Good morning,
I had a new water softener installed in our 3,000 sq/ft house a little over a month ago. We have a private well and septic system. There are just two adults living in the house. No pets. Sometimes we have the occasional visitors but a majority of the time, water use is just for two adults. The water was tested by the installer and it was right about 10 GPG hardness.
The water softener is a 32,000 grain system with a Clack WS1/1.25. The control panel has 5 buttons: Set Clock - Next - Up - Down - Regen. The cycles are Backwash, Brine DN, Backwash 2, Rinse, Fill, and Service
The install went fine and all seemed well and good. He added 150lbs of solar crystals into the brine tank. Here are the settings:
Next + Up
Hardness = NA
Regen Day = 14
REgen Time: 2:00am
Next + Down
Capacity = 24 x 1,000
Regen lbs = 9.5
Backwash = Normal
Regen Gal = 1,400
Fill = Post
Gren Brine = DN
Regen = Normal
It usually takes us about 11 or 12 day to use 1,400 gallons of water, which trigger the Regen process. I watched the system do the 2nd Regen process, which happened about 12 days ago, and it didn't seem like any of the brine solution was sucked into the softener (although by the time I started watching it, it was about 20 minutes into the Brine DN cycle). When the system got to the 6 minute Fill cycle, it filled up the salt tank until the safety float engaged and stopped the fill with about 3 minutes remaining in the cycle. I was little confused by this, so I called the installer the next business day. He came out, was there for probably 10 minutes. He took the injector out of the softener (white piece with small hole in it - he gave some type of explanation for why it sometimes should be removed) and said the system was running fine. I ran a manual Regen cycle after he left and no salt water was sucked out of the brine tank. When it got to the Fill Cycle, no water was put back into the tank because it was full.
At this point I became concerned that the install had no idea what he was doing, so I called another water service company and they came out two days later. They immediately put the injector back in the system and tried to test the system - no water was flowing when the Regen started. They ended up removing a piece from the drain line that connects to the softener, and ran a backwash, which worked. They stopped that and put the piece they removed back in, ran another backwash, and that worked fine too. Long story short, they ended up getting the water flowing back for the Regen process. They also took the valve apart to inspect the pistons and stack (I think that's what they are called), and said everything looked good. They also disconnected the hose going to the brine tank and checked for suction, which there was. He also said the check valve looked good.
They ran the Regen process and this time once it got to the Brine dn cycle, it clearly was sucking salt water into the softener. Installer says it's working fine and leaves. After he leaves, I notice the system stopped sucking in salt water into the softener about 15 minutes into the 60 minute cycle. The remaining 40 minutes or I still hear the water flowing, which is normal for that cycle, but no more salt solution got drawn out.
At this point I'm totally confused as to if this thing is working correctly. The salt level has definitely gone down since the system was installed in late April (it's probably been through 4-5 Regen cycles (2 normally with us and another 2-3 test cycles). My guess is maybe 40 lbs of salt has been used - which maybe means it is working correctly if each Regen cycle is using 9.5 lbs or salt?. The system appears to drain fine during all the settings, so I don't see an issue with the drain line.
My understanding for water softeners was that ALL the salt water from the brine tank should be sucked out during that 60 minute Brine dn cycle, no matter how much salt water is in there. So if it's full, then all of the solution should be sucked out of my tank right? If all the water were sucked out, then when the system got to the 6 minute fill, it would fill the tank up approximately halfway. Regardless, the way my system is operating now, it appears that it will always fill the tank with more water than is sucked out, so I'll always have a tank that fills up until the safety float engages and stops the fill. Maybe this is normal?
I guess my questions for this group are:
1. Are my settings set correctly?
2. Should the system suck all of the salt water out of the tank even if it's full?
3. Should the Fill Cycle be 6 minutes long? If not, how do I change that setting?
I don't have the know-how to take the system apart, so please keep that in mind. I suppose I will just call another water guy if I have to although I am really hoping to avoid that. The remaining gallon capacity is 500, so the system should regenerate by Monday morning. If nothing else, I can always run another Regen cycle this weekend and let you guy know how that goes.
Thanks in advance.
