LLigetfa
DIYer, not in the trades
I've not been keeping a close eye on the salt use. Mostly I fill the brine tank to the top and check it every few months. Anyway time sorta got away on me and I lost track of when I last filled it but had a nagging feeling that the salt level was not dropping.
I popped the top on the tank and the cap on the brine well so I could observe the brine draw during a regen. The first thing I noticed was that there were air bubbles in the brine draw line. Also the brine level had closed the float valve. The bottom of the brine pickup was buried in sludge and so the combination of air leak and sludge was keeping the float valve from opening. I pushed down on the fill check float and the brine started to flow but the flow appeared to be slow. My guess is some of the sludge got sucked in when I disturbed the pickup by tugging and pushing on the float rod.
I let the regen continue until the brine refill stage. The refill lifted the fill check float and shut off the flow with many minutes still left on the fill stage. I took apart and cleaned the injector, the brine line and the pickup. I cannot see what is preventing the air check from sealing.
After I put everything back together, I tested for an air leak by lifting the float to stop the flow. There were no more bubbles with the closed fill check but when the brine ran out, the air check did not seal. Brine fill again was stopped by the fill check float with 5 minutes of fill time remaining. I thought the fill time determines how much water is added and not the fill check float. Is not the fill check float only supposed to engage when something goes wrong?
Water test results
Iron 6.75 PPM
Manganese 0.4 PPM
Hardness 75 GPG
pH 7.2
Softener cycle times observations
60 minute brine draw
- white injector, .25 - .275 GPM
- air check not working
7:52 minute brine fill
- overfill check float shuts off with 5:02 minutes remaining
- brine fill is purported to be .5 GPM
I popped the top on the tank and the cap on the brine well so I could observe the brine draw during a regen. The first thing I noticed was that there were air bubbles in the brine draw line. Also the brine level had closed the float valve. The bottom of the brine pickup was buried in sludge and so the combination of air leak and sludge was keeping the float valve from opening. I pushed down on the fill check float and the brine started to flow but the flow appeared to be slow. My guess is some of the sludge got sucked in when I disturbed the pickup by tugging and pushing on the float rod.
I let the regen continue until the brine refill stage. The refill lifted the fill check float and shut off the flow with many minutes still left on the fill stage. I took apart and cleaned the injector, the brine line and the pickup. I cannot see what is preventing the air check from sealing.
After I put everything back together, I tested for an air leak by lifting the float to stop the flow. There were no more bubbles with the closed fill check but when the brine ran out, the air check did not seal. Brine fill again was stopped by the fill check float with 5 minutes of fill time remaining. I thought the fill time determines how much water is added and not the fill check float. Is not the fill check float only supposed to engage when something goes wrong?
Water test results
Iron 6.75 PPM
Manganese 0.4 PPM
Hardness 75 GPG
pH 7.2
Softener cycle times observations
60 minute brine draw
- white injector, .25 - .275 GPM
- air check not working
7:52 minute brine fill
- overfill check float shuts off with 5:02 minutes remaining
- brine fill is purported to be .5 GPM