a bunch of stuff on here it seems it would be silly to go with a kenmore or "bigbox" units. We are on well water by the way. I want to get an over sized unit to make sure it really gets everything out and plan on using the potassium pellets instead of salt. Guess i'm just looking to find info on the newer units out there since it seems that most of the threads i've been reading appear to be a bit out dated. Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to send my way.