Please help with water softener problem

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CharlieF

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Hello, I've had water softeners installed in my apartment in India and I think there's something amiss with the installations. The installation comprises a Pentair tank which I believe comprises the red beads.
Coming out of this tank is a red pipe which is just lying on the ground.
When their technicians come to service the system, they actually put salt into the tank which seems odd to me.
However, from what I have seen in various images and youtube videos, there is a salt tank next to the softener and this pipe goes into that tank.
Can you please me understand whether they've done an incorrect installation or if there is a chance that the salt does indeed go into the same tank as the red crystals.
Thanks

IMG_2146.JPG
 

Mialynette2003

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The resin (red crystals) attracts certain positive impurities in the water. In return, the resin releases sodium. Once all the sodium is released, it can no longer remove the impurities. Salt is used to regenerate the resin. So in other words, the resin is merely an exchange site for sodium to impurities (treated water) or from impurities to sodium (regeneration).
 

Reach4

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When their technicians come to service the system, they actually put salt into the tank which seems odd to me.
However, from what I have seen in various images and youtube videos, there is a salt tank next to the softener and this pipe goes into that tank.
Do you have brand and model info for that valve that is on the tank? The softener valves that are most common, and that you see on youtube, are powered by electricity. There are softener valves that don't use electricity including the Autotrol 360, but your valve is a much simpler unit.

I suspect that tube is a drain line for backwash rather than a brine tube. So the manual salt insertion would make sense. The salt would have to sit inside, probably over an hour I would think, to dissolve. A common water softener has both a brine line and a drain line. Given the rigid pipes, it is hard to understand how they could unscrew that valve from the tank to get the salt in. I see one plumbing "union" but not two.
 
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ditttohead

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He has a manual rotary disc valve. This is the simplest and cheapest of designs. The manual addition of salt on top of the resin bed works just fine. It is very labor intensive compared to an automatic valve, but when labor is cheap, this actually makes sense.

While not ideal for most, this design was common in the USA prior to the advent of automated valves.

upload_2016-9-2_18-42-48.jpeg
 

CharlieF

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The resin (red crystals) attracts certain positive impurities in the water. In return, the resin releases sodium. Once all the sodium is released, it can no longer remove the impurities. Salt is used to regenerate the resin. So in other words, the resin is merely an exchange site for sodium to impurities (treated water) or from impurities to sodium (regeneration).

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply. Nice explanation. Is it normal that one would put the salt in the same tank as the resin? In most of the pictures I have seen, the salt is contained in a separate tank.
 

Mialynette2003

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A separate tank is used for an automatic system which pulls the salt water into the tank. You have a manual system so you have to pour the salt into the resin tank..
 

Mialynette2003

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Do you have brand and model info for that valve that is on the tank? The softener valves that are most common, and that you see on youtube, are powered by electricity. There are softener valves that don't use electricity including the Autotrol 360, but your valve is a much simpler unit.

I suspect that tube is a drain line for backwash rather than a brine tube. So the manual salt insertion would make sense. The salt would have to sit inside, probably over an hour I would think, to dissolve. A common water softener has both a brine line and a drain line. Given the rigid pipes, it is hard to understand how they could unscrew that valve from the tank to get the salt in. I see one plumbing "union" but not two.
I would think they unscrew the 6 screws to add salt but not positive.
 

CharlieF

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A separate tank is used for an automatic system which pulls the salt water into the tank. You have a manual system so you have to pour the salt into the resin tank..

Thanks a lot once again, it really helped me understand it well.
 
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