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Water softeners...... someone smarter than me please help

warpt71

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System was already installed when I bought the house last summer. The salt ran out, I refilled it and it was working fine untill it wasn't. The brine tank still had salt but it had turned to a brick and there was a ton of dirt in the tank. I broke up all the salt and everything seemed to be working fine. Eventually I disassembled the tank and cleaned it out entirely and started over with new salt. Again, everything was working fine untill it wasn't. I still have salt in the brine tank but no soft water throughout the house.

What could I have screwed up and how do I go about fixing this? Of all the owners manuals left in the house by the po, there is nothing on the softener.

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SixD9R

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Some units have a venturi that draws the brine out of the brine tank and into the resin bed when it backflushes. That could be clogged up and needing a cleaning. If your brine tank was dirty as you were saying it could be from using rock salt instead of water softener pellets (salt) and that could be the cause of the issue.
 

varmit86

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You probably need to cycle the softner, it is full of little beads that the impurities attach themselves to. The salt solution detaches them and then they flush out on backwash.
So if it was not sucking the salt solution up the beads could be full.
Or maybe the valving in the head is stuck either way by cycling it you should be able to get soft water back.

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warpt71

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Some units have a venturi that draws the brine out of the brine tank and into the resin bed when it backflushes. That could be clogged up and needing a cleaning. If your brine tank was dirty as you were saying it could be from using rock salt instead of water softener pellets (salt) and that could be the cause of the issue.

I refilled with pellets when it ran out and then it got full of dirt and turned to a brick. Currently it has crystal's and it's clean and not solid, but also no softened water
 

FreeBird236

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I refilled with pellets when it ran out and then it got full of dirt and turned to a brick. Currently it has crystal's and it's clean and not solid, but also no softened water
I know very little about them, but right now it's set to regen every 8,500 gallons, looks like it won't do it automatically for about 5,000 gallons. You can use that knob on the left to do a manual regen, it will appear in the window when you reach the right position. If that doesn't work you'll probably need professional service.
 

SoCalDave

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Download the manual and clean the venturi.
 

warpt71

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I know very little about them, but right now it's set to regen every 8,500 gallons, looks like it won't do it automatically for about 5,000 gallons. You can use that knob on the left to do a manual regen, it will appear in the window when you reach the right position. If that doesn't work you'll probably need professional service.

Well I guess you know more than me cause I had no clue what the dial on the right did. Should it regen once a month, week or? I have done a manual regen and I didn't see a difference. That knob on the left will do all kinds of wash and rinses.
 

FreeBird236

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Well I guess you know more than me cause I had no clue what the dial on the right did. Should it regen once a month, week or? I have done a manual regen and I didn't see a difference. That knob on the left will do all kinds of wash and rinses.
The 8,500 gal. setting is a little high, usually set at 7,500. Length of time is just determined by how long it takes to use that much water. If you've done regens, then it sounds like the resin might need to be changed. For most people I don't think you'll be doing that yourself. I think there could be other possibilities, but like I said don't know that much about them. I always use Van Rooy, BTW your unit is good quality.
 

jet496

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We're thinking of getting a water softener so let us know what you find out. I was thinking of just having Culligan, or a company like that, install & maintain it.
 

varmit86

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If you take of the small hose that comes from the salt or brine tank and then put it into tegen tou should be able to feel it sucking if not you have a valving in the head problem.
If it is sucking hook it back up and make sure it is sucking brine solution up.
If your not cleaning the pellets you will not get soft water.

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SoCalDave

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Like some others may attest to I found out that a pre filter is your best buddy for longevity of a water softener.
 

Wedgy

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Automatic Water Softeners are made to break. I've pulled out hundreds of them and Installed service tanks for ServiSoft, Escondido, back in the day.

I would call out a professional. If that is a decent unit, and not the garbage I worked on in the 70's, a service call would be worthwhile to get you up and running. Good luck!
 

welldigger00

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Automatic Water Softeners are made to break. I've pulled out hundreds of them and Installed service tanks for ServiSoft, Escondido, back in the day.

I would call out a professional. If that is a decent unit, and not the garbage I worked on in the 70's, a service call would be worthwhile to get you up and running. Good luck!

And this^^


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welldigger00

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I can’t tell you how many of these systems I’ve installed for customers. In the well biz, treatment is very common. I tell the customers the same thing every time. You are now the water company for your family. It is your job to perform the regular maintenance for your system, or problems will arise. I’ve tried like hell to get people on a regular maintenance schedule from our company to handle this process for them, and they almost always decline, because they say that they can handle it. They almost never do, and these systems go to shit in a year or two. I’ve installed very expensive systems that treat contaminants such as uranium, cobalt, aluminum, perchlorates, nitartates, you name it. Unless you get familiar with it in the beginning, and babysit it on the regular, you’ll get the same results.


