Clack WS1-CS need help programing

[Rldev]

Hi Folks,
It's been a while. I'm grateful for all the help in the past. I just refurbished my 17 year old water softener system. I emptied, cleaned and sanitized my brine tank and resin tank. I cleaned all components and replaced several. I refilled my resin tank with new gravel and 10% cross linked resin.

People: 3
Water usage Day: 120 gallons
Water Hardness: 22 grains (Hatch 5b)
Iron: 0-1
Tank Size: 9 "-48"
Head Unit: Clack WS-1

I thought I had this figured out by now. But my soft water is not lasting the week cycle.
With about 330 gallons left of "capacity", my water measured at 6 gpg hardness.

My current settings are
Hardness: 22
Capacity 24,000
Salt Dose: 8lbs
Regen Time: 7 days

There is no salt bridge. Manual regen takes everything back to full working order. Thank you.

 

[Raybo]

I'm by no means an expert here but with trying to learn as much as I can about my own system and tweaking it, your settings appear idealistic regarding usable capacity.

Try tweaking salt to 10lbs OR capacity down to 20K, depending on if you prefer fewer regens or not and start monitoring your hardness each day after you go past 50% or so of your gallon capacity. In my limited experience, I've found that all the charts and water tests might get you the perfect settings, but everyone's system and resin are different and the monitor and tweak method gets you to spot on if you have the time and patience.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Ryan Symons]

It should work with how you have it set up. Not sure why you are using a 7 day regen instead of utilizing the meter.
Check for water being used that can count against the capacity that you don't know about or is unable to be metered. A dripping faucet or more likely a toilet fill valve that doesn't shut off all the way. You would be surprised how fast a small leak can add to the gallon count.

 

[Bannerman]

By stating: Iron: 0-1, does mean there is 1 ppm, or 0.1 ppm?

10% crosslink resin is usually utilized for municipal water as it contains chlorine, but chlorine will oxidize ferrous iron so the iron will not result in additional hardness load on the softener.

As ferrous iron will consume softening capacity at the rate of 5 gpg for each 1 ppm, even if your water does contain only 0.1 ppm iron, then the hardness setting should be increased by at least 1 gpg. If the water source is municipal, it is advisable to increase the hardness setting by 2-3 gpg higher than the tested result, to anticipate occasions when hardness maybe higher than usual.

1 ft3 of resin will typically contain 32K grains total capacity. As 8 lbs salt will regenerate 24K grains usable capacity, the additional 8K grains should now be also regenerated as it too has been exhausted. Perform a 1X regeneration using 20 lbs salt to regenerate all 32K.

Because 1 gallon water entering the brine tank will dissolve 3 lbs salt, there will now be 2.67 gallons within the brine tank for your 8 lb salt setting. Add an additional 4 gallons using a bucket, wait 1.5-2 hrs for the additional salt to dissolve, then initiate a manual regeneration cycle to restore all 32K grains total capacity.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?attachments/resin-chart-jpg.53316/

 

[Rldev]

So you are saying up hardness on the clack to say 26 gpg. Then for one time purpose increase salt to 20lbs and do a manual regen.
Do I bring salt back down to 8lbs after that? Do I set capacity for 24K or 32K on the manual regen? What about after the manual regen?

Thanks.

 

[Bannerman]

By asking about a 26 gpg setting, implies your water source is municipal. ??

Municipal water is often obtained from multiple sources, each with often different hardness amounts. A hardness test at your location is a snapshot of hardness of the combined water at that point in time, but the percentage from each source can change through the day/week depending on water consumption throughout the city, system maintenance, etc.

Assuming municipal water, 22 gpg tested + 3 gpg (anticipated variance)= 25 gpg hardness setting.

After resetting hardness to 25 gpg, if using a bucket to add additional water to the tank, will not require further setting adjustments. Alternatively, perform 2 regenerations, one after the other instead of manually adding water to the tank. While the 16lbs salt (2X 8 lbs) will not restore all 32K, more than 30K capacity will be regenerated which will likely be adequate (compare chart).

The amount of capacity to be regenerated is determined by the amount of brine available, not the capacity setting. The capacity setting is the maximum capacity to be consumed to cause regeneration. To restore all 32K will not require adjusting the capacity from your current 24K setting.

 

[Rldev]

Yes it is municipal water, but only comes from one region in my area. It has been 22gpg for as long as I have lived here. I measure it all the time.

So I'm going to have to roll with 16lbs salt every regen? Thanks again.

 

[Bannerman]

only comes from one region in my area.

Are you saying the municipal water is 100% sourced from one well?

Although multiple wells can be located close-by, does not mean they all tap into the same aquifer. Recommend at least allowing for 2 gpg variance.

I'm going to have to roll with 16lbs salt every regen?

No!

8 lbs salt is the correct amount to regenerate 24K grains usable capacity in 1 ft3 of resin.

The reason additional salt is now required 1X, is because more than 24K capacity was consumed for some reason. The 8 lbs for 24K capacity in 1 ft3 resin is based on all 32K grains being restored and available before the 24K is consumed.

