Old Kinetico 60 Help please...

[Maurice Fairley]

I inherited an installed Kinetico 60 -- probably 25-27 years old -- and I'm trying to replace the resin. Without a manual, I need some help on properly putting the machine in bypass. The valve has a placard which says to pull out, but it doesn't readily move, so I'm afraid to use too much force with the valve...so instead of possibly breaking it, I'm hoping somebody can look at my picture and tell me exactly how to do it. Any other tips are greatly appreciated, too. Thanks.

 

[Ace Hunter]

Have you tried relieving the pressure from the system? You can easily do that by loosening the plastic nut on the line that goes from the salt tank to the head. Sometimes that helps free things up. This thing probably hasn't been put in bypass for quite some time I am guessing. I don't think you really need to put it in bypass mode to change the resin. It's just nice to do so that you can still use the water while you are working and if this is your first time you might run into trouble which requires having the water off for a while. Just turn off the inlet and outlet valves farther up the pipes if you have them ... you should. I put mine in bypass so I could use the hose to clean out the mineral tanks after I dumped the resin out.

 

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[Maurice Fairley]

I'll give your idea a try of simply shutting off the water, first. Some of the gray plastic fittings have signs of cracks and I'm very wary of creating a bigger headache by yanking and pulling on stuck valves. Thanks.

 

[Maurice Fairley]

Ace, your idea worked! Now I'm trying to figure out how these brine tanks are suppose to be opened. Looks like the pipes connecting the two tanks are threaded?

 

[Ace Hunter]

Those pipes aren't threaded. They are held in by o-rings and just pop out. Then the heads can be unscrewed. Same with the companion tank. You will absolutely have to ratchet strap the tanks to a pole because the tank will want to spin as you try to turn the head counterclockwise. The video I created below will give you sort of an idea of what to do. Realize this is a different model than yours but the idea is the same.