Buckeye Slim
New Member
My water softener uses a Autotrol® Brand 255 Valve / 400 Series Controls (title from the .pfd for it) along with a 460i Electronic Control System.
Over the past few months, I noticed I was going thru 40 lbs bags of salt like crazy. The brine tank will hold six bags, and that wasn't lasting a month.
So, I started paying attention to how often it would regenerate, and it seemed to be running almost every night. In a given week, it might take a night or two off, but that's it.
Since this device calculates the need for regeneration based on water flow, I'm focused on the flow indicator light on the electronics. The manual, however, doesn't address the three states I've found this light can be in.
When I have a faucet open, the flow light blinks, as expected. However, when I turn the faucet off, the flow light will alternate between one of two states - either steady on or completely off.
While testing, I would turn the faucet on, check for the blinking light, turn the faucet off, and then check to see what I had. The first time, the flow light was steady on. The second time, it was off. The third time, steady on. And so forth and so on, back and forth as I tested to confirm this.
Related to this, I discovered that if I have the flow light in a steady on condition, if I unplug the power to it and then plug it back it, the light is then off. However, if I do this again, when I plug it back in, the light comes on in the steady on state. Do it again, and it's off. Do it again, and it's back to steady on, alternating just like it does when repeatedly turning a faucet on and off.
This doesn't make any sense to me. I would expect the flow light to have only two states: blinking and whatever state is the correct one when there's no water flow. If a steady on is what's normal to indicate the meter is active and ready to measure water flow, then that's what I should always see when it's not blinking. If the flow light should be off when there's no water flow, then that's also fine. But this back-and-forth between steady on and completely off doesn't make any sense.
Can anyone shed some light on what I'm experiencing?
As an aside, I spent some time last year verifying all my settings and determining a good estimate of my water's hardness. I don't know if I still have my notes from that (they're not on my PC), but I was pretty happy with the system's performance right after doing this.
We have pretty hard water, but there's only two of us. Without looking up average water usage numbers for typical activities likes showers and dishes, I would expect regeneration to happen about once per week. So, to begin figuring out what's going on, I want to understand what the flow light is saying because that's what drives the calculation to tell the system to regenerate.
I'll also note that this system was installed 14 years ago.
Any insight and help would be most appreciated.
Over the past few months, I noticed I was going thru 40 lbs bags of salt like crazy. The brine tank will hold six bags, and that wasn't lasting a month.
So, I started paying attention to how often it would regenerate, and it seemed to be running almost every night. In a given week, it might take a night or two off, but that's it.
Since this device calculates the need for regeneration based on water flow, I'm focused on the flow indicator light on the electronics. The manual, however, doesn't address the three states I've found this light can be in.
When I have a faucet open, the flow light blinks, as expected. However, when I turn the faucet off, the flow light will alternate between one of two states - either steady on or completely off.
While testing, I would turn the faucet on, check for the blinking light, turn the faucet off, and then check to see what I had. The first time, the flow light was steady on. The second time, it was off. The third time, steady on. And so forth and so on, back and forth as I tested to confirm this.
Related to this, I discovered that if I have the flow light in a steady on condition, if I unplug the power to it and then plug it back it, the light is then off. However, if I do this again, when I plug it back in, the light comes on in the steady on state. Do it again, and it's off. Do it again, and it's back to steady on, alternating just like it does when repeatedly turning a faucet on and off.
This doesn't make any sense to me. I would expect the flow light to have only two states: blinking and whatever state is the correct one when there's no water flow. If a steady on is what's normal to indicate the meter is active and ready to measure water flow, then that's what I should always see when it's not blinking. If the flow light should be off when there's no water flow, then that's also fine. But this back-and-forth between steady on and completely off doesn't make any sense.
Can anyone shed some light on what I'm experiencing?
As an aside, I spent some time last year verifying all my settings and determining a good estimate of my water's hardness. I don't know if I still have my notes from that (they're not on my PC), but I was pretty happy with the system's performance right after doing this.
We have pretty hard water, but there's only two of us. Without looking up average water usage numbers for typical activities likes showers and dishes, I would expect regeneration to happen about once per week. So, to begin figuring out what's going on, I want to understand what the flow light is saying because that's what drives the calculation to tell the system to regenerate.
I'll also note that this system was installed 14 years ago.
Any insight and help would be most appreciated.