Possibly a call to this company might help, as they seem willing to post service manuals online:

http://www.qualitywaternw.com/manuals.aspx

There is nothing proprietary about rebedding a Kinetico softener.

You need to know what volume and type of resin you need and whether freeboard or packed bed.

Any competent water treatment pro should be able to do it for you.

This post was edited by justalurker on Mon, Aug 25, 14 at 16:14

Yes, any competent water treatment pro should be able to do it.

However as stated in the title of my post, I would prefer to DIY if possible. The first response to my post answered the resin amount question. Now it appears there is another aspect to this task that I will need to research regarding freeboard or packed bed.... For DIY folks, these Kinetico specifics sure seem to be proprietary and closely held....

To do anything one needs both the knowledge and the tools. Lacking either usually results in an unhappy homeowner or a more expensive repair.

I suggest you hit the Kinetico web site and search out Kinetico dealers in major metropolitan areas. Call them until you find a friendly one who will give your the specifications of what your K60 requires. Then all you need is the knowledge to do the job and the tools.

If your K60 has never been tampered with by anyone a competent water treatment pro could tell what is needed by disassembling the K60. But after 23 years I might inquire what the Kinetico dealer might do for you as a trade-in on a contemporary unit with the advances Kinetico has made over that time.

Another option would be to apply the money you're willing to spend to rebed your 23 year old K60 and put it towards a new industry standard softener for which parts and tech info would be readily available almost everywhere and you could do everything to it yourself. The modest cost of a correctly sized industry standard softener will really surprise you. Then sell the K60 on craigslist.

I appreciate the suggestions... I am mechanically inclined and capable of tackling the job, I just thought someone here could provide some technical info and some tricks of the trade so to speak. .

I do appreciate your concern... The task can't be that hard... I have contacted 7 different Kinetico dealers and I am treated as though I have the plague....No luck here in central Florida, the dealers have a written contractual agreement to stay out each others protected areas and not speak to their customers.....

I have yet to contact any independent water treatment professionals, I will try to do so before my attempt to take the K60 apart...if I screw it up, no big deal at least I tried and will learn from it and will pass along anything I learn from the failed attempt.. In this endeavor I have much to gain and little to loose ... If I succeed, well .....then others in my situation stand to gain a lot from my attempt ..

Nothing ventured nothing gained. I will postpone my dissection until next week in the hopes of gleaning some tidbit of helpful info in the next few days.

"Nothing ventured nothing gained" Not always. You can easily take that K60 from being worth something to someone as a used Kinetico or even more as a parts softener to being a door stop. A new industry standard softener would/could be correctly sized for your water conditions and water use instead of being undersized as Kinetico usually installs so they seem less expensive but regenerate much more often.

And the real plus is that you'd probably not have to add considerable money to what it will cost you to buy the resin to rebed the K60 and gain 23 years in technology and efficiency.

This post was edited by justalurker on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 14:35

Grand-Illusion,

Can you tell us how you figured out what type and how much resin to use, and where you picked up the distributor tubes?

Ditto what driveguy said. Where did you get the materials?

I would also like to know. I just learned of DIY softener resin changes and have been looking into it as a better option than Culligan. If you want it done right, do it yourself!

Anybody find out where Grand-Illusion got his parts yet?

I have an exploded view of the parts as well as a manual that I give away to whom ever asks. It tells the volume of resin for each model. Just send me an email & I'll share. affordablewtr@aol.com

driveguy, gordongraham, cmonkey - did you find out where to get the parts for your Kinetico softener? I have the Model 50 and found my cracked distributor tube after half the resin escaped. It looks doable but I need the parts.

Thanks.

Email biermech affordablewtr@aol.com He sells the parts. He was priced reasonably. I believe you might be able to dig around and save a few bucks. Once the head goes on my Kinetico units I'm done with them. I've loved over the years and have talked others into buying. But their pricing is pricing them out of the market. Their filters and salt is 25% or more $ than most out there.

how do you :

unscrew control valve on one tank

unscrew top on second tank ?

what tools or method do you use ? I'd be much obliged if you can give more details.