Another softener low-flow question

[Guy48065]

I had to troubleshoot a pressure tank problem that required draining all the water out and recharging the bladder with air. After completing the work I have noticed that the water flow in the rest of the house is much reduced. After the system was back up to pressure I got quite a bit of brown water & sediment from the taps. My thinking is this sediment has clogged the softener. Flow is excellent in bypass.
Last night I did a regeneration and the flow seems a little bit better but it's still far from what it was previously.

What else can I do?

The softener is a small console unit from Morton with electronic metered control. Can I "trick" it to manually do a long backwash?

 

[Reach4]

The softener is a small console unit from Morton with electronic metered control. Can I "trick" it to manually do a long backwash?

If you remove the power during the backwash cycle, most softeners will continue to backwash until the power is restored.

Also look for a cartridge filter that is in the line outside of the softener.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Guy48065]

Definitely no prefilter. I could put it in bypass & disconnect the unit to check for an inlet screen--if it's normal for there to be one.

Any risk to "trapping" the unit in the backwash cycle? I wouldn't want to wash out what little resin there is in such a small unit.
Do these little units have a sand filter or anything besides resin in the tank?

 

[Reach4]

Any risk to "trapping" the unit in the backwash cycle? I wouldn't want to wash out what little resin there is in such a small unit.
Do these little units have a sand filter or anything besides resin in the tank?

They may have a top basket, which is a strainer like thing.

All softeners have a bottom basket (distributor basket). Some have gravel but I suspect yours does not.

I am not a pro. I don't think extending the backwash to 1/2 hour or an hour would cause a problem.

A kink in your drain line would make backwash less effective.

 

[Guy48065]

I've got it back to near normal flow now. In the manual I found it has a diagnostic feature that allows me to step thru the cycles. I did that and everything looked normal. I did it a 2nd time and unplugged it in the backwash cycle as suggested and let it run 45 minutes.

Thanks for the tip!