Cloudy water and particles during Backwash

[kyoung]

Hi,

I had a chance to watch my softeners regeneration cycle.
What I see during the backwash cycle, I first saw a very cloudy water out from the drain and that was getting clearer when it approached to the end (10 min).
Next thing I found was that water drained during the backwash left very tiny particles in my mop sink. (My drain is out to a mop sink). At first, I thought it is a tiny bubble but it was particles and I can actually feel the grain with my finger. It is definitely not a resin I believe because the grain is as small as fine grain salt but the color was clear. Please refer the attached photos

I don't know much about how the regeneration supposed to look like so now I'm worrying if the softener has some problems.
Could you advice if these observations indicate some bad things going on my softener?
1. Cloudy water from drain at the beginning of backwash
2. Tiny clear particles left from backwashed water
Any advice is welcome.

FYI, my softener is fleck5800 2cuft tank and been using it for two month so far.

 

[Reach4]

Interesting. City water, or well?

You might want to consider a cartridge filter, but that sure shows the backwash cycle has value.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[bingow]

@kyoung, as a newbie I'm also interested in your answer to Reach4's question, especially if you don't use a prefilter. Maybe your softener is doing a prefilter's work, and functioning normally? Nice photos: something that might have usually gone undiscovered.

 

[AndyT22]

The particles might be the left-out sediments during the softeners' regeneration cycle. You can also try out a sediment filter to reduce the size of those particles to microns. As for the cloudy water, it might be attributed to high mineral levels. If you're concerned about it, you can call for local HVAC services.

 

[Bannerman]

The purpose of backwashing is to eliminate any sediment and debris that may have entered in the incoming water which collected within the resin, as well as to flush away undersized, fractured or worn resin. During the resin manufacturing process, some resin granules will be commonly undersized, while some others will become fractured into multiple pieces. Fractured and undersized granules (Fines) as well as resin dust will be flushed to drain during several initial backwash cycles.

Backwashing will lift the resin bed up from the bottom to uncompact the bed so individual granules can circulate (reclassify) within the tank which will eliminate any channel pathways through the resin bed that the water had been repeatedly following. Backwashing will also expand the spaces between granules so the salt brine will have increased contact with a greater amount of surface of each granule, allowing more complete regeneration of the resin.

To acheive sufficient expansion, the backwash flow rate is determined by the tank diameter and water temperature. A 12" tank diameter typically utilized for a softener containing 2 ft3 of softening resin, will usually require 3.5 GPM for backwash flow to expand the media approx. 50% compared to the height of the resin when compressed.

If your incoming water is warmer such as 70°F, then the flow rate should be increased 10% to acheive the same expansion result as 60°F water. The Backwash and Rapid Rinse flow rate is determined by the Drain Line Flow Control (DLFC) restrictor that is installed in the unit.

During startup of a new softener, the startup proceedure detailed at the link below is recommended so as to eliminate air, saturate the resin with water prior to use, and to rapidly eliminate any initial broken and undersized granules. When the proceedure is not utilized, elimination of initial broken granules may continue to occur over several regeneration cycles.

Because resin does wear over time through repeated periodic backwashing, there will typically continue to be some small particles that will be present within the backwash drain flow over the lifespan of the softener.

https://view.publitas.com/impact-water-products/2018-catalog-final/page/36-37

 

[ditttohead]

Looks like resin to me. The resin breaks down over time and one of the functions of the backwash is to remove broken or very fine resin beads that can cause flow issues. Looks normal and expected.

 

[Reach4]

When sodium replaces calcium and magnesium during brining, how do Ca an Mg show up? Would that be a precipitate that would make the water coming through look cloudy?

Looking at NaCl2 and MgCl2 solubility, it looks like those would be in solution.

 

[Bannerman]

how do Ca an Mg show up?

The OP mentioned cloudiness only during the backwash phase of regeneration. He did not mention that occuring during the Brine Draw/Slow Rinse phase which is when Ca & Mg will be released from the resin along with rinsing away the chloride from the brine.

 

[kyoung]

Thank you all for your advice!