Whirlpool WHEWSC Water Softening Cleanser 16oz

Our previous unit which has been in our house since it was built in 2006 had the valve fail and so we thought we would upgrade to this unit. I was very surprised to open the box to see the exact same unit when I opened the box… it is 100% identical but has a different logo on top (our old one was GE). Even the screen and button power up the same way. I am not convinced this unit filters anything as stated.That being said, install was incredibly easy (basically swapping the same unit). It returned our water to softened water as I procrastinated for two weeks once our old one broke. My wife said the dishwasher wasn’t cleaning which is how I found out that our old softener has stopped working. We are in Minnesota and have incredibly hard water (it was off the chart on the test strip that came with the new softener) which makes me think that we have a hardness score of ~30-35. That being said, there are 5 of us and we shower and have to do laundry every day and the unit seems to keep up just fine.

Arrived in a timely manner! Just as described! Worked well!

Now a month after installing I am pleased to say this was a great purchase. I shopped around for a replacement for my 15+ year old Whirlpool, and ended up buying the same unit again. Many softeners have a clock and regenerate on a fixed schedule whether or not you are using water. My water use varies as I travel sporadically and fill the hot tub several times, so the metered use makes sense. Taking out the old WHES40 revealed some iron in the system as I have well water. This model has a prewash mode that you can set, flushing out iron or other deposits. Weird that you need to download the instruction manual to set this up as the installation manual that came with it makes no mention of it. I found connecting 1 inch sweat copper pipe to this machine was easy, just pay attention to their warning not to put any tension on the fittings. My new unit came with a redundant extra bypass valve and connection hardware. I can't tell if this was a mistake or something they do for everyone as some have trouble with the first set of pipes? I like the o-ring connections that require no tools for assembly. Two people can easily get the box into the basement, but the entire bottom of the box was sealed with just one measly piece of tape that had given up before delivery. It seems Whirlpool can invest a few cents and put more tape across all the seams of their box so their products get delivered in one piece. I notice that after 15 years the softener remains the same, except you can now subscribe to three bottles of their cleaner each year to extend the warranty by five years. Whoever put the stickers on this machine was in a big hurry as they are not square. Defects are quite minor as I intend to get two decades of soft water out of my 40 grain well water thanks to Whirlpool.

This is my first water softener. I live in a rural area on a community well and the hardness is over 120 gpg (grains per gallon), which is pretty hard. I have a filter system, but it wasn’t enough. After a lot of research and talking to plumbers an neighbors with softeners, I picked this Whirlpool unit. It arrived promptly, and the shipping box was in OK condition. But, when I opened it up, I found a lot of issues. The case was pretty scraped up and the bottom was sort or warped. The brine tank was rattling around in the salt tank a the input/output valve was turned sideways inside the cover. When I opened the cover, I found that the circuit board cover was off and the board itself was lying loosely in the cover. The plug was bent and there was some damaged insulation on the power wire. I initially decided to return it, but it would have been a lot of work to get it upstairs and shipped and then wait for a new one. I put the circuit board and display back in place and fixed the other things that I could see. When I plugged it in, it worked so I decided to try it out instead of returning it. The actual hookup was easy (other than running the pex lines through the ceiling). I used 3/4 pex line and shark bite fittings in it (so that it would be easy to disconnect if it didn’t work). The instructions were fairly straightforward, although there is no mention anywhere as to how much salt to put in. I used 2 bags of pellet salt, but shoul have bought 5 or 6. I programmed everything and ran a recharge as per the instructions and it all went well. The next morning however, I noticed that the salt tank was almost full of water (up to 6 on the fill level). I removed the cover and looked it over carefully and noted that the seal between the brine tank and valve body was leaking. I was going to return it again at this point, but decided to dive in further. Found the instructions on servicing the Distributor O-ring kit and took the valve body off off the brine tank. I found that the lowermost O-ring (under the filter screen) was out of place and covered in loose charcoal. I cleaned everything, lubricated the O-rings and put it all back together. So far, no leaks and the unit works perfectly. I will say that installation is relatively easy. Be sure that you have feed lines and drain options wherever you’re going to install this. I will also say that Whirlpool’s website is very good with lots of clear instructions and information. The softener seems to work fine, and there is a significant, measurable difference in the water hardness. Time will tell if this is a lemon, but I do have the extended warranty 🤞.