Issues with Rainsoft unit

[picktoo]

First and foremost, I am clueless about water softeners. I'm trying to decide whether to attempt repairs, or drag the thing to the curb on trash pickup day.

In 2004, the previous homeowner installed a Rainsoft Apollo Gold LQC100W in the garage. It's a single tank system that I would guess cost about $6,000. I bought the house in 2009, and the softener seemed to work well until about three years ago. After each regeneration, the water was so salty that I had to flush all the lines in the house before I could drink the water. Then, one day the brine tank overflowed through the drain line, and dumped a half gallon of brine onto my garage floor (I was unaware the drain line was just laying on the floor). At that point, I disconnected the power and bypassed the softener completely, and I have not used it since.

I recently cut and capped the PVC lines, wrestled it away from the wall and siphoned most of the water out of it, just so I could move the thing out of my garage. It has about four inches of sludge in the brine tank that's gonna be a royal pain to remove.

I don't like trashing an expensive item if it can be salvaged, so I'm trying to figure out if this Rainsoft is worth saving. However, considering the likelihood that Rainsoft would charge me the price of a new softener from another manufacturer just to repair this one, I don't think that's the wise choice.

Any guidance you guys might provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Reach4]

I don't like trashing an expensive item if it can be salvaged, so I'm trying to figure out if this Rainsoft is worth saving. However, considering the likelihood that Rainsoft would charge me the price of a new softener from another manufacturer just to repair this one, I don't think that's the wise choice.

Any guidance you guys might provide would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds as if you are considering repairing the unit and reinstalling.

To get rid of the sludge, put a big strong garbage bag over the tank. Tip the tank over, and see if you can shake a handleable amount of dirty salt into the bag. Use another bag to get more.

Getting this working again may be a matter of cleaning. http://rainsoftoftoronto.com/assets/manuals/om_15860_after804.pdf is a manual. Does that match your unit? On the other hand, there is something to be said for a new unit. If considering a new unit, post your hardness, other water info if well water, and the number of people using the water.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[picktoo]

It sounds as if you are considering repairing the unit and reinstalling.

Getting this working again may be a matter of cleaning. http://rainsoftoftoronto.com/assets/manuals/om_15860_after804.pdf is a manual. Does that match your unit? On the other hand, there is something to be said for a new unit.

Hmm, I replied from my phone, but it apparently didn't go through. I'll try this instead. Please excuse me if this results in a duplicate reply.

I was able to scoop out most of the sludge without doing the trash bag thing.

Thanks for the link. The valve body appears to be the same as mine, although mine is a pre- August 2004 model. I do have the same manual for mine. It, too, suggests possible components to check/clean, but it doesn't explain how. As I said, I'm clueless about these things. An exploded parts diagram might help, but so far I haven't found one.

I'm curious if the resin media should be changed, considering its age. I hope not. Since the media tank is internal (see photo attached), apparently the only way to get the old media out is to remove the valve body and turn the whole unit upside down . . . and it weighs a ton!

Also, if I reinstall the softener, I'll have to rebuild all the connections :-/ The installer used all slip joints, so cutting both lines was the only way to disconnect them from the softener (see photo). I just added a slip joint connection between the supply and delivery lines in order to have water until I decide what to do with this thing. If I reinstall it, is there reason I couldn't use threaded flexible connector hoses and adapters instead of slip joint PVC? Oh, that third line in the photo is the drain line. Curiously, it is PVC, while the supply and delivery lines are CPVC.

 

[picktoo]

Just for kicks and grins, I have attached my most recent water quality report. I honestly don't know how to interpret this info. Are there any indications in it for water hardeness?

Thanks.

 

[picktoo]

As the result of a ton of research, I learned that my Rainsoft Apollo Gold LQC100W uses the Fleck "SXT" downflow control valve with an electronic turbine meter assembly instead of a simple coupling adapter . The SXT service manual and exploded parts diagrams / lists were fairly easy to find and extremely helpful. So I slowly began to tear into this thing. After completely disassembling the top end, I found the following issues:

1. brine valve stem rubber was badly deteriorated - replaced the valve and the o-ring at bottom of the hole.
2. injector was a bit dirty - disassembled, cleaned and reinstalled.
3. filter screen for the injector contained a lot of black debris, probably from the rotted brine valve rubber - cleaned and reinstalled
4. seals in the downflow tube were very slightly deteriorated / spacers looked good - replaced all five seals
5. large piece of debris found behind drain flow control - cleaned it out

I also installed completely new plumbling and fittings, necessary because I had to turn the softener 90 degrees in order for it to better fit its corner location in the garage. I want some of whatever the original installer was smoking!

After all that, I opened the bypass valve on the supply side, to check everything for leaks. The valve itself dribbles a bit, but there appears to be no way to repair it, except to replace the entire bypass valve assembly. I'm not there yet. There is also a very bad leak on the delivery side, where the turbine meter assembly attaches to the main control valve. It did not leak before! Everything is o-ring sealed from the control valve all the way back to the plumbing connections. I replaced all six of the o-rings, even though they looked good. That didn't reduce the leak at all. I did have to put a small piece of wood under the bypass assembly for support, due to the weight of the new plumbling connections, in order to keep everything aligned properly.

Further research indicates that the housing for the turbine meter assembly is kown to crack easily (it appears to be made of a different type of plastic than the main control valve, bypass valve and yoke). Although I can see no obvious cracks in it, I'm thinking that I somehow may have over-stressed it during reassembly. At between $80 and $120, pricing is crazy for that thing. However, after coming this far, I think I'm gonna throw a little more money into the project and try a new one.

The first photo points to where the leak is. The second points to the wood support I used. I'm gonna try to figure out a better support system in order to relieve as much stress as possible on all the fittings.

 

[picktoo]

For other frustrated owners of the Rainsoft Apollo Gold LQC100W, here's a link to the pdf service manual for the corresponding Fleck ProFloSXT -
http://waterpurification.pentair.co...n/proflosxt-downflow-service-manual-42772.pdf

 

[picktoo]

Leak solved! It WAS the turbine meter assembly - I apparrently cracked it during all my screwing around with this thing. Replacement was $80 on Amazon. Now have to clean it out, re-gen a couple of times, and hopefully be back in business soon.