[villagetinker]

Originally Posted by srswans

We have a Nova system, softener and filter, and are very unhappy with the performance. The water is barely soft, we have mineral stains on our fixtures and get water spots when washing the car. The softener has failed more than once and we have had several service calls just to get back to barely soft performance. The filters need to be changed every four months based on our volume usage.

We will probably swap to a new system should the Nova fail again.

If this system is similar to the Sears units I have had for decades, there is a small screen filter that feeds the brine tank. If this gets blocked, you get hard water. On the Sears unit it is very easy to remove and clean this filter. You may also want to check the order of your units, as I recall, the filters should be first and the softener last, this keeps the occasional sediment out of the water softener.