The home I just bought has a well with a pressure tank. It has worked just fine with keeping the pressure constant. I installed a new Whirlpool 30,000 grain water softner and now when I'm in the shower, the pressure will suddenly drop to right at zero for just a few seconds and then come back to full. This will cycle like this at least 2 times during a normal shower. Why is this happening? HELP!

Disconnect the softener. There should be Push Valve on the softener. Just push it to the BY-PASS side. Use shower for couple of days and see if the problem persists. Come back and let me know what happened. Back to you. Milo

Only during a shower, nothing else will cause this including filling the tub? I am leaning toward a cartrdige issue if filling the tub doesn't also get a drop in pressure

Good point, Ballengerb1. If it is only shower than I agree, it may be cartridge...

It does it when any large volume of water is being used. I just said the shower because its where quite a few gallons are used. Im wondering if there is a setting on my pressure tank to make the pump kick on sooner so that it doesn't go empty before it has to refill. The water softner has a min. psi rating to work, so my guess is that it is dropping below that min. psi.

I suggest you use Low Flow shower head with water flow about 2.5 gallons per minute. That could solve your problem...

I already have that installed.

I am not an Expert on pumps and pressure tanks. But I am sure there is a pressure limits you can set manually. Let's wait for one of our other Experts to log in and review this post. Thank You. Milo

"pressure tank to make the pump kick on sooner " this is your problem not the softner. Open the small box, usually gray with one screw,that is at the end of the cable feeding power to the pump motor. You can adjust the pressure limts there

What is the minimum pressure requirement of the water softener?

Remove cover of pressure switch. Open a faucet. At what pressure does pump turn on? You should be able to hear click of switch and see points close.

Inside the little grey box are two nuts. You will want to turn the center, larger nut clockwise. This will increase both the cutoff and cuton points for your pump. Do this with power turned off. Can't be shy. A quarter turn doesn't do much. Try a full turn, check your cut in pressure, then try another full turn if needed.

All of this is assuming that a low cut in pressure for your pump is really the problem. As stated above by others, turn on water and watch your pressure gauge. It should fall somewhat slowly until you hear the switch click on. That is the point at which the pump cuts on. See if that point is below the minimum pressure for the softener.