Water Softener issue

[Johnny123]

Hey! Asking this for my dad whom I live with. He recently let the softener tank run empty of salt and tried potassium softener (but he only put one bag so the tank was about only 15%ish full)..the water pretty much immediately soon left white stains in water kettles and on cups/etc so he dug out most of the potassium and filled back up to the top with salt and it's been about 3 days since then and the water quality hasn't changed at all since then...Does anyone know what could be wrong? Could it take longer then 3 days for the difference to take effect or is something wrong with the system?

Thanks!

 

[Reach4]

You want to get a Hach 5-B test to test hardness. That will let you know how much hardness you have before and after the softener.

Softened water will leave white residue, but unlike the residue from hardness materials, the salt residue can wipe up with water.

Your settings could be set to use too much softener salt. What model is the softener, how hard is the raw water, and how soft is the softened water?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bannerman]

Perform 2 manual regenerations back to back.

The softener likely regenerated while there was insufficient salt. As softening capacity will not have been restored, and further water use will have caused the remainng capacity to be consumed until the resin' was completely exhausted.

The 1st regen cycle will regenerate the capacity normally used each cycle whereas the 2nd regen cycle will regenerate at least some of the additional capacity that had been depleted.

After the 1st cycle has concluded, wait 1 - 1.5 hrs before initiating the 2nd cycle, to allow sufficient time for salt to be dissolved to prepare full strength brine needed for the 2nd cycle.

 

[Johnny123]

You want to get a Hach 5-B test to test hardness. That will let you know how much hardness you have before and after the softener.

Softened water will leave white residue, but unlike the residue from hardness materials, the salt residue can wipe up with water.

Your settings could be set to use too much softener salt. What model is the softener, how hard is the raw water, and how soft is the softened water?

Only info on it that i can find is that its a
Autotrol 268/460i Performa Demand Water Softener
It isnt a all in one unit as in the salt is one tank and the resin/control module is another.
Before though I would use my clear glass water kettle and would never have to clean it for many many months, but now literally every time i boil water in it its just coated in white residue and also has like white dust floating in the water.
Will go buy a water test to test the hardness and doing 2 manual regens right now.
Could the resin possibly of gone bad from my dad letting the salt run empty? I think he gets lazy on it and has let it run empty before one time too.

 

[ditttohead]

Nope, no harm to the resin, you have changed the charge from sodium to potassium, so you will have to run the potassium off the resin to get it back to the sodium state. If the system is producing soft water then all will be good in a few weeks.