Cloudy water

[Huskymaniac]

For some time I have lived with rotten egg smell from my water. That was annoying enough but now my water is cloudy white. The rotten egg smell would fluctuate over time. It seemed to get worse after long periods of either lots or little rain.

I thought my cloudy issue was a fouled water softener bed. I admit that I have let it run out of salt a couple of times and my water got pretty hard. But when I put it into bypass and let the cold water run for 5+ minutes, it is still slightly cloudy. It is better than the water that came through the softener but not perfect. I use clear glasses filled with water and put them against or on top of a dark background. I then shine a super bright LED flashlight through it and look at the scattered light against the dark background. Poland springs water gives zero scattered light. The water from the well gives a little scattered light and water through the softener is about twice as bad.

The cloudiness is worse if the water sits in the system overnight and even worse after a long weekend away. Our toilets also have a blueish greenish stain that forms over time. The sinks also slowly build up the same film and it does seem to be more of a film than stain. I have started to wonder if this all isn't just IRB or algae building up in the softener and pipes.

The first thing I want to do is shock the softener. I also bought some highly rated resin cleaner. It is supposed to be way better than your usual iron out stuff. Haven't tried that yet.

I have one of those Autotrol 255 systems with the mechanical timer and the little metal tabs you pull in and out to set which days you want it to regenerate. I used a screwdriver to manually start the regen cycle by pushing in and turning the red knob. It is pretty obvious when the backwash is done but, once the brine cycle starts it empties the brine tank and does a slow rinse. I want to allow the system to pull in most of the chlorinated water and stop for 20 minutes but it is not obvious how to do that. If I unplug the controller mid-brine cycle, it just keeps going.

1. Should I shock the softener? If so, how do I solve the issue I am having?
2. Should I shock the well? If so, how?
3. Should I try that resin cleaner? I don't see how it can hurt.
4. Where can I buy a chlorination system similar to what Gary used to sell?

 

[Reach4]

Cloudy water: put the cloudy water in a glass. Has the cloudiness moved toward the top in an hour? In that case, you are seeing air bubbles in the water. Does the cloudiness move down? That would be particles. Is there a precipitate on the bottom of the glass after 12 hours? particles. Is the cloudiness pretty much unchanged after 12 hours? That would not be so good: colloidal particles which are hard to filter.

Is your tank outside or otherwise in the sun? Is it translucent? If so, algae can indeed grow. Get the light blocked with a cover or painting the tank. However I think sanitizing should keep algae from growing as long as there is not new stuff introduced.

You want to get a good lab test on your raw well water. I like kit60 from http://www.karlabs.com/watertestkit/

Numbered questions:
1. I would use a lesser level of chlorine than you would use for a well. I am thinking I would un-bypass the water softener after chlorine ppm drops to 10 or 15 ppm and run that thru for a while. Long term and high strength chlorine are bad for resin. So we want to limit both.

2. I would get pH and high-range test strips. http://www.moravecwaterwells.com/index.php/maintainance/disinfection-and-testing is my favorite sanitizing method.

3. Resin cleaner is used for iron removal usually. Rescare costs more than Iron Out, but those are not what you use to kill growth.

4.....

If I unplug the controller mid-brine cycle, it just keeps going.

I doubt that. The sequencing is driven by the clock motor.

You could alternatively unplug the timer initially and crank the red knob to the spot you want. If you remove the cover, you can turn the cam with your left hand while pushing the button in with your right hand. This is not going to chew up the red knob like a screwdriver could. If your fingers are strong enough, you can push and turn the red knob with your fingers.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Huskymaniac]

The water stays cloudy, even after several days. Also, even a Brita filter doesn't filter it out.

The water softener is in the basement, along with everything else water related.

Thanks for the suggestion on the water test kit. I was thinking along those lines as well.

On the sanitizing of the sotener, unplugging the controller doesn't change the valves so it will just sit there and continue the brine cycle forever if it is left like that. I don't want it to get to the rinse point. I want to completely stop the brine cycle and let it sit for at least 20 minutes with the chlorinated water in the bed. Should I be moving the arrow on the red button to some specific location to achieve that? And do I move it back to the brine cycle after it sits for a while? On the amount of bleach, I read an old post by Gary where he suggested a half cup in the brine tank. That seemed reasonable.

On the resin cleaner, I was going to use that after the sanitation. I think it is rescare that I have.

 

[Reach4]

On the sanitizing of the sotener, unplugging the controller doesn't change the valves so it will just sit there and continue the brine cycle forever if it is left like that. I don't want it to get to the rinse point. I want to completely stop the brine cycle and let it sit for at least 20 minutes with the chlorinated water in the bed.

Ahhh...

There is no difference in the cam and flappers between the brine draw and slow rinse. The only difference is that the brine is gone during the rinse. So what you need to do is to shut off the incoming water once the liquid in the clear housing drops to half full. Then the chlorine can steep. You might stop the water when half of the chlorine solution has been drawn. Wait. Then continue until the rest has been drawn.

Regarding the smell, hot water or both?

 

[Huskymaniac]

Do you mean I should turn off the main water supply that is feeding the softener? I suppose I could do that but is there any other way to stop the cycle?

We get the rotten egg smell in both the hot and cold water.

 

[Reach4]

Normally there would be a bypass valve system. You can use that.

Your symptoms are weird.

Is the cloudy water darkish? Is there a dark precipitate that settles to the bottom?

I suspect that you would have a bunch sitting at the bottom of your water heater.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Are you talking about the bypass built into the controller or a bypass plumbed into my plumbing system?

The cloud is white or light gray. We don't get much dark precipitate but we do get a little at the bottom of the hot water tank.

 

[Reach4]

Are you talking about the bypass built into the controller or a bypass plumbed into my plumbing system?

I have a 3-valve bypass plumbed in.

 

[Bannerman]

Since some cloudiness remains present when the softener is bypassed, you should have your water analysed to determine the cause. I suspect the additional cloudiness when the softener is on-line, is mostly due to a build-up in the resin bed.

While disinfecting the well is one option, so is disinfecting your plumbing before the softener including the pressure tank. Be careful of the amount of chlorine used as pressure tank bladders can be intolerant to high concentrations.

The simplest method of permitting a longer resin soak is as R4 suggested, pull the power plug and shut off the water feed or bypass the softener. Once the soak time is achieved, simply restore water flow and power to permit the remaining regen cycle to finish.

To prepare for the chlorine soak or resin cleaner soak, add additional water to the brine tank to dissolve 15 lbs of salt per cubic foot of resin. Each gallon will dissolve 3 lbs of salt.

As the softener had run-out of salt previously, the entire resin capacity will need to be restored. While 15 lbs of salt is required to regenerate 30K of capacity per cuft, a standard restoration method when the resin has been exhausted is to perform 2 - 15lb /cuft regenerations back to back.

To permit adequate time for salt to be dissolved, wait at least 2 hrs after adding water to the brine tank before initiating each manual regeneration. The extra salt, especially with 2 regenerations, will be an effective resin cleaner in itself.

While a 'resin cleaner' will assist the salt, do not mix chlorine and cleaner together as resin cleaners are acidic and acids and chlorine are not compatible and will produce deadly chlorine gas.

Use the cleaner during one of the two regen cycles and bleach in the other.