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jones performance

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theresa a float valve in the brine tank that will stick sometimes preventing the brine tank from filling with water. check that since your brine tank is dry.
 

The Prisoner

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I know in Kingman if you “Call the Culligan Man” twice, they don’t call you back. This happened just a week ago.
 

warpt71

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This is the salt that I'm using

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I also went down and messed with the dial and there is suction on the line coming from the brine tank.
 

calkid

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Did you take your valves out of bypass when you were done working on it?
 

J&k beer can

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We just had a new unit installed..
He has been doing this stuff for years.
Mike Mang
MJM water treatment n plumbing..
In havasu
Tex him(best way)
661- 714-four four54
.
 

stingray11

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This is the salt that I'm using

View attachment 973668

I also went down and messed with the dial and there is suction on the line coming from the brine tank.
I would switch to the pellets less chance of a salt dam. All the water softeners I have had always recommend the pellets

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pronstar

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I can’t tell you how many of these systems I’ve installed for customers. In the well biz, treatment is very common. I tell the customers the same thing every time. You are now the water company for your family. It is your job to perform the regular maintenance for your system, or problems will arise. I’ve tried like hell to get people on a regular maintenance schedule from our company to handle this process for them, and they almost always decline, because they say that they can handle it. They almost never do, and these systems go to shit in a year or two. I’ve installed very expensive systems that treat contaminants such as uranium, cobalt, aluminum, perchlorates, nitartates, you name it. Unless you get familiar with it in the beginning, and babysit it on the regular, you’ll get the same results.


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How much babysitting are we talking about? A few hours per month or...?

Wife wants one one these systems but I want to know what I’m signing up for...


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Boat 405

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Worst case scenario a new water softener for your house is like 400 bucks from Lowe’s. They should be replaced every so often. 10 years? 20? I dunno. Lots of plastic parts and pieces that can clog up go bad or break.
 

welldigger00

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How much babysitting are we talking about? A few hours per month or...?

Wife wants one one these systems but I want to know what I’m signing up for...


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It depends on the level of treatment that is going on. For what is described above, it’s not very much. Becoming familiar with the results after treatment, and recognizing those results, as they are diminishing. It’s like having a hot tub or a pool I’d imagine. If you use it regularly you have a base line of the water quality, and you make adjustments if needed with the ph, sanitizer, that kind of thing. Well, the treatment systems are programmable, and will treat the water based on a timeframe that you choose. The only real thing you add to some of them is the salt. So verifying that the system is running through its purge cycle now and then, and topping off the salt, and checking the cartridge filter periodically is about it. So to answer your question, is not a few hours a month kind of thing, it’s more of a minute here, a minute there kind of thing.


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buck35

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How much babysitting are we talking about? A few hours per month or...?

Wife wants one one these systems but I want to know what I’m signing up for...


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We've had a water boss from home Depot for ten or fifteen years now and I've had to clean out the venturi once or twice. I have a whole house filter and well water. Not a big deal at all,just have to remember to add salt before it runs out which isn't very often
 

warpt71

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Call this guy, he’s never steered me wrong. View attachment 972452

Little update, I called Arnold's and had them come out. I wasn't able to be there but my wife was and she updated me and provided Mike with the info that he needed. At the end of the day, we just needed to add more salt to make a proper brine solution. I was skeptical about overfilling the salt and creating another damn but was told to keep the salt above the water level. Mike also set the dials for our usage in the house being a family of 6! After it was all said and done, I received 2 emails, one was a receipt for the bill that I paid, and the other was an invoice for the service. The invoice included previous work done to the system from 2016 with the previous owners. One of the lines on that invoice was an new resin tank installed. Made me feel good that I called one company, based off a recommendation from here, and they had serviced this system before, what are the odds?!?!?!

This morning, I had the softest water I have had in months! Mike said it would take a few weeks for the soft water to be back 100% and I feel like we're getting somewhere.

Its funny, my wife wanted soft water at our last 2 houses and we just never did anything about it. This house already had the water softener running when we moved in and I hated it! Absolutely hated that slippery feeling, like the soap hasn't rinsed off yet. Funny how quickly I adjusted to it and actually missed it once it was gone lol I'm happy to have soft water again!

Thanks Dettom, and everyone else for the advise 👍 👍
 
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