Understanding Water Hardness and Morton Softener Settings

Properly setting the hardness level on your Morton water softener is crucial for achieving optimal performance, efficiency, and water quality. Water hardness refers to the concentration of dissolved calcium and magnesium minerals in your water supply, measured in grains per gallon (GPG) or parts per million (PPM). Morton water softeners feature programmable control heads that allow you to set the specific hardness level of your incoming water, enabling the system to calculate when regeneration is needed based on actual water usage and mineral content.

Key Steps for Setting Hardness Level:

• Water Testing: Begin by testing your water's hardness using test strips or professional water analysis
• Unit Conversion: Convert PPM to GPG if necessary (1 GPG = 17.1 PPM)
• Control Access: Access the programming mode on your Morton control head
• Hardness Setting: Navigate to hardness setting and input your measured value
• Iron Adjustment: Add additional hardness units if iron is present in your water
• Save Settings: Confirm and save the hardness setting to activate the new configuration

Hardness Level Guidelines for Morton Systems:

Morton water softeners typically allow hardness settings from 0 to 99 grains per gallon. Most residential water supplies range from 1 to 30 GPG, with levels above 7 GPG generally considered hard water. For water containing iron, Morton recommends adding 5 additional grains of hardness for every 1 PPM of iron detected. This compensation ensures the system accounts for the additional load iron places on the softening resin. Proper hardness setting prevents under-softening (insufficient mineral removal) and over-softening (wasted salt and water during unnecessary regenerations).