Columnist Muriel Stevens: Saga of softeners continues

Wednesday, April 7, 1999 | 11:50 a.m.

After I wrote in last week's column about having to shop for a water softener, I received a spate of e-mail messages and phone calls that led me to a happy solution.

I learned much more than just how helpful my readers are. I was ready to spend big bucks for a replacement. Instead my old water softener which, it turns out, is really a new/old water softener, is up and running.

Some of you related your own sad experiences with Sears water softeners and shared the names of companies that had solved all of your problems. I wrote down every name and hit pay dirt with my first call.

Thanks go to Sun reader Judy Root for telling me about Hanson's Water Treatment and Spa Center at 5599 W. Spring Mountain Road, where Manager Dale Browning listened to my problem, then helped solve it.

The Hanson family has been in the water treatment business for almost 40 years. Founder Al Hanson and his wife, Carol, started their retail water softener business in Wisconsin. A short time after retiring 13 years ago, they moved to Las Vegas along with sons Jim and Tim, daughter-in-law Dee (Tim's wife), and granddaughter Amy, and opened a Hanson's in Las Vegas. Every member of the family is involved in the business.

Hanson's is one of the few businesses, if not the only one, that will service a Sears water softener. What's more, service calls from Hanson's are $15 less than having Sears service its own water softener. Sears wanted $60; Hanson's, $45.

As an independent water treatment company, Hanson's gets its products from many sources. It also has the capability to build products in its own shop. The advantage to the customer is having a variety of choices at a variety of prices in one store.

It didn't take long for Hanson's water softener specialist Randy LeBlanc -- he works on water softeners and installs reverse osmosis units, only -- to discover that someone had turned off the water softener. Of course it wasn't working! No one, not the maintenance men at my condo or the plumber who looked at it, noticed it was not on.

Why wasn't it on? Ah, that's another interesting story. After Randy had cleaned the venturi (filter) and checked out everything else, he turned on the softener and it immediately became apparent why it had been shut off. A gush of water spewed out from the drain that was clogged. Someone had shut the unit off without telling me.

I'm not going to dwell on why no one from maintenance told me about the drain so I could call someone to fix it. These things happen. Of course, if I'd bought an expensive water softener before finding out that I didn't need one, I wouldn't be so accepting of the breakdown in communication.

Once the drain was cleared, the water softener was turned on. But I'm not home free yet.

This week I visited Hanson's and learned more than I really ever wanted to know about water treatment from Hanson's water treatment specialist, Orin Lazer.

Because of the hardness of LV water, its treatment is a big business here. Most water treatment companies sell one brand. Naturally that's the one they want you to buy.

There are two types of water treatments -- softeners, which use salt, and conditioners, which do not. Softeners remove minerals, replacing them with the salt; salt-free conditioners change the molecular structure of the water, making it feel like natural soft water, not softened water. For those on a sodium-free diet, this is an excellent feature.

Orin demonstrated how untreated, softened and conditioned waters feel. The untreated water barely worked up a lather; the softened water was slippery and the test cake of Ivory soap lathered easily; the conditioned water gave a foamier lather and when I washed my hands, the skin felt like the old shampoo ad said: "squeaky clean."

At first I wasn't sure I liked the feel, but as I write this column, many hours later, my hands still feel as soft as when I put on hand lotion in the morning.

I was at Hanson's for a long time soaking up information from Orin. There's a good possibility that even with my softener working, it won't do the job.

Al told me that when a water softener is turned off as long as mine had been, it shortens the life. Now that I know what soft water should feel like, I'll notice if it's not working and that's when I'll buy a new one -- at Hanson's. I like the way they do business.

So, how long was the softener off? Not just two years, as I had originally thought, but four! How do I know? Each month, when maintenance men check to see if salt is needed, they mark it on a chart they put on each water softener. The top chart had zeroes for no-salt-added from 1997.

I peeled off the top chart and learned I purchased the softener in 1995. The drain must have backed up shortly after, and the unit turned off. The last time salt was put in the tank was at the end of 1995!

A salt-free unit is sounding better all the time.