Problem with Softener and water throughout house.

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Frontier2A

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Hey all,

New homeowners here who have recently moved into a newly constructed home (built sometime 2014) in Southern New Hampshire. Our home uses well water (well dug about a year ago) and septic. When we first purchased the home the state required that a water softener be installed because the water tests weren't coming out quite right. I don't recall specifically, but there were elevated levels of manganese or arsenic or what-have-you.

The issue that we are having is that every so often there will be brown/dark yellow colored water that has a somewhat foul smell to it coming out of every way possible throughout the house. That is to say, every toilet (3) and every tub faucet/shower head (2) and all sinks throughout the house. This tends to happen about every other week, usually when the water in the house hasn't been used for a while (12+ hours).

I've been trying to research to find out a solution but I'm coming up either dry on solutions or confused about potential solutions. I don't know much about water softeners or well pumps (etc) so I have been reluctant to experiment. I have discovered that the brine tank of our softener is about half full with brown, slushy water.

Whenever the water turns bad we usually will let one of the tubs run until it finally goes back to normal. I'm concerned about that water going into the septic and it usually takes over an hour for it to turn back to normal.

I'm going to attach some pictures of our set-up. I've noticed that our water softener doesn't have any brand or model markings on it and that's concerning me a bit. The contractor that built our home was..less-than-reliable and we believe he may have installed the softener by himself to save on having a professional do it.

Any help anyone can give us would be great, I'm trying to keep this as detailed as I can but please let me know if more information is needed.

We have not touched any settings on the softener or added/replaced any salt in the brine tank since moving in back in May.

Thank you!
 

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Bannerman

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Most softeners including some 'brand name' units, are comprised of various off the shelf components so don't be concerned with the lack of a brand name.

Top brand generic control valves are Fleck, Clack and Autotrol. As they are common brands, parts and service is easily obtainable through most water treatment dealers. That is unlike speciality brands which use proprietary components and where parts are only available through their dealer network.

By the appearance of the stains on the floor around the softener which appear to be Red, you may have an iron condition which should be addressed before the softener.
 

Akpsdvan

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Water test of untreated water for starts, we need to know what we are working with.
The 5600 meter like what you have is a good valve, but with limits and if the system is not set right then one thing that will happen is a loading of the media bed that the standard factory cleaning cycle will not fully clean.
And this is for starts.
 

montelatici

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If you haven't added any salt since May, I suspect you your system has not performed a regeneration (with salt) for some time. That is probably part of the problem. If you have iron and sediment, which it sounds like you do, I would install a Katalox filter before the water softener. Solved my very bad iron and sediment problem.

Some local "professionals" near me did not even know what Katalox was and others "pooh, poohed" it, so you might want to call around and ask for Katalox Light specifically.
 

ditttohead

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Do you have the water test? If not, it is time to get an updated test so we can be of some assistance. Without a proper water test, there is not a lot that can be done to help you other than throwing guesses and equipment at it. http://www.ntllabs.com/Merchant2/me...Product_Code=9001&Category_Code=HomeownerThis is a great test that is easily understood by homeowners and is reasonably priced. Since you are on a well, you are your own municipality, regular water testing and proper system maintenance are critical.
 

Frontier2A

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Thanks for the help so far everyone. I've gone ahead and ordered a testing kit so hopefully we will figure out the answer to those questions shortly.

Given that the brine tank is full of brown, slushy water - is cleaning that out and putting in new salt something that we should consider? I've watched a couple of YT videos about cleaning the tanks and it doesn't seem like rocket science, but I figure you all know better than us.
 

Reach4

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We will look for the results in two weeks. When you post those numbers, you can omit the ones where the result is something like <0.1 because the less-than sign means that the result for that item was less than the measurement sensitivity of the test.

Given that the brine tank is full of brown, slushy water - is cleaning that out and putting in new salt something that we should consider? I've watched a couple of YT videos about cleaning the tanks and it doesn't seem like rocket science, but I figure you all know better than us.
At least stop putting salt in for now. If the salt is below the water, and the water is a foot or less deep, then cleaning now would be good. If the water is higher, then there is another problem that should be fixed too.

A tank full of salt can be very heavy. You can siphon out the brine to reduce the weight. I strapped my brine tank to a hand truck and tipped that.

Also, we will want to know the size of that softener tank-- diameter (or circumference) and height.
 
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