Used Iron Out in Whirlpool Softener, now water smells like iron out

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Trocko

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I have a Whirlpool 30,000 grain softener. Its just the Canadian Tire special, but it worked well on our water. We have fairly hard water in Nova Scotia where I am, and a bit of iron too. (LOL a bit of iron)|


Anyway, I've owned the softener for a little over a year now and thought it would be good to clean the resin of any trapped iron.

I mixed 1/2 cup Iron out with 1/2 gallon of water, an dumped it into the brine tube. Did a forced regen, and waited. Once the regen was done, I turned the tap on, and my water was coming out yellow. I figured that was good, it got rid of the iron, so I let it run for 30 mins (this was in my basement, nearest to the water softener). After, I noticed that the water still smelled like Iron Our. The instructions on the bottle say to regen again and run the water until it no longer smells. So I did that. Regened again, ran the water, but it still smelled.

I've regened 4 times now, and just started the 5th. I let my water run for 30 ish mins to clear the lines, but I cant get the smell of Iron Out, out of my water. Should I backflush the lines after this regen completes?

Also, When the softener is in regen mode and the softener water is bypassed, the water does not smell like iron out, and comes clear.

Any advice would be awesome.
 

LLigetfa

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Probably there is some Iron Out in the HWT after the softener and you will need to flush it out. When testing it in bypass mode, did you check both the hot and cold from fixtures far away from the softener? Be aware that (old and new) hot water blends in the tank so it takes a lot to completely flush out the HWT. What I noticed is that if Iron Out gets into the HWT, that it will attach to and slowly liberate the iron that is built up in it. Cold water will quickly run clear but hot water will not.

I have since switched to using citric acid but when I was using Iron Out, I would do two additional back-to-back regens afterwards to get rid of the smell. 4 regens should have flushed it out of the media tank.
 

Trocko

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The farthest fixture from the softener would be our tub in the master bathroom. I will try filling that once this cycle finishes.


Now that you mention the hot water tank,..... We were using the tap when I first did the regen. Is it possible the mixing valve in the sink is "contaminated" with the Iron out? Ugh.

A few flushes are going to happen I see lol

Thanks for your response
 

Reach4

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Are you smelling this if you run a cold faucet, or just when using hot?

The cycle you would want to extend for rinsing something from the resin would be brine draw. That slowly moves water through the resin. I don't know your softener, but in many softeners, when you pull the power, it stays in that cycle. Two hours seems appropriate. Once you restore power, you would do another regen. That brine cycle becomes slow rinse once the brine has been drawn, even tho the valving in the valve has not changed. The flow is more laminar and smooth than it is for backwash.
 

LLigetfa

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When I was using Iron Out, I would stop the clock and turn off the water after the brine was all drawn so that the Iron Out had extra contact time to do its magic. Then I would turn the water back on and advance it to the backwash cycle where again I would stop the clock and watch the drain line until it ran clear. After that I would do two normal back-to-back regens.
 
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