:confused: Hello,

I recently purchased a single unit water softener. I have it set on the hardest water setting it has, but my water is not any softer than before I purchased it. I am wonder it if may be my piping configuration. The line going into the softener is connected to the main line of the house with a "T" connection and the water coming out is connected to the cold side of the water heater with a "T" connection as well. I am wondering if I should have not used those "T" connections, because it may not be filtering all the water through the water softener. FYI. I have a house built on a slab. Thanks in advance for your help!

Your Tee off the main is fine but the Tee at the heater is wrong. That should be a straight connection, no Tee. Where does the water go from the Tee other than the heater? I would have also installed a bi pass manifold above the softner. Its an H shaped connection with three valves that also you to by pass the softner if you need to repair or disconnect. However the missing manifold did not creat your problem. Please get back to me with your answer.

I have put up a rough drawing of how a water softener should be hooked up,(see image). To operate correctly valves#1 and#3 should be open and valve#2 should be closed. To service the softener and bypass it valves #1 and #3 should be closed and valve #2 should be opened allowing the water to bypass the softener. There isn't any other way to install a water softener so if you just cut the tees in to the cold water main and didn't cut the line between the two tees then all you have is a pressured storage tank.
Good luck, Tom