Water softener worked fine for like 4-5 years but now its causing weird water pressure drops.

[sdsad123]

Finally figured out what these water pressure drops are due to and its the water softener. I bypassed it and everything works fine. It's a Fleck 7000SXT. Why would this happen? Thanks a lot for your advice.

 

[Bannerman]

I suspect your water is municipally sourced and so will contain chlorine. Constant chlorine exposure will damage resin, but the rate of damage will vary depending on the quantity of chlorine and the type of resin. While resin with 10% cross-linking will better tolerate chlorine compared to standard 8% cross-linked resin, many softeners sold online are often equipped with resin with less than 8% cross-linking.

Damaged resin is the usual reason for the symptom you are experiencing. The correct remedy is to replace the resin.

 

[LLigetfa]

The resin fragments can clog the top and bottom baskets. In some cases, the pressure differential across the clogged basket can crush it.

 

[sdsad123]

I suspect your water is municipally sourced and so will contain chlorine. Constant chlorine exposure will damage resin, but the rate of damage will vary depending on the quantity of chlorine and the type of resin. While resin with 10% cross-linking will better tolerate chlorine compared to standard 8% cross-linked resin, many softeners sold online are often equipped with resin with less than 8% cross-linking.

Damaged resin is the usual reason for the symptom you are experiencing. The correct remedy is to replace the resin.

Yes, our water is municipal, has pretty high chlorine content and the resin is 8% cross linked. I think the softener is actually closer to 8 years old too. So just replace the resin and thats it? Thats pretty trivial. Any other parts to replace or clean or anything? I wonder if I can reuse the rocks inside the tank because I honestly cant remember where I bought them from. Should I go ahead and turn off the softener or can I keep it on while its bypassed?

 

[LLigetfa]

Another possibility is iron buildup clogging the baskets.

 

[sdsad123]

So is it possible its anything else to do with the softener or is it certainly the resin going bad? We have very low iron here, I called the water company.