I ran my water softener regen last night with a 30 minute backwash, 120 minute BD/SR and 20 minute FR and I had filled the brine tank and well with water. I measured the GPM at 2.6 for the backwash as well, and the manufacturer says 2.4 is more than enough for it to do its job. The taste of the super iron out cleaner is still there, not even reduced. I absolutely cannot see how the resin could be causing this but unless anyone else has any other ideas I am going to try to replace the resin.
Out of ideas for cleaning softener and getting rid of taste
- Thread starter kk0710
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During BF and slow rinse, it should take many minutes for the salt to make it to the drain line. If the drain line gets salt in under a minute, there is something bypassing the path.
The ways to test if the salt has arrived are by taste, but a cheap TDS meter does that more conveniently. Expect TDS to shoot up way over 1000 when the salt arrives.
HOWEVER, a bypassing problem would not let you get down below 1 grain of hardness, so that would imply there is no bypassing going on.
The ways to test if the salt has arrived are by taste, but a cheap TDS meter does that more conveniently. Expect TDS to shoot up way over 1000 when the salt arrives.
HOWEVER, a bypassing problem would not let you get down below 1 grain of hardness, so that would imply there is no bypassing going on.
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I understand your skepticism at this point. I am mystified.
Bannerman's idea to unplug the valve for several hours while it is in BD is good. Easier than changing the setting twice.
It takes me like 10 seconds to adjust the settings so that doesn't bother me but I already ran it for 2 hours, do you really think even longer will do more? I can do it after my shower tonight. But here is the other thing for me. The flow during BD is only about .5 and it is top down just like during normal operation, where the BW is bottom up and at 2.6GPM, isn't that what would be better to run longer? Mind you I ran 2 hours last night of just BD, so even if it took 30 minutes to draw we got 90 minutes of slow rinse, plus 30 for backwash, and 20 minutes for RR. At this point it feels like if those things aren't work then there is another issue. But what gets me is even if the resin is bad somehow... how am I still getting soft water... and why would bad resin stop the cleaner taste from being washed off? Even if somehow the resin was so bad that it turned into a sponge to hold onto whatever... if you rinse a sponge long enough, even without squeezing it, you will run all that chemical out. My gut tells me something else is wrong but I'm out of ideas. The manufacturer could offer me a new unit and still want to know what the problem is because it's bugging me.
Do I think 10 hours at low flow would be better than 30 minutes at high rate for washing out residual Iron Out? Yes, if it can be washed out at all. The advantage of the long slow rinse is that you get a laminar (non-turbulent) flow. For running the salt, that is useful, but it should also be useful for rinsing I would think.
Am I sure? Nope.
Am I sure? Nope.
well, hell, I'll blast both of them for 3 hours each lol. But another thing... if it is taking THAT much to clean these... something else has got to be wrong. I just don't get it and have a bad feeling I'm going to go through the pain of swapping these beads for nothing. I'm not sure if there is something physical inside the tank that can be broken or what but am out of ideas.
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BW and BD/SR
I stand corrected, the taste is somewhat reduced. Going to run again to night but at this point I'm just going to swap the resin anyway as I can't figure out how it's possible that the resin is not being cleaned.
second round seemed to reduce it too but doesn't make sense.
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