Here’s my favorite: fill a spray bottle with tap water and a few drops of dish soap. Shake it. If it forms lots of frothy, busy bubbles, your water is soft. If it barely bubbles and looks like snake oil, your system is failing. It’s literally the same chemistry test they do in labs, but you get to do it in your kitchen in pajamas.
Remember Tom? He checked his softener manual, realized he’d set the hardness level wrong (he guessed “80” when his water was actually 12 grains). He fixed it, and now his coffee tastes like coffee, not a penny. His wife even said his skin stopped itching. So, trust your senses, not the blinking green light. Your water softener is lying to you half the time. Don’t let it get away with it.
