water accumulating in salt tank Ecowater 3500

[000utback]

so, I dumped some IronOut powder into my salt tank. As life went on, water started to build up in the salt tank. Took off the venturi assembly and cleaned out a little stuff, but it didn't look bad. I cleaned the venturi last year with good success. But this time, no improvement. every time I ran a cycle, ended up with more water in the salt tank.

I found and cleaned the screen in the bottom of the brine tube (#35 on diagram; 7131365). It was gritty with what I assume is undissolved IronOut.

put stuff together and tried more and water still rising, never dropping.

there's enough connecting tube on the brine tube that I can hold it outside the brine tank and run it into a bucket. When I do a manual recharge, I can step through the 4 stages (Fill Brine Backwash Fastrinse). I can hear the control valves move for each stage.

So, on Fill, the water flow is running to fill the salt tank.
on Brine, the water is still running into the salt tank.
on Backwash and Fastrinse the only water flow is to drain.

Isn't the Brine cycle s'posed to pull the salty water from the brine tank through the resin bed?

What should I check next?

 

[Mikey]

Isn't the Brine cycle s'posed to pull the salty water from the brine tank through the resin bed?

That's what I think.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

So, on Fill, the water flow is running to fill the salt tank.
on Brine, the water is still running into the salt tank.
on Backwash and Fastrinse the only water flow is to drain.

http://www.water-softeners-filters.com/how-water-softeners-work shows cycles.
On Brine cycle, the brine mixed with some extra water flows through the resin.

This post sounds as if it may be the continuation of an existing thread, but a quick look did not turn up that thread. I did not look very hard.

 

[Mialynette2003]

Look at the top of the venturi (stem side). If there is a black flow plug offset in it, remove it. Hold the stem and turn the venturi over. Look where the openning narrows down (the venturi port). Hold it at an angle so you can see though the narrow openning. A bead of resin can get caught in it and by looking straight down at it will appear to be clear. But when you look at an angle, you can see it is not clear. The only other cause would be is if the fig 8 oring is not sealing properly.

 

[Civrel]

I was having the same problem a while back. Is the water in the brine tank clean? Clean meaning not necessarily clear, but not yellow or brown? I also cleaned the venturi, which turned out not the problem with my EcoWater system. The water in my brine tank was brown and overflowing the brine tank. I disconnected and removed all of the electronics. Then disassembled the head, taking care to note were everything came from and used a permanent marker to mark the position of the gear. As soon as I stripped away the first layer of the head I found the problem, a thick layer of scale and rust build-up over all of the interior surfaces. Whsh I could find a picture to post. The effluent hose was even clogged about half way with scale. When I got to the basket in the tank, it looked like a bowel, not a basket. The basket was 99% clogged with what appeared to be calcium, iron and tannin. I soaked all internal plastic parts in a mixture of one cup of muratic acid to a gallon of water until the bubbling stopped. Then brushed everything off to get the last stubborn remnants and rinsed off the parts in clean water, then reassembled. Things seemed to work fine after that for about two months when I had to repeat the cleaning process, but the build-up wasn't nearly as bad. The sixty day cleaning schedule went on for about two years, then all of a sudden, when I disassembled the head, it was spotless and has been now for a year. It seems that the quality of the groundwater here is ever changing. If the effluent water can not exit the head, the next path of least resistance is apparently the brine tank. Check your effluent tube for scale build-up. Just bend it a little and if you hear cracking inside it needs to be cleaned. The service tech also removed a small black limiting washer where the effluent tube connects to the head. If you pop off the retaining clip for the effluent hose and look into the head and it is white inside, the head and basket is probably clean. If it is brown and scaly, the head and basket will probably need a cleaning. This has been my experience and what I had to do to resolve the problem. Now my EcoWater is not automatically regenerating, but I will start a new thread for that problem.