kinetico water softener problem

I have a kinetico water softener model 30. It is a dual tank and is approx. 15 years old. I'm experiencing dark water occasionally. Possibly when softener is regenerating. When I by pass the softener my water is clear but hard. When I go back to using the softener I will have the dark water again. It takes a while for the dark water to occur and it does not last for very long. Maybe only a few gallons worth. It then clears but returns a few days later. There is no odor with the dark water. Any help is appreciated.

It's blackish in color. It does not settle. And after using the water for a while it completly clears up. When I bypass the softener I have perfectly clear water.

I'm brand new at this so bear with me. I'm on well water. Not sure what you mean by using carbon.

Do you have just two tanks side by side or four tanks with one on top of another next to two others one on top of the other? That's in addition to the separate salt tank.

If four total, then you probably have carbon/charcoal in the two top tanks and softener resin in the bottom two. And if you have carbon, it can cause your black water and would mean you'd probably need to call the one'n only local Kinetico dealer to come out and service the unit, which would probably mean replacing the carbon in the top two tanks.

Thank you. I only have 2 tanks total. side by side. Plus the salt tank of course. I do have another set of tanks side by side, but they are iron/sulfur removal tanks. They are relativly new and are working fine. I did have the local kinitco people out and they changed the backwash hose on the softener so now it's seperate from the iron/sulfur backwash hose. They used to be tied in together and now each has its own backwash hose. I didn't think that would fix the problem since it had been that way for many years with no problem, but I guess it was worth a shot. Other than that the Kinetico repair guy looked it all over and couldn't find anything wrong. I had a sample of the black water for him to see what it loked like. Said he would get back to me but haven't heard from him , so here I am trying to figure this out.

This may be caused by the nonelectric water powered Kinetico control valves that can not be set to backwash or regenerate on a set schedule or different days or at a set time of day and the softener regenerating while the filter is back washing which allows black water from the filter into the softener. That is why the rest of us don't use metered valves on filters.

Otherwise there's probably something wrong with the new filter.

the softener is first then the iron/sulfur tanks. the tank says model 30. the disk is a number 6. there are no additional tanks, but this is a 2 tank softener and a 2 tank iron/sulfur. there are 2 drain or backwash lines. one for the softener and one for the iron/sulfur. not sure what you mean by raw water test results. thank you

The subject of his first post was: kinetico water softener problem.

He wants to know why the black colored water since the new filter was installed and the Kinetico service guy put in a new separate drain line after disconnecting it from using the softener's drain line, and then left, and the water is still black at times.

When he described what he has, he did not mention a regenerate tank with the filter. He said the filter is after the softener.

thanks for all the advice. It is a sulfur guard with the hydrogen peroxide tank. I didn't know I could include a picture here. Will do so when I get home from work. ( Firefighter with the City of Syracuse). I'm certainly no plumber and I appreciate all of your help. Pictures to follow later today.

So now we're back to carbon where the rest of us in the thread started and you send a PM which prevents others from learning...

Don, you can copy and then paste the PM info here so you can help others in the future.

I have one of those two tank models. It's for iron and tannin(sp?)
I kept having problems during the backwash and I decided to take the valve apart and see if I could find anything wrong. I did some research first on iron cleaner and went and got a couple of pounds of citric acid (bulk from the local grocery store). Citric acid is what is in lemons and oranges and other fruits. I made up a strong solution and started to disassemble the valve. It's not as complicated as you might think (fear). I carefully placed the disassemble valve in the citric acid and let it sit for 24 hours agitating occasionally. It worked great. Turns out the little valves that slide open and shut had gotten caked with iron gunk and could not open and closed properly and so were letting some of the backwash into the house system. I had to work those by hand a bit and clean them with a little pad. After my repair it was good to go and it has been a few years. I figure it's about time to do it again

Yes it's a softener too. Where would the model number be?

Say Andy, could you PM me? I think I have a solution figured out