Help w/ Cloudy Water after changing softner settings

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ArayT

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I have a fleck 7000 that was not using salt (approx 1 bag ever 4-5 months). After inspecting the pick-up tube in by salt tank I found it was approx 2-3 inches off the bottom and when it filled only 3-5 inches of water would enter the tank so I increased by fill time from 15 to 45. The fill tube is good and clear. I ran it thru a cycle and the tank filled up to approx 12-15 inches. I left it like this. I have it regenerating on time (not use) at 2:00am every Sunday night, I thought. I accidentally set it for 2:00pm not sure if water was used during a regen cycle or not but I have since changed it back to AM. After all this my wife made iced tea that taste awful and then the second picture taste the same. I ran it thru a backwash, 2nd backwash and a rinse cycle. Now the water taste OK but it is leaving a cloudy stain on everything that is washed or wiped off. Please, Please, Please any advice would be appreciated. My wife it about to go postal over this water.
Ray
 

Akpsdvan

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Run it through another cycle, also you might have to repeat that later tomorrow.

Could be that the system had gotten dirty and the one cleaning was not enough to clean it and it might need 2 or 3 extra cleanings or regen cycles to get it back in shape.
 

ArayT

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Many Thanks,
I'll run it thru extra cycles tomorrow. Is there a correct/ or incorrect water level for the brine tanks? What do you think made the water taste awful? Something had to be in it.

I also run iron out ever how an then.
Ray
 

LLigetfa

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Iron Out gets introduced during the brine cycle which is after the backwash. Iron Out will liberate the iron from the beads but much of the iron won't get flushed during the rinse and pack cycle so there will be the smell and taste of iron afterward in service mode. I generally run a second manual regen after an Iron Out application.

The level of water in the brine tank depends on the fill setting you choose. During the brine cycle, all the brine should be drawn from the tank. The more the brine, the more number of grains of regen. You can regen fewer grains, more often or more grains, less often depending on water consumption and water hardness.
 

ArayT

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Thanks Again, I Hope the extra regen takes care of the problem. I'm still puzzled about the bad taste. I have not introduced iron out in several weeks so I don't believe it was iron out. The problem came after I made the changes for extra water in the brine tank and the mistake on setting the regn to take place in the PM vs AM. I'm almost certain water was used some time during the regn cycle. Are there any problems this woud cause?
Ray
 

JKERN

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If you use water during regen or you have a hot water recirculator and no check valve on the outlet of the water softener sometimes it can cause backpressure and disrupt the venturi drawing brine to cleanse the system.
 

Gary Slusser

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The change of 15 whatever, minutes I suspect, to 45 and 12" to 15" of additional water in the salt tank says way too much salt. And then if you didn't lengthen the minutes of slow rinse/brine draw etc., you didn't get all the salt out of the tank and resin.

More regenerations with those settings shouldn't solve the problem.

Click on the link in my signature to learn how to set up your control valve.
 

ArayT

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Thanks Gary, I was hoping you would reply. I went to you site and tried to work thru the many calculations you have. I’ll need wife to find water test results. I cannot remember the iron or manganese numbers. Based on memory my softener is oversized as I needed a 30,000 grain capacity and I chose to go with a 48k can’t remember why but I did. I went back and reset everything based on my original settings with the following changes. I increased my fill time from original 15 to 20 minutes, and increased my rapid rinse (could not find the slow rinse step) from 10 to 20 minutes. I really don’t believe I was ever getting enough fill and hopefully the extra rinse will make up for it if I get a little too much. Please let me know if you disagree. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again from me and many others.
Ray
 

Gary Slusser

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You need current test results for iron hardness at least.

The 15 to 20 minutes is the brine draw/slow rinse cycle. Usually a minure gets you .5 gpm refill and that equals 1.5 lbs of salt. It's 3 lbs/gallon of refill water. So your 20 minutes = 10 gals * 3 = 30 lbs * 30k/cu ft @15lbs/cuft = 60K. Meaning your 20 minutes is way too much, again.

15 lbs gets 30K/cu ft and you have a 1.5 cuft "48K" so the max salt dose is 22.5 lbs and gets you a max of 45K. Which is 2000 grains/lb salt efficiency and that's terrible efficiency. Recalculate number of people etc. etc. and use 3333 grains/lb for the K of capacity you need @ 60 gals/person/day and an 8 day service run.
 
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