I had a new water softener installed in our 3,000 sq/ft house a little over a month ago. We have a private well and septic system. There are just two adults living in the house. No pets. Sometimes we have the occasional visitors but a majority of the time, water use is just for two adults. The water was tested by the installer and it was right about 10 GPG hardness.
The water softener is a 32,000 grain system with a Clack WS1/1.25. The control panel has 5 buttons: Set Clock - Next - Up - Down - Regen. The cycles are Backwash, Brine DN, Backwash 2, Rinse, Fill, and Service
The install went fine and all seemed well and good. He added 150lbs of solar crystals into the brine tank. Here are the settings:
Next + Up
Hardness = NA
Regen Day = 14
REgen Time: 2:00am
Next + Down
Capacity = 24 x 1,000
Regen lbs = 9.5
Backwash = Normal
Regen Gal = 1,400
Fill = Post
Gren Brine = DN
Regen = Normal
It usually takes us about 11 or 12 day to use 1,400 gallons of water, which trigger the Regen process. I watched the system do the 2nd Regen process, which happened about 12 days ago, and it didn't seem like any of the brine solution was sucked into the softener (although by the time I started watching it, it was about 20 minutes into the Brine DN cycle). When the system got to the 6 minute Fill cycle, it filled up the salt tank until the safety float engaged and stopped the fill with about 3 minutes remaining in the cycle. I was little confused by this, so I called the installer the next business day. He came out, was there for probably 10 minutes. He took the injector out of the softener (white piece with small hole in it - he gave some type of explanation for why it sometimes should be removed) and said the system was running fine. I ran a manual Regen cycle after he left and no salt water was sucked out of the brine tank. When it got to the Fill Cycle, no water was put back into the tank because it was full.
At this point I became concerned that the install had no idea what he was doing, so I called another water service company and they came out two days later. They immediately put the injector back in the system and tried to test the system - no water was flowing when the Regen started. They ended up removing a piece from the drain line that connects to the softener, and ran a backwash, which worked. They stopped that and put the piece they removed back in, ran another backwash, and that worked fine too. Long story short, they ended up getting the water flowing back for the Regen process. They also took the valve apart to inspect the pistons and stack (I think that's what they are called), and said everything looked good. They also disconnected the hose going to the brine tank and checked for suction, which there was. He also said the check valve looked good.
They ran the Regen process and this time once it got to the Brine dn cycle, it clearly was sucking salt water into the softener. Installer says it's working fine and leaves. After he leaves, I notice the system stopped sucking in salt water into the softener about 15 minutes into the 60 minute cycle. The remaining 40 minutes or I still hear the water flowing, which is normal for that cycle, but no more salt solution got drawn out.
At this point I'm totally confused as to if this thing is working correctly. The salt level has definitely gone down since the system was installed in late April (it's probably been through 4-5 Regen cycles (2 normally with us and another 2-3 test cycles). My guess is maybe 40 lbs of salt has been used - which maybe means it is working correctly if each Regen cycle is using 9.5 lbs or salt?. The system appears to drain fine during all the settings, so I don't see an issue with the drain line.
My understanding for water softeners was that ALL the salt water from the brine tank should be sucked out during that 60 minute Brine dn cycle, no matter how much salt water is in there. So if it's full, then all of the solution should be sucked out of my tank right? If all the water were sucked out, then when the system got to the 6 minute fill, it would fill the tank up approximately halfway. Regardless, the way my system is operating now, it appears that it will always fill the tank with more water than is sucked out, so I'll always have a tank that fills up until the safety float engages and stops the fill. Maybe this is normal?
I guess my questions for this group are:
1. Are my settings set correctly?
2. Should the system suck all of the salt water out of the tank even if it's full?
3. Should the Fill Cycle be 6 minutes long? If not, how do I change that setting?
I don't have the know-how to take the system apart, so please keep that in mind. I suppose I will just call another water guy if I have to although I am really hoping to avoid that. The remaining gallon capacity is 500, so the system should regenerate by Monday morning. If nothing else, I can always run another Regen cycle this weekend and let you guy know how that goes.
Thanks in advance.