Best Laid Plans

For quite some time I have needed to replace the water softener in our home.  I don’t know how necessary it really is, since we are supposed to have softened, Milwaukee municipal water, but since there was one in the house when we moved in I just kept it.  When we first moved in, I closed the bypass valve.  Then it began to drip/leak, so I figured I would just let the water run thru and deal with it.  Well then there was a connection inside the control box at the top of the tank that began to drip.  It wasn’t that bad so I just figured I would leave it.  Over time it got worse and we had a channel of water on the basement floor that ran down to the floor drain.  Over time, it wore the smooth, top layer of concrete away, so I guess it was finally time to do something about it.

The reason I never did anything before was because I am no good at soldering pipes.  I know my limitations, and I am just not good at it.  But since I am at that point, I figured it was better to have crappy soldering than water leaking all over.  I just happened to see Menards had water softeners on sale so I figured, it was time.

The old one came out pretty easily, but after taking it out, I came to the realization the install was not going to be simple.  Between teflon tape and pipe dope for the threaded connections and having to cut copper pipe to the correct length and solder it copper elbows, it was a mess.  First, I needed to put two 90° elbows in place to jog a supply line by about 4 inches.  It would have worked out OK had I put in the same type/model of softener, but since this was a Morton with a different type of bypass valve, it didn’t work.  The existing pipes came straight down from the joists and are offset by approximately 4 inches.  They came down and then went into 90° elbows that went straight to the bypass valve, and then the softener connections.  The new one has the bypass set so that the supply lines will enter them at a 90° angle.  So there is no elbow to go to the bypass, which meant I needed to get the pipes in line vertically against the wall to enter the bypass.  This meant doing a jog in the line someplace between the joists and the water softener.  The result was three trips to the store to get more pipe to cut and solder before trying to put it into place because of messing up the soldering (too much heat, not enough flux) or having the wrong length of pipe to connect. 

Then when I got all the pipes in place and connected so I could turn the water back on, a pinhole leak popped up after about two minutes of being pressurized.  ARGH!!!!  So then I had to take everything back apart, heat up a joint to pull one piece of pipe out and replace it, making sure to have enough flux and solder there.  Then put it all back together. 

What I planned on taking maybe 2 hours ended up taking about 8.  BUT...  after all was said and done, we have softened water in the Hahn house again.  Now I just need to make sure I have it adjusted properly.