On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:51:19 -0800, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

>I'm watching Ask This Old House, and they're replacing
>a water softener. Actually, they're using the old tank
>but replacing the head and the resin beads. As they were
>dumping out the old beads, there was all this black muck
>at the bottom of the tank. They didn't comment on that.
>I'd hate to think of my drinking water passing through
>that crap.
>
>When I was a kid, a friend of mine across the street
>had a water softener at his house. I always thought
>the water tasted terrible over there. Borderline
>undrinkable.

Softened water is in no way filtered water nore does it remove
bacteria, likely needed a pre filter for removing sediment and the
entire system needed to be shocked to disinfect the system... most
everyone has dirty pipes. Should have replaced the entire water
softener, the new ones with modern microprocessors instead of thye old
style mechanical timers are far more efficient, they use half as much
salt. And hardly anyone with a water softener drinks the softened
water, there's is nothing wrong with it when functioning properly but
people who can afford a softener install an RO filter too. When water
tastes strange, has strange odors, and strange appearance, a hydro
specialist should be consulted... all those problems can be easily
rectified.