When you cleaned and refilled the brine tank, did you then manually add the correct amount of water into the brine tank? When Brine Fill is programmed to occur at the end of each regeneration cycle (most common), the brine produced is for the next regen cycle to follow. If none or too little water was manually added before the 1st regeneration cycle after cleaning the brine tank, the controller will then assume 24K capacity has been regenerated although there was insufficient brine available to regenerate that capacity.

 

[Rldev]

Are you saying the municipal water is 100% sourced from one well?

Although multiple wells can be located close-by, does not mean they all tap into the same aquifer. Recommend at least allowing for 2 gpg variance.


No!

8 lbs salt is the correct amount to regenerate 24K grains usable capacity in 1 ft3 of resin.

The reason additional salt is now required 1X, is because more than 24K capacity was consumed for some reason. The 8 lbs for 24K capacity in 1 ft3 resin is based on all 32K grains being restored and available before the 24K is consumed.

When you cleaned and refilled the brine tank, did you then manually add the correct amount of water into the brine tank? When Brine Fill is programmed to occur at the end of each regeneration cycle (most common), the brine produced is for the next regen cycle to follow. If none or too little water was manually added before the 1st regeneration cycle after cleaning the brine tank, the controller will then assume 24K capacity has been regenerated although there was insufficient brine available to regenerate that capacity.

I can't say, but considering I have run tests and some friends houses on the same water supply, it can vary. I have put hardness to 25. I don't remember if I filled the brine tank with water after cleaning. I did run regen twice though. I added the 4 gallons to the brine tank and it has been soaking. So I will run a manual regen with 20 lbs of salt and then revert back to 8lbs in the programing. I will test and then see how it goes.
Thank you for your patience.

 

[Bannerman]

Although the Brine Draw setting is usually 60 minutes, brine should normally be all drawn from the brine tank within ~15 minutes of that time. The remaining ~45 minutes will push the brine through the resin and will slowly rinse brine to drain using fresh water.

Because the additional 4 gallons will likely require more than 15-20 minutes to be drawn from the brine tank, you may wish to remove the software's softener's electrical plug during BD to allow additional time (~60 minutes) for B Draw and slow rinsing to occur. If the rinse time is insufficient as is likely to occur if the BD time is not extended, then the soft water initially flowing to fixtures directly following that 'restorative' regeneration cycle, is likely to taste salty for a short time.

 

[Rldev]

Although the Brine Draw setting is usually 60 minutes, brine should normally be all drawn from the brine tank within ~15 minutes of that time. The remaining ~45 minutes will push the brine through the resin and will slowly rinse brine to drain using fresh water.

Because the additional 4 gallons will likely require more than 15-20 minutes to be drawn from the brine tank, you may wish to remove the software's electrical plug during BD to allow additional time (~60 minutes) for B Draw and slow rinsing to occur. If the rinse time is insufficient as is likely to occur if the BD time is not extended, then the soft water initially flowing to fixtures directly following that 'restorative' regeneration cycle, is likely to taste salty for a short time.

Not sure what you mean by the "Software's" electrical plug. I assume you mean remove the electrical plug from the clack head unit during BD? Let me know as I'm about to do this.

 

[Bannerman]

Damn autocorrect. I meant to say the Softener's electrical plug.

As the Clack cannot advance to the following cycle without electrical power, removing power during BD will keep it in that cycle until power is restored. Removing the plug is a simple method to extend the BD/Slow Rinse time without needing to reprogram for a 1X occurrence.

 

[Rldev]

Do you know what the cycle is called on the Clack screen("Brine")?

 

[Bannerman]

Yes.

 

[Rldev]

The cycle is done. Looks like I now have too much water in the brine tank. Hard to tell if it is that or I need to add more salt. I just threw in a 50lb bag the other day. It's not halfway filled though. Maybe 35-40%

 

[Bannerman]

The additional capacity regenerated today, will have consumed 20 lbs of that 50 lbs just added. I think you may have also regenerated 1X previously after cleaning the brine tank so that likely consumed a further 8 lbs.

Add more salt. Depending on the brine tank size, it will llikely hold 200 lbs+ so you shouldn't need to refill for some time.

Edit: did you reprogram the BF setting to 8 lbs?

 

[Rldev]

I will get more salt tomorrow. Yes I changed it back to 8 lbs after the regen. I'll post an update this week. Thanks again.

 

[Rldev]

I wanted to report back to state that with Bannerman's help, everything is working great! Thank you. I will be on my third regen cycle on Monday. I still wonder if I should replace some clack parts just in case.

 

[Bannerman]

wonder if I should replace some clack parts just in case

In your initial post, you said you refurbished the softener and cleaned and replaced several components. As you have just confirmed the softener is operating properly, what further parts are you concerned with replacing?

 

[Rldev]

I never replaced the stack. I took it out and cleaned and sanitized it. Looked good under a magnifying glass. But everything I have read says to replace it after 12 - 15 years.