Water softener replacement in Las Vegas

A softener that has reached the end of its life is worth replacing rather than nursing. The two questions are when that point has arrived, and whether the replacement should be the same size as what is there.

The second question matters more than people expect, because a lot of valley homes are running units that were undersized for this water on the day they were installed.

When replacement is the right call

• The unit is past roughly 10 to 15 years and the resin is exhausted
• The control head is obsolete and parts are no longer available
• The tank is cracked, leaking or corroded
• It has been repaired repeatedly in a short span
• It was undersized from the start and regenerates constantly
• Household size has grown and it can no longer keep up
• You are adding a tankless heater and want the protection sized properly

• A softener resin bed generally lasts about 10 to 15 years. Chlorine in municipal water and higher hardness both shorten it. (Water Quality Association)

Resize, do not just swap

The most common mistake in a replacement is ordering the same capacity as the old unit without checking whether that capacity was ever right. At around 16 grains per gallon, an undersized softener regenerates too often, uses more salt than it should, wears its resin out early and still lets hard water through at peak demand.

A replacement is the natural moment to correct that, and the incremental cost of the correct size is small next to doing it twice.

• Sixteen grains per gallon is the figure to dial into a water softener for most of the valley. (Las Vegas Valley Water District, Water Quality Summary)

What the job involves

Replacement usually means isolating at the bypass, disconnecting and removing the old unit, setting and connecting the new one, confirming the drain and the power, programming the control head to valley hardness, running a regeneration cycle to prove it, and hauling the old unit away.

It is permitted work in unincorporated Clark County in the same way an installation is.

• Installing a water conditioning system in unincorporated Clark County requires a permit and an inspection, whether a homeowner does the work or a company does. (Clark County Department of Building and Fire Prevention)

All makes and models

Plumbers in our network work on all makes and models for this service. We do not claim an authorised dealer relationship with any manufacturer, and we will tell you if a part for a discontinued unit cannot be sourced.