Water Softener Not Making Water Soft

[JustGlenn]

I have a Northstar water softener and I recently replaced all the resin beads in it.
Background: My softener hasn't been working for well over a year, even though there was salt in it. When I looked into it, I found that the resin needed to be replaced as the softener was about 17 years old.

I changed out the resin as instructed by Northstar. Everything looked in good order as I took it apart. The old resin was red and clean. Everything else was clean. I also replaced the 3 O-rings at the top of the resin tank.

When I turned it back on I was disappointed to see that the water was not softened at all.

I've read a dozen troubleshooting articles on water softeners and there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary. I've checked and cleaned: the venturi, the bypass valve, the baskets, the head unit/valve. I've run the cycles manually and watched and listened and everything seemed to be working as it is supposed to. I've quadruple checked that the water line out goes to the house water and that the water line into the softener comes from the city. I've checked that I used the right type and quantity of the resin.

I don't know what else so say. If any of the O-rings were not sealing, I'd still get some soft water. But the hardness is the same going in as it is going out of the machine.

I am stumped. I don't know what else to do short of buying a new one. But, I can't stomach that because there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with this one, and I don't have a spare $500.

Any ideas? Guesses? Thoughts?
Please help.

 

[Reach4]

So is the water somehow bypassing the resin? A test for that is to monitor the drain line as you regen. When you start the brine draw cycle, the drain water should not be salty for about the first several minutes (10?). If it goes salty right away, then the water is bypassing the resin. This can be from a misplace or missing gasket/o-ring at the top of the distributor tube.

You can taste with your mouth, or use a cheap TDS meter. The meter should jump to over 1000 for salty.

I don't know the Northstar or other cabinet units, but I think this test is generally applicable. On cabinet units I think the brine fill is usually first, and the backwash and brine draw start over an hour later. So you figure out how to deal with that. If you know how to skip right to the brine draw cycle, fine. But there has to be brine to draw to do